Strengthening plant health: addressing emerging plant pest risks

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: improved understanding of key drivers of plant pest emergence, including the influence of climate change, ecosystem degradation and globalisation; cost-effective and environmentally friendly preventive and/or curative measures for managing the targeted plant pest(s) are identified, validated, and made available to farmers and forest owners for effective pest management; robust scientific support is delivered to strengthen decision-making processes. Scope: Effective plant health measures are essential for protecting agriculture and forestry, ensuring food security, preserving ecosystems and biodiversity, and enabling safe and sustainable trade. This action aims to strengthen plan health by addressing emerging plant pests[1], whether regulated or unregulated, introduced or native, that currently pose, or are likely to pose, significant socio-economic and/or environmental threats to agriculture and forestry within the EU and Associated Countries. Proposals should target one or more emerging plant pests[2], taking into account the increasing risks driven by climate change, biodiversity loss, land use changes, globalisation and other contributing factors, with the exception of plant pests targeted in Horizon Europe[3]. Proposals should: enhance understanding of pest(s) biology, introduction pathways, mechanisms of spread, thereby reducing uncertainties and lack of data in pest…