The breadth of PURE was very wide in terms of European institutions, farming systems, agroecological conditions and scientific disciplines and approaches. This meant that PURE provided a unique opportunity to address almost all facets of IPM research, explained Françoise.

Integrative research was at the core of the project’s work on the design and evaluation of IPM solutions and the implication of stakeholders, especially through co-innovation processes, was a major concern. But the biological (for example, biocontrol, agroecological engineering, and pest evolution), technological, and methodological (for example, models) dimensions of IPM solutions were also addressed. All this created a synergy which supported the project’s ambitious goal.

The special issue has been edited by ENDURE scientific officer Jay Ram Lamichhane. “I feel honored to be invited to be guest editor of this special issue and I would personally like to thank Françoise Lescourret and all the colleagues involved within the PURE project who very efficiently liaised with me to finalise the special issue,” said Jay Ram, pictured below.

“The papers in this issue show that a lot of progress is being made in the development of innovative crop protection systems that help reduce pesticide use and the consequent risk in European farming systems.”

The special issue brings together 17 papers, including an editorial and an introduction to the PURE project written by Jay Ram Lamichhane and Françoise Lescourret respectively, 12 original articles and three review articles. The full contents are as follows:

• Pesticide use and risk reduction in European farming systems with IPM: An introduction to the special issue. Author: Jay Ram Lamichhane
• Toward a reduced use of pesticides in European farming systems: An introduction to the PURE project. Author: Françoise Lescourret
• Modelling the effect of gene deployment strategies on durability of plant resistance under selection. Authors: Marjolein E. Lof, Wopke van der Werf
• Assessing the sustainability of crop production systems: Toward a common framework? Authors: Frédérique Angevin, Gabriele Fortino, Christian Bockstaller, Elise Pelzer, Antoine Messéan
• SYNOPS-WEB, an online tool for environmental risk assessment to evaluate pesticide strategies on field level. Authors: J. Strassemeyer, D. Daehmlow, A.R. Dominic, S. Lorenz, B. Golla
• Careful choice of insecticides in integrated pest management strategies against Ostrinia nubilalis  (Hübner) in maize conserves Orius spp. in the field (Original Research Article). Authors: Vasileios P. Vasileiadis, Andrea Veres, Donato Loddo, Roberta Masin, Maurizio Sattin, Lorenzo Furlan
• Risk assessment of soil-pest damage to grain maize in Europe within the framework of Integrated Pest Management (Original Research Article). Authors: Lorenzo Furlan, Vasileios P. Vasileiadis, Francesca Chiarini, Hilfred Huiting, Robert Leskovšek, Jaka Razinger, Imre J. Holb, Erica Sartori, Gregor Urek, Arnd Verschwele, Isadora Benvegnù, Maurizio Sattin
• Sustainability of European winter wheat- and maize-based cropping systems: Economic, environmental and social ex-post assessment of conventional and IPM-based systems (Original Research Article). Authors: V.P. Vasileiadis, S. Dachbrodt-Saaydeh, P. Kudsk, C. Colnenne-David, F. Leprince, I.J. Holb, R. Kierzek, L. Furlan, D. Loddo, B. Melander, L.N. Jørgensen, A.C. Newton, C. Toque, W. van Dijk, M. Lefebvre, M. Benezit, M. Sattin
• A critical review of plant protection tools for reducing pesticide use on grapevine and new perspectives for the implementation of IPM in viticulture (Original Research Article). Authors: I. Pertot, T. Caffi, V. Rossi, L. Mugnai, C. Hoffmann, M.S. Grando, C. Gary, D. Lafond, C. Duso, D. Thiery, V. Mazzoni, G. Anfora
• Combining biocontrol agents with different mechanisms of action in a strategy to control Botrytis cinerea  on grapevine (Original Research Article). Authors: Ilaria Pertot, Oscar Giovannini, Maddalena Benanchi, Tito Caffi, Vittorio Rossi, Laura Mugnai
• New approach to Integrated Pest Management research with and for horticulture. A vision from and beyond economics (Original Research Article). Authors: J.S. Buurma, N.J.A. van der Velden
• Multicriteria evaluation of innovative IPM systems in pome fruit in Europe (Original Research Article). Authors: T. Caffi, H.H.M. Helsen, V. Rossi, I.J. Holb, J. Strassemeyer, J.S. Buurma, Y. Capowiez, S. Simon, A. Alaphilippe
• On-farm and on-station evaluations of three orchard management approaches against apple scab and apple powdery mildew (Original Research Article). Authors: I.J. Holb, F. Abonyi, J. Buurma, B. Heijne
• Resilience and robustness of IPM in protected horticulture in the face of potential invasive pests (Original Research Article). Authors: M. Pérez-Hedo, R. Suay, M. Alonso, M. Ruocco, M. Giorgini, C. Poncet, A. Urbaneja
• Prospects for plant defence activators and biocontrol in IPM – Concepts and lessons learnt so far (Original Research Article). Authors: Toby J.A. Bruce, Lesley E. Smart, A. Nicholas E. Birch, Vivian C. Blok, Katrin MacKenzie, Emilio Guerrieri, Pasquale Cascone, Estrella Luna, Jurriaan Ton
• Production of Ampelomyces quisqualis  conidia in submerged fermentation and improvements in the formulation for increased shelf-life (Original Research Article). Authors: Dario Angeli, Krishna Saharan, Guillem Segarra, Carmela Sicher, Ilaria Pertot
• A functional overview of conservation biological control (Original Research Article). Authors: Graham S. Begg, Samantha M. Cook, Richard Dye, Marco Ferrante, Pierre Franck, Claire Lavigne, Gábor L. Lövei, Agathe Mansion-Vaquie, Judith K. Pell, Sandrine Petit, Nora Quesada, Benoit Ricci, Stephen D. Wratten, A.Nicholas E. Birch

The efforts made within the PURE European project and the results presented in this issue provide a telling example of how a transnational networking approach can produce reliable scientific and technical data which is useful to support policy frameworks.

For more information:

• Consult the Crop Protection special issue here
• Visit the PURE website here