Annual progress report - Cost 873

Monitoring Progress Report – 2009
COST 873 – Bacterial Diseases of Stone Fruits and Nuts
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This will result in publication of an Acta Horticulturae volume. This will be a vehicle for promoting
the high quality of European research in this field, particularly as fostered by the COST873 network.
In addition, it is intended that this meeting will recruit international partners (e.g., USA, South
America) for developing a comprehensive book on Stone Fruit and Nut Health Management. This
will come after the end of COST873 but represent a synthesis of our Action results.
COST873 participants promoted our research advances and the Action/COST concept at the ISHS
Walnut meeting in Australia (Brisbane, 2009) and the ISHS Hazelnut meeting in Italy (Viterbo,
2009). A board member of ISHS, D. Avazanto, has been recruited and become an active and
entertaining member of COST873.
II.C. Self evaluation
The Action is running smoothly and is well on target to achieve the goals listed in the MoU.
Particularly successful towards this goal was the establishment of STFs (specific task forces)
targeted to specific research and coordination goals of the Action. These ensure coverage of the fullbreadth
of topics and national representation in COST873, as well as providing a defined procedure for
establishing effective research collaborations among partners to accomplish goals in an orderly
and timely fashion, despite funding limitations for research objectives.
A major accomplishment of COST873, which could serve as a model for future COST Actions, is the
successful establishment and implementation of a CoP (Committee of Practioners). This CoP has
greatly facilitated information and technology transfer between the research arm of COST873 in WGs
and COST873 stakeholders. Activities in 2007, 2008 and 2009 have increasingly resulted in productive
cooperation between research and stakeholders (industry, policy-makers, growers, consumers, NGOs).
Training aspects have been conducted in 2008 and 2009 that will significantly move towards one of our
main goals of preparing a new generation of plant protection oriented specialists in phytobacteriology.
The STSM component of this training effort has gotten off to a slow start, but interest has greatly
increased in 2008 and 2009. Early interest in 2010, suggests that this training instrument will be more
than adequately utilized in the remaining years of COST873. We have implemented a variation on
the STSM for limited use to enable a cost-effective dissemination of expertise for training purposes in
less-developed regions based on sending Senior Experts to conduct mini-training schools for local
groups of COST873 students. The first such Expert STSM was conducted in RS in 2008, and 2 were
conducted in 2009. A continuing aggressive campaign is planned for 2010 to encourage STSM
exchanges of students, particularly within the framework of STFs (to result in collaborative research
and publications) and training of less-developed areas.
Major advances have been made in the website tools available to the Chair and all presentations of
meetings, training, and research activities are posted online for optimal dissemination within
COST873 and beyond starting in 2008. The website has received excellent feedback since its launch
shortly after the Action start from many participants. In fact, participants of 2 other Actions have
indicated to the Chair that they routinely use the www.cost873.ch portal to obtain basic COST forms
and information (e.g., STSM application information).
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