Project description
Greening our way out of the food crisis
The world is facing a major food crisis due to a rapidly growing population and shrinking arable land. In many developing countries, the demand for food is rising, but plant diseases caused by bacteria, fungi, and viruses threaten crops. These diseases can spread through global trade, endangering food safety. As a result, there is an urgent need for eco-friendly solutions to protect plants. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the EcoPDI project aims to address this problem by developing sustainable antibacterial and antifungal treatments. By using earth-abundant metal compounds as photosensitisers, EcoPDI focuses on photodynamic inactivation (PDI) to eliminate resistant pathogens. This project seeks to reduce reliance on chemical pesticides while promoting safer plant-based foods.
Objective
"In the world, the phrase ""we are going through a major food crisis"" is becoming more and more common. This is because our society is faced with managing an exponentially growing world population and a decrease in arable land per person. This rising demand for food in developing countries is at risk due to plant diseases induced by bacteria, fungi and viruses. At the same time, food is traded globally, enabling the dissemination of dangerous microorganisms worldwide. Therefore, creating alternative and ecologically friendly antibacterial and antifungal treatments is essential to address the growing demand for safe and healthful plant-based foods. EcoPDI aims to solve this current and critical problem by developing new earth-abundant metal compounds with natural ligands as photosensitizers for photodynamic inactivation (PDI) of resistant bacteria and fungi. For this, EcoPDI focuses on the ""Sustainable-Economic-Applicable"" triple approach. Thus, this multidisciplinary project will develop new sustainable treatments that avoid the use of pesticides and employ sunlight to activate the antimicrobial activity of the compounds, will use cheap earth-abundant metals and improve the disadvantages of natural compounds, and apply the new photosensitizers directly to plants through the planned secondment. EcoPDI includes both the transfer of knowledge to the host institution and the training of the candidate in new techniques and methods. The findings have the potential to open up space for additional basic and applied research on PDI in plant protection and food safety. This proposal responds to the European Green Deal which has as its objective to restore damaged ecosystems and bring nature back across Europe and reduce the use and risk of chemical pesticides by 50% by 2030."
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: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology bacteriology
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology virology
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology mycology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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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.
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.
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.
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.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
75231 Paris
France
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.