An alliance for the protection of plants: The Thematic Group “Plant Health” - DISTAL – UNIBO

The Thematic Group “Plant Health” (TG-PH) of DISTAL, established as part of the “Departments of Excellence” project, has been active since October 2020. To date, 13 research groups with over 40 people including teaching staff, researchers, technicians, postdocs and doctoral students have joined the TG-PH. The common goal of the TG’s activities is to protect and enhance the role of “Plant Health” with a plurality of approaches and specific activities which include: (i) the development of strategies to prevent, monitor and control plant pests; (ii) new agronomic practices and plant nutrition approaches to reduce the impact on ecosystems; (iii) the selection and characterization of new varieties more resilient to biotic/abiotic stresses; (iv) the implementation of sustainable agricultural and food policies. Most of these activities are consistent with initiatives to effectively address major global policy issues such as reducing the use of pesticides and fertilizers, increasing biodiversity in order to ensure healthy, affordable and sustainable food supply to society compliant with food quality and safety. The high interdisciplinarity of the TG-PH is ensured by the wide range of scientific sectors to which the research groups involved belong. The common commitment is to pursue the sustainability objectives of the European Green Deal by bridging the gap between research and practice, accelerating the process of transferring research results and following up with networking. Moreover, TG-PH members share the common belief that only a stronger synergy between this knowledge and expertise coupled with a strong public-private partnership (PPP) will allow for the translation of the results of basic research into concrete solutions useful for the various stakeholders and society at large.