Annual progress report - Cost 873

Monitoring Progress Report – 2009
COST 873 – Bacterial Diseases of Stone Fruits and Nuts
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Cooperative research grants within EU FP7
* ENDURE NoE has been expanded in 2009 to include a WG on biological control which is
headed by COST873 participant B. Blum, and which will include several COST873 groups.
* FP7 KBBE: Q-BOL project (NL coordinator) was funded and has started in 2009. This project
includes several COST873 bacteriology laboratories and the work will include most of the
pathogens covered in COST873.
* FP7 KBBE: Q-Detect project (UK coordinator) was funded and will start in 2010. This project
includes several COST873 bacteriology laboratories, including WP Leader for Dissemination
(B. Duffy). This project will develop phytosanitary monitoring technology for X. arboricola pv.
pruni and joint activities are planned with COST873.
* An infrastructure grant was submitted but was unsuccessful.
II.B.f. Transfer of results
Transfer of results: „Technology Transfer and Implementation‟ has been conducted between the
concluding COST 853 and into COST 873 to further the mission of our Action. Specifically, host plant
genotyping microarray technology has been made available for cherry resistance screening and
germplasm resource cataloguing in COST873. This effort was initiated at the Trans-COST workshop in
Spain, 2007. COST 853 experts have been integrated into COST873 resulting in significant advances
in developing diagnostic microarrays (and 2 publications as of 2009).
A special arm of COST873 Committee of Practioners (CoP) has been established with a Head
(Bernard Blum, Agrometrix AG, Basel, CH). B. Blum is also the Vice-President of the International
Biocontrol Manufacturers Association (http://www.ibma.ch). This CoP is charged with arranging the
smooth transfer of technology from Action scientists to stakeholders (industry, growers, plant
protection officers, regulatory agencies) and the transfer of concerns/interests of stakeholders to Action
scientists. The CoP has taken an active role in Technology Transfer, partly via stakeholder-researcher
small events in 2008-2009. The CoP has taken the lead already in organizing an STF meeting with
researchers and stakeholder grower groups and SMEs in order to develop a EUROAgri+ research
(industry joint proposal related to walnut blight. The CoP has also coordinated industry research
cooperation and funding on biological control – including Pantoea antagonist genome sequencing
and field trials. The CoP promoted COST873 to stakeholder participants of the IBMA annual meeting
in Switzerland (2007, 2008, 2009).
Local efforts have been made in several countries to publicize COST873 and transfer our expertise
through the local press and cooperation with regional governmental agencies. For example: The
IMIDA has got as objective to transfer research results as soon as they are available to the Murcian´s
growers through the mechanism of Technology Transference. In this way, all the local media
connected to the Press Office of the Consejeria de Agricultura y Agua are available.
Serbian disease surveys provide another example of policy impact of COST873 at the regional and
national level. COST873 scientists coordinated two survey programs in 2008-2009 across Serbia,
aimed to check quarantine status of X.a. pv. pruni and P.s. pv. persicae. The surveys were financed by
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