The Euphresco network for phytosanitary research coordination and funding has been hosted by the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO) since March 2014 with initial funding commitments for the year 2014 and 2015, renewed in 2016. The EPPO Council voted in September 2016 in favour of the incorporation of the Euphresco membership fees within the EPPO annual contribution. Following this decision, all EPPO National Plant Protection Organisations are de facto members of Euphresco from 2017 onwards. This enlarged membership will provide longer term assurance for around half of the cost of running the Network and will strengthen the presence of policy makers, as users of the outcomes of the trans-national research projects funded through Euphresco. More recently, Australia and Mexicohave agreed to become members of the network, making of Euphresco a global network with members in 5 continents. Euphresco could continue to grow gradually, as new members join, and existing structure, tools and governance arrangements will be extended; Governance of Euphresco will continue to be separate from governance of EPPO to reflect the accountability of Euphresco to a wider group of members.
Transnational research collaboration
The collaboration of Euphresco funders materialises through the identification of trans-national phytosanitary research priorities; in 2016, 18 research projects were funded for a total budget of 1.8 M€; funding commitment for a few more projects will be finalised in the next weeks. A number of research consortia funded in 2016 through Euphresco are looking for additional partners to join before the projects start in the spring 2017.
Collaboration is sought for the following projects: 2016-A-215:Improvement of diagnostics of quarantine pathogens by digital PCR. The project aims at assessing and demonstrating the suitability of digital PCR for characterization of in-house prepared control materials and detection and quantification of selected target organisms in difficult samples of plants, vectors or in environmental samples. 2016-A-217: Use of barcoding, from theory to practice. The project builds on previous research activities (EU project ‘Quarantine organisms Barcoding of Life’ and Euphresco project ‘DNA Barcoding - Optimizing and validating DNA barcoding protocols for plant pests’). Two workshops will be organised in the framework of the project that will allow participants to be informed of the most recent advances in methodology and to receive training on a number of tools for data analysis. A proficiency test will be organised at the conclusion of the workshops to determine the performance of individual laboratories. 2016-A-232: Comparison of real-time PCR detection methods for the plant pathogen ‘Candidatus Liberibacter' spp. causing the Huanglongbing disease on Citrus spp. The consortium will compare the performance of various diagnostic real-time PCR tests. The assessment will involve the evaluation of the analytical specificity, analytical sensitivity, reproducibility and repeatability of the protocols on DNA samples, extracted from fresh or dried tissues from symptomatic or asymptomatic trees, or from disease-free trees. 2016-C-227: Chalara - Current situation. The project aims to produce a review of the lessons that can be learnt from the Ash dieback outbreak. This will include an assessment of the current situation and an assessment of the impacts in urban and rural environments including health & safety and management considerations. Further, a review of Ash dieback research will be done to map current H. fraxineus projects to identify knowledge gaps as well as what can be done to increase resilience and mitigate impact, e.g. through the Ash dieback - tolerant or resistant tree breeding programmes. 2016-F-211: Study on the diversity of phytoplasmas detected in European forests. The project will aim to develop a network for the application of common protocols for the monitoring and identification of phytoplasmas in the European forests. A survey for specific symptomatology and presence of potential insect vectors should be carried out together with the identification of phytoplasmas in such materials. 2016-G-223: Lecanosticta - Brown spot disease of pines - spread in European forest ecosystems: impact on pines, predisposing and contributing factors, control. In recent years, records of Lecanosticta acicola considerably increased in number, especially in Northern European and some Central European countries. The project will focus on key questions on the pathogens’ spread in Europe, its biology, its effects on the host in relation to climatic and site conditions and other biotic factors in order to provide research outputs to support contingency planning, impact and risk management of the pathogen. 2016-I-224: An International Plant Sentinel Network (IPSN) as an early-warning system; research on future pest threats. The IPSN’s main aim is to establish a network of botanic gardens, arboreta, plant protection scientists and NPPOs that work collaboratively to provide key information on new and emerging threats to plant health. The project will build on the work of the previous Euphresco project which put in place the tools and resources needed to support the network effectively. 2016-I-226: The Applications of Remote Sensing in Plant Health. The project aims to explore the benefits and limitations of remote sensing applications in plant health such as pest and pathogen detection, outbreak monitoring, surveillance and host mapping. In the first phase, the project will bring together key remote sensing experts to map and review current work in this area and identify research requirements and gaps. In the second phase the consortium will work to identify host trees remotely and to pinpoint diseased trees.
Collaboration is possible for organisations proposing activities that fit within the Euphresco research framework (see the topic descriptions for details) and that will fund their own participation in the projects. In-kind contributions and alignment of existing research activities allows organisations to join the Euphresco consortia without committing monetary funds. Any request for participation in the above-mentioned projects should be sent directly to the Euphresco coordinator by March 2017.
2017 call
The Euphresco yearly funding procedure starts with national consultations to identify the phytosanitary research priorities that are important for a country and that need a trans-national approach. 34 suggestions were made and in the next months Euphresco members will define the main goals and objectives and will shape collaborations. If you are interested to know more about the annual calls visit the Euphresco website or contact your Euphresco national contact points.
The gold mine of nationally-funded projects
Euphresco organized in 2015 a survey to inventory information on research programmes and projects for 113 programme owners and programme managers in the EPPO region. Even if fragmented, the information collected through the Euphresco inventory provided precious insights into national research activities to avoid programme duplication and to increase programme depth among phytosanitary research funders of the EPPO region and beyond. Where there are research activities there are knowledge and expertise and Euphresco is currently working on new tools to facilitate exploitation of information and make research data available so it can be used and re-used in order to develop capacity on which to build future activities.
Joint EEC/EPPO workshop on Euphresco
The Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) and the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO) jointly organised a workshop on Euphresco on 27th and 28th July 2016. The workshop was an opportunity for all EPPO countries, but particularly those which are current or potential members of the Eurasian Economic Union, to learn more about Euphresco. More than 70 people attended the workshop, including Minister Valery Nikolaevich Koreshkov, member of the Board for Technical Regulation of the EEC and Mr Martin Ward, Director-General of EPPO; it was proposed that similar workshop could be organised in the future. The report of the meeting can be downloaded from the Euphresco website.
Euphresco collaborates with the European Food Safety Authority
On 12th and 13th November 2015 EFSA organized a scientific workshop on ‘Xylella fastidiosa: knowledge gaps and research priorities for the EU’. In view of the European emergency and of the high profile the bacterium has in plant health, it was decided that such type of scientific events should be organised on a regular basis. Given the scope of the Euphresco Network in coordinating research in the phytosanitary area and in view of the relevant projects funded through Euphresco in 2015 and 2016, EFSA invited Euphresco to collaborate in organising these scientific events. The collaboration is an opportunity to nurture the dialogue between Euphresco and EFSA, two major plant health players in Europe, with the aim to better coordinate their activities. The workshop will give visibility to national and transnational research activities on Xylella fastidiosa and will provide a common platform for scientists to share and discuss the latest findings for the control and management of this disease.
The first event is tentatively planned for the end of 2017 and the first details about it will be disclosed by the end of February 2017.
Latest success story: Biology and control of the spotted-wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii
Drosophila suzukii, is a polyphagous invasive pest species native to Asia that is able to attack a wide variety of small-fruit crops. This fly is able to lay eggs in fresh ripening fruits due to the serrated ovipositor of the female. The insertion of the ovipositor produces physical damage to the host fruits, and the feeding larvae cause soft and rot fruits. Resulting damage can be up to 80% crop loss. The Euphresco project IPMDROS developed useful knowledge to support IPM programmes to control the fly. This project success story and others articles are accessible from the Euphresco website.
Knowing more about Euphresco
Anybody interested in receiving information on the Euphresco activities can subscribe to the newsletter by completing the form on the Euphresco website. Those interested in participating in Euphresco projects can contact the Euphresco coordinator.
