ENDURE

(project not authored by Eco Innovation)

European Network for the Durable Exploitation of crop protection strategies

Project website 

ENDURE will commence in January 2007. It is an EU FP6-Funded Network of Excellence. ENDURE is an initiative to reshape European research and development on pesticide use in crops for the implementation of sustainable pest control strategies. It was selected for funding by the European Commission in response to call FP6, Food Quality and Safety. Its objective is to reshape European research and development on pesticide use in crops and establish itself as a leader in the development and implementation of sustainable pest management strategies.

ENDURE will create a coordinated structure that takes advantage of alternative technologies, builds on advances in Agricultural Sciences, Ecology, Behaviour, Genetics, Economics and Social Sciences and connects researchers to other stakeholders in extension, industry, policy-making and civil society. This multi-disciplinary and cross-sector approach is designed to foster the development and implementation of strategies rationalising and reducing pesticide inputs as well as reducing risks.

The project's operational goals are to:

• Bring together research capacity and resources currently fragmented across Europe. ENDURE will share knowledge and people, and pool our facilities, biological resources and equipment through a joint crop protection research programme and the creation of a coordinated and geographically decentralised European resource facility—a ‘virtual laboratory’—on pest control.

• Enhance the research-to-R&D innovation process by creating working relationships between researchers and practitioners in extension and farming,

• Bring in industry, policy-makers and civil society to help define the research agenda.

• Pass on knowledge, know-how and resources through training, education, and dissemination targeting farmers, advisors, researchers, policy-makers and civil society. Our European Pest Control Competence Centre is designed to become a source of knowledge and expertise to support public policy-makers, regulatory bodies, extension services and other crop protection stakeholders.

• Endure by building a sustainable, coherent and transnational institution made up of leading European crop protection research, R&D, extension, and industry organizations,

We will advance toward these goals via three types of activities:

• Integrating activities will help us identify priority research areas, link up with other relevant research and civil society groups, and plan our legal and financial sustainability.

• Jointly executed research will stimulate and develop a culture of collaboration in areas that are key to achieving progress in reducing reliance on pesticides.

• Cross-fertilisation (or spreading) activities will extend our activities and outputs to farmers, extension agents, students, policy-makers, consumers and society-at-large, as well as to elicit feedback and dialogue ensuring that activities and outputs meet the needs of these stakeholders.