All the news

• New website for EuroWheat
  

  EuroWheat, the European knowledge hub which has its origins in the original ENDURE Network of Excellence (2007-2010), now has a new website and logo. As EuroWheat explains on its new site, wheat remains one of Europe’s most important crops and its production faces some particular challenges.

• Learning from PURE: Grapevine
  

  While the area dedicated to vineyards may have shrunk across Europe over the past decade, grape production remains very important, with European vineyards accounting for more than half of the world’s total vineyard surface. And it’s a crop which offers particular challenges for Integrated Pest Management (IPM), because pesticide use generally remains high and some of the options available in annual crops, such as rotations, are not feasible.

• Learning from PURE: Protected crops
  

  One of the legacies of the PURE project (‘Innovative crop protection for sustainable agriculture’) is a range of resources to encourage the implementation of Integrated Pest Management solutions in a selection of crops. Of these, comprehensive material is available for IPM in protected crops, with a particular focus on tomato production.

• Potato blight info now online
  

  The proceedings of EuroBlight’s 15th workshop, held in Brasov, Romania, in 2015, are now available on the network’s website. The main objective of the workshop was to present and discuss recent results on integrated control of late and early blight in potato.

• Interview: Jürgen Köhl, BIOCOMES
  

  The BIOCOMES (‘Biological control manufacturers in Europe develop novel biological control products to support the implementation of Integrated Pest Management in agriculture and forestry’) project is aiming to deliver at least 11 new biological products to control significant diseases and pests over the coming years. With the project, which brings together 27 business and research partners from 14 different countries, passing the halfway point, ENDURE spoke to BIOCOMES coordinator Jürgen Köhl (pictured right) from Wageningen UR in the Netherlands.

• UK invests in innovative agriculture
  

  The United Kingdom is investing £68 million (€87 million) in the launch of three new Centres for Agricultural Innovation, focusing on crop health and protection, agricultural engineering and precision farming, and excellence in livestock production. The three new centres will collaborate with the first Centre for Agricultural Innovation, launched late last year, which is called Agrimetrics and deals with data science and modelling.

• Focusing on the value of demonstration farms
  

  A joint workshop focusing on the organisation and benefits of Integrated Pest Management demonstration farms is to be held in Bonn, Germany, in May 2016. The event is being jointly organised by the C-IPM ERA-NET, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) and the European Commission's Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE).

• C-IPM issues second transational call
  

  The second transnational call for collaborative research projects from the Coordinated Integrated Pest Management ERA-NET (C-IPM) is now open for pre-proposals, bringing together partners from 18 countries across Europe and a total budget of around €7.3 million.

• SSSA evaluates biopesticide dossiers
  

  ENDURE partner Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa (SSSA) has been appointed by the Italian Ministry of Health (MinSal) as one of the research institutes responsible for the scientific evaluation of dossiers relating to the registration, re-registration and renewal of authorisations for biopesticides. Professor Paolo Bàrberi (pictured right) is the scientist responsible for this agreement.

• Sustainability indicators added to Italy NAP
  

  Researchers from the Institute of Life Sciences at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, one of ENDURE’s Italian partners, have played a central role in establishing a new set of indicators for the sustainability of cropping systems, which is to be added to Italy’s National Action Plan (NAP).