A symposium titled ‘Plant Health Without Borders: International collaboration to underpin policy at national, regional and international level’ will take place in Brussels on 15 May 2024.

Coming shortly after the International Day of Plant Health on 12 May and hosted by the Belgian Presidency of the EU, the event will emphasise the importance of collaboration - including at policy level - in the field of plant health and will highlight the interlinks with human, environmental and animal health.

The symposium will focus on plant health networks and the opportunities for collaboration and coordination at scientific level. Researchers' experiences will point out the advantages of such collaboration at international level, as research plays a key role in informing plant health policy and in developing the scientific expertise and infrastructure needed to support plant health and protection efforts.

Furthermore, future challenges and ways forward will be discussed. In this context, the EU Horizon Europe EUPHRESCO III project will be presented. The project aims to improve the coordination of plant health research at national, regional and global levels.

In the session ‘Testimonies: advantages of international collaboration’, Anna Maria D'Onghia, researcher at CIHEAM Bari, will illustrate the Institute's training activity in plant health to support research in the Mediterranean region, with a presentation titled ‘Capacity building in plant health to build a Mediterranean research area’.

During the event, the winning video of the ‘Plant Health Video Contest’, an initiative co-organised by CIHEAM Bari, EUPHRESCO and PBRI-Australia, will  be presented.