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Content archived on 2024-06-18

Pheromone Identification for Environmentally Responsible Control of Thrips

Objective

Thrips are insects that are important crop pests in agriculture and horticulture. They cause most damage to protected (greenhouse) crops, which have an annual EU production of 37 billion euros. Growers are struggling to control thrips but are also under pressure to reduce pesticide use. The EU Directive on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides (2009) requires alternatives to pesticides to be used wherever possible. There is also the imminent threat that an invasive species, Thrips palmi, will devastate protected crops when it reaches the EU. This is a multi-disciplinary project that uses skills in biology and organic chemistry to improve crop protection in agriculture and horticulture by developing new methods for the monitoring and control of thrips. Aggregation pheromones of thrips can be used to monitor thrips populations so that pesticides are only applied when necessary and also to modify behaviour to enhance the effectiveness of control methods. The project will identify the aggregation pheromone of Thrips palmi and also make the aggregation pheromones of other pest thrips species easily available for monitoring and control. The project addresses the EU policy objectives of minimising the use of pesticides and promoting sustainable horticultural production methods that meet consumer requirements for a safe food supply chain and environmentally responsible growing systems. The success of the project depends on bringing together complementary skills. The MC fellow has significant skills in the organic chemistry of natural products, while the Keele group has considerable expertise in thrips biology, chemical ecology and the translation of research results into practical outcomes for horticulture. This research will develop an environmentally responsible method of monitoring and controlling a range of pest thrips in Europe and other countries leading to a reduction in crop damage and pesticide use and a strengthening of EU competitiveness in horticulture.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

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Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IIF
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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MC-IIF - International Incoming Fellowships (IIF)

Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF KEELE ROYAL CHARTER
EU contribution
€ 181 103,20
Address
KEELE UNIVERSITY FINANCE DPT
ST5 5BG Keele
United Kingdom

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Region
West Midlands (England) Shropshire and Staffordshire Staffordshire CC
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

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