Award details

Bacterial Plant Diseases Coordination Team

Reference	BB/V00400X/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Sarah Green
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Murray Grant, Dr Mariella Marzano
Institution	Forest Research
Department	Centre for Ecosystems Soc and Biosecur
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	590,060
Status	Current
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/07/2020
End date	30/06/2023
Duration	36 months

Abstract

Despite underpinning key breakthroughs in plant immunity, plant bacterial diseases have failed to attract the research support accorded to fungal and oomycete diseases. Consequently, bacterial phytopathology skills have been eroded and expertise lost to academia and industry, yet these diseases pose major risks. The coordination team has critical contacts within the community and wider expertise in social science to identify synergies and interdisciplinarity, ensure appropriate technology engagement, embed impact and monitor progress across projects. Most importantly, we will develop a structure to engage stakeholders and ensure findings are communicated through interactive gatherings, targeted social media/publishing opportunities and specific showcase events.

Summary

The CT will collate and review all research proposals funded within the Bacterial Plant Diseases programme prior to the kick-off meeting to identify synergies across planned science outputs, key stakeholders and impact plans for each project. This initial analysis will form the basis of early discussions within the CT Board and EAP as to how best to mentor scientific objectives and coordinate stakeholder engagement activities going forward. This assessment will also provide an overview of the project specific objectives and enable the CT to identify overlaps between projects and ensure these are communicated to the PIs to maximise project productivity. Furthermore, the CT will explore whether there are technologies or datasets being deployed/developed that may be of use or beneficial to other projects and will inform those PI's accordingly. This activity will be ongoing and may provide greatest value in the final year of the initiative, when new and novel findings are emerging. The CT will collate and review all research proposals funded within the Bacterial Plant Diseases programme prior to the kick-off meeting to identify synergies across planned science outputs, key stakeholders and impact plans for each project. This initial analysis will form the basis of early discussions within the CT Board and EAP as to how best to mentor scientific objectives and coordinate stakeholder engagement activities going forward. This assessment will also provide an overview of the project specific objectives and enable the CT to identify overlaps between projects and ensure these are communicated to the PIs to maximise project productivity. A 'stakeholder mapping' exercise will identify the relevant stakeholder community with potential interest in the outcomes of the funded projects. The resulting stakeholder database will build on a stakeholder map previously developed within the Phyto-threats project by MM. A single, online stakeholder survey will then be conducted within the first six months, and after the initial project overview, to identify what information and outputs stakeholders are most interested in based on the funded projects. Collectively the CT and requested support have considerable experience in organising events from developing clear objectives, identifying and inviting attendees and managing the event on the day.We envisage that each event will promote interaction and exchange of information/data among projects to facilitate interdisciplinarity as well as target relevant stakeholders. We aim to ensure collective understanding of the research problems within different ecological, cultural, socio-economic and political contexts.There will be three main annual events involving all the project teams and key stakeholders. These are: the kick-off meeting early in yr 1, a mid-term grant holders' workshop in yr 2 and an end of programme dissemination event in yr 3. The kick-off meeting will be organised in conjunction with the Programme Management Group (PMG) and through the CT Board and EAP to set the most appropriate agenda and target stakeholders following review of the research proposals and impact plans. We will also organise three annual events involving just the CT and the science teams and including a 'themed' workshop at each of these events; these aim of these events will be to facilitate cross-project collaboration and engagement and interdisciplinarity. The most popular and well attended national key stakeholder events for each sector will be identified. The CT will proactively develop a set of activities in which researchers from the different projects will be given the opportunity to present their work and seek feedback and inputs into their projects. The CT will also write or commission a series of short articles for technical/trade magazines outlining the ongoing project work and what it means in terms of practical management of bacterial diseases.

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Bacterial Plant Diseases [2019]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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