A major research programme focussing on building UK resilience to the bacterial plant pathogen Xylella fastidiosa , assemble for the first time this week .
Dr Gerard Clover took up the post as Impact and Engagement Manager based at the John Innes Centre for the BRIGIT consortium .
Dr Clover will be responsible for working across the multiple stakeholder group involved in the national program . He will also continue to work part - fourth dimension in his part as Head of Plant Health with the Royal Horticultural Society ( RHS ) .
BRIGIT , a syndicate coordinated by the John Innes Centre , has been set up to enhance UK surveillance and reception to Xylella fastidiosa . Xylella , one of the world ’s most devastating plant pathogens , has devastated crop plants in southern Europe in late years .
Dr Clover ’s role will be to assist develop an grounds - base policy and best practice framework for respond to the terror of the flora pathogen , reflecting the input of a broad range of industrial , insurance and scientific stakeholders . “ I am captivated to be joining the consortium for what is such a critical project . We must ensure that more is done to understand how the disease overspread and how we can improve respectable recitation to extenuate the shock of any creation , ” say Dr Clover .
The consortium impart together ten leading UK enquiry organisation in a £ 4.85 molarity programme to improve methods of diagnosis and detection of Xylella , to discover factors that could lead to its bed cover and to mitigate the risk of exposure of the pathogen to the UK . The first meeting of the whole consortium took post in London on the 6th February 2019 .
The insect - transmitted bacterial pathogen Xylella taint more than 500 plant specie including crops , ornamental and angry plants and trees . In Italy alone , over one million Olea europaea trees are die because of a Xylella - air disease called Olive Quick Decline Syndrome . So far Xylella has not been reported in the UK .
BRIGIT is funded by UK Research and Innovation through the Strategic Priorities Fund , by a grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council with support from the Department of Environment , Food and Rural Affairs and the Scottish Government .
The ten origination in the pool are : John Innes Centre , Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales ( NMU),Centre for Ecology & Hydrology , Fera Science Ltd , Forest Research , Royal Horticultural Society , Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture , The University of Salford , The University of Stirlingand theUniversity of Sussex .
The consortium will join forces with international scientist and organisation , include the European Union - fund XF - Actors research project to meliorate bar , early detection and control of Xylella fastidiosa .
