Biocontrol workshop coming up

A joint biocontrol workshop co-organized by C-IPM, Ecophyto and IOBC will be held in Paris on 27-28 January 2016.

Photo: Colourbox

Research on biocontrol is a key lever to reduce reliance on conventional pesticides in European agriculture. Indeed, European research on biological and integrated control of plant pests (sensu lato) is becoming more dynamic and involves a wide range of stakeholders from a variety of public institutions and companies.

However, biocontrol research efforts are often fragmented. Their operational outputs would benefit from a strict collaboration between academia, industry and agricultural sectors on the one hand and from transnational cooperation on the other. A greater level of collaboration and knowledge-sharing is required to overcome key technical bottlenecks and pool biocontrol R&D efforts nationally and internationally on common priorities.

Taking into account the particularly favorable current environment to address these challenges, this workshops aims to promote exchange between the ongoing national effort of the French Ministry of Agriculture (within the Ecophyto Plan), the ERA-NET ‘C-IPM’ (Coordinated Integrated Pest Management in Europe), where biocontrol has been identified by partners and stakeholders as one of the key topics of the Strategic Research Agenda,  and International Organization for Biological and Integrated Control, West Palearctic Regional Section (IOBC WPRS),  which shares a range of R&D expertise on biocontrol within the 20 working groups and 5 commissions.

The main objectives of the workshop are to:

  • gather international experts and stimulate knowledge sharing on key challenges and possible existing solutions in various EU countries,
  • determine common research priorities across Europe and identify the available research offer on biological and integrated crop protection, and
  • set up priority topics to be included into the C-IPM ERA-NET 2016 transnational research call.

Dates and venue

The workshop will be held in Paris on 27 and 28 January 2016 and will benefit from financial support of the Ecophyto Research program of the French Ministry of Agriculture. 

The workshop venue is "Centre International de Séjour Maurice Ravel", which provides both meeting rooms and accommodation facilities (http://www.cisp.fr/cisp/pages/home-17.html).

For more information please contact:

Jay Ram Lamichhane: Jay-Ram.Lamichhane@grignon.inra.fr

Laure Dreux: Laure.Elliott-Smith@grignon.inra.fr

 

 

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