Rome kick-off meeting

It was held in Rome on 27th November 2015, at the hall Bisogno of CNR, the inaugural meeting that opened the work of the International Search Consortium POnTE, engaged in the development of a four-year research project, funded by the European Commission with a budget of 6.85 million euro under the program Horizon 2020. POnTE, this is the name of the project, which stands for Pest Organisms Threatening Europe, will focus its activities on the study of certain plant pathogens, recently recognized among the threats relevant to the European forest and agricultural ecosystems.
The meeting was attended by 54 participants, representing all the 25 Consortium partners, and coming from 13 EU and Extra-EU States. The meeting was opened by institutional greetings entrusted to Dr. Loreto, director of the CNR Department of Bio-Agrifood Sciences (DiSBA), and Dr. Accotto, director of CNR Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (IPSP). During the day the entire activities to be undertaken were discussed, using, among others, the contributions of Dr. Predoiu (European Research Agency, EU) and Dr. Pandolfi (CNR), who explained to the participants the requirements and the procedural, legal and financial, to be met to comply with the demands of the European Commission.