Post by Fedor Jelusic

University of Warwick leads European consortium to build the first platform capable of coordinating Europe's response to devastating agricultural and forest pest invasions. Each year, plant pests destroy up to 40% of agricultural yields worldwide and threaten to devastate forest ecosystems, yet Europe still lacks the tools to coordinate an effective, system-wide response. A major new €6 million EU Horizon project is set to change that. Led by the University of Warwick, PhytoPRISM brings together 15 research institutions and stakeholders across eight countries, positioning the UK at the forefront of a coordinated European response to transboundary plant health threats. The project will give plant health authorities, for the first time, the ability to model and optimise pest control strategies across the entire agri-value chain, from preventing pest entry to long-term management. "Until now, plant health authorities have had to make critical decisions without ever being able to see the full picture″ said the project lead, Dr. Stephen Parnell, School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick. "They can apply individual measures but have no way of knowing how those measures interact, or whether they are getting the best outcome for their investment. ″PhytoPRISM brings together the best of modern epidemiological modelling with the real-world knowledge of the people on the frontline, giving them, for the first time, the tools to make smarter, faster, and more cost-effective decisions″ Plant pests, including insects and plant pathogens, pose a growing threat to agri-food and forest resilience. Driven by global trade and climate change, the continual introduction of new pests directly undermines European priorities around sustainable food production, biodiversity, and reduced pesticide use. Current management approaches are often piecemeal, relying on single restrictive procedures rather than coordinated, systems-level responses across the entire agri-value chain.