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Project website http://protectingtreehealth.org.uk/

Specific objectives:

1. To develop improved and cost-effective tools for the early detection, surveillance and monitoring of alien pests and pathogens of trees and other plants to improve the UK's biosecurity.

2. To exploit technical advances in fields such as genomics, bioinformatics, pest and disease detection, trapping and environmental sampling, including risk and social impact valuation to support the health and resilience of UK trees and woodlands.

3. Based on an interdisciplinary consortium bringing together natural science specialists in tree research and plant biosecurity with leading edge scientists from the physical, engineering, social and economic science research communities to develop these tools.

4. By using an innovative interdisciplinary, co-design approach and through early engagement with policy-makers and stakeholders, to ensure that the tools developed are fit-for-purpose in the real-world: that they offer a genuine costefficiency benefit, that they are deployed based on risk and that there is positive uptake of these tools by end-users.

5. To create tools that can be used in a range of inspection contexts; for use by statutory inspectors (e.g. Fera and FC plant health inspectors) and/or other stakeholders e.g. industry, NGOs or the public ('citizen inspectors') as appropriate.

6. To add to our national capabilities in tree health and leave a lasting legacy; by adding to our fundamental scientific knowledge in this area, by bringing in new expertise from beyond the traditional tree research community and by facilitating the development of a stronger UK biosecurity science community.

7. That the tools developed will enhance our tree health surveillance and monitoring capability but will also be generic in nature; having the potential for uptake into other scenarios; for example being used to aid eradication and control campaigns or as part of disease management for non-statutory pathogens.

This project is a partnership between Fera, the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Forest Research, the James Hutton Institute, Rutherford Appleton Laboratories and the Universities of Aberdeen, Oxford, Exeter, Greenwich, Hertfordshire, St. Andrews and Worcester

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