ENDURE coordinator Antoine Messéan has been made an Honorary Professor at Szent István University in Gödöllö, Hungary, in recognition of the long-standing collaboration between his institute, France’s National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), and the Hungarian university. It is a relationship first forged in collaborations for various Diabrotica-related European projects from 2000 and, specifically, 14 years ago during the preparation stage for the ENDURE Network of Excellence.
“It is with deep appreciation and humility that I accept this great honour, the Honorary Professor award, from the University of Szent István of Gödöllö,” Antoine told guests at a ceremony at ENDURE’s Hungarian partner in June. He explained that for more than 20 years he has been coordinating national and European projects seeking to develop more sustainable agricultural systems, reaching the current stage where agriculture is at a turning point, requiring the development of new agricultural models offering economic and environmental performance but also providing renewable energy, mitigating climate change and contributing to social welfare.
He said that one of the biggest challenges he has faced is the fragmentation of science and education: fragmentation between disciplines while it is crucial to develop interdisciplinary approaches; fragmentation between research institutes, universities, extension services, socio-economic actors and policy-makers; fragmentation between countries and their research and development organisations.
“The challenge is therefore to achieve ‘defragmentation’ and I must say that such a challenge has been shared from the very beginning of our collaboration with the Plant Protection Institute of your University, which started 14 years ago when we set up the Network of Excellence ENDURE (Diversifying Crop Protection) and whose objective was to integrate research on Integrated Pest Management across Europe,” he said. “The aim of this Network of Excellence was to bring together research institutes - not just scientists - education bodies and extension services to create a long-term strategic collaboration on Integrated Pest Management through three pillars: integrating activities, jointly executed research, dissemination and spreading activities.
“Among the 15 organisations involved, Szent István University, through its Plant Protection Institute and the commitment of Professor Jozsef Kiss, coordinated the joint training and education programme, based on its higher education competence and on IPM capacity for the development of farming communities through training programmes.
“Besides, Szent István University contributed to other activities: IPM of maize, the exploration of landscape management of pests and diseases for selected crops as well as the use of pheromones or molecular plant pathology. After the official project finished in 2010, the network has been continuing its activities until today, acting as a strategic forum for IPM in Europe. As a coordinator, I can testify that the Plant Protection Institute has been one of the most reliable pillars of this European Research Group.”
Antoine (pictured above right) and Jozsef Kiss (left) continued to work together in the ERA-NET C-IPM (Coordinated Integrated Pest Management in Europe) in which the Plant Protection Institute represented the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture and Jozsef acted as co-leader of the activities on minor uses and was a key member of the Executive Committee. Over this period, INRA has also hosted or contracted young scientists from Szent István University and INRA has subsequently developed additional collaborations with other Hungarian institutes.
Szent István University’s Plant Protection Institute can trace its history back to 1924, when the Faculty of Economics of the Royal National University of Sciences founded the Department of Plant Pathology and, later on, the Institute of Plant Pathology. The current Plant Protection Institute was created in 2007.
The institute is headed by Jozsef Kiss and comprises around 25 researchers, teachers and PhD students divided into groups focusing on Integrated Pest Management (IPM), entomology, phytopathology and weed management. The IPM group has long experience of the educational, research and development aspects of IPM, for example running courses at BSc, MSc and PhD levels. In particular, research has focused on maize-based cropping systems, specifically IPM of key pests such as the Western corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera ), the combination of arable crops and semi-natural areas for natural regulating mechanisms and innovative technologies. The group has extensive experience using participatory approaches to the training of farmers and advisers and coordinated ENDURE’s development of training material for IPM learning and the maize-based system case study. The Institute is also very active in the field of sunflower diseases, identifying a globally new downy mildew (Plasmopara halstedii ) pathotype of sunflower.
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