The Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica, is one of the worst invasive pests of North America. Costs to control the pest in the US exceed $450 million per year. P. japonica was detected near Milano in 2014, and is now starting to spread in Europe. It is an enormous threat to Europe, since (1) it can feed on more than 300 host plants, including many important crops, (2) it is a good flyer and can be relocated via movement of goods and people, (3) climate suitability puts at risk an area ranging from the Atlantic to the Black Sea, and from the Mediterranean to Great Britain and Southern Scandinavia. EFSA and the JRC of the European Commission nominated P. japonica a candidate high priority pest in the EU in the new EU Plant health Law. IPM-Popillia has the aim to counteract this invasion. The project will provide fast and reliable monitoring tools, including an app-based citizen science approach to rise public awareness. Its main deliverable will be an IPM-Toolbox for control of P. japonica, relying exclusively on environmentally friendly control measures. Several teams of the consortium will collaborate in the core of the recent outbreak area, doing practical research in an European environment that can be applied immediatedly. The ambition of IPM-Popillia is to show that it is possible to control the new pest, and meet the requirements of quarantine regulations, and at the same time respect the environment and the principles of the sustainable use directive. IPM-Popillia will provide an integrated pest management strategy against P. japonica at a very early timepoint of the invasion process. So far, the new pest is still confined to one single and comparatively small area of about 6’000 square kilometres on mainland Europe. This timeliness is exceptional when compared to previous invasions into Europe, and will significantly enhance chances for successful containment, provided that the starting signal is given NOW.

Climate change and environmental degradation have been challenging Europe and the whole world. The EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 is a comprehensive, ambitious and long-term plan to preserve nature and reverse the ecosystem degradation. Grapevine (Vitis spp.) is one of the major fruit crops worldwide, and although viticulture is a leading sector of the EU agro-industrial economy, it is the cropping system with the highest use of agrochemicals and with a high risk of biodiversity loss. SHIELD4GRAPE (S4G) will adopt sustainable agroecological approaches addressed to improve the resilience of the viticultural system against pest diseases in a context of climate change. The S4G consortium brings together the best excellences in the sector; it is multi- and interdisciplinary, collaborative and well representative of different EU biogeographical regions. S4G will i) exploit grapevine biodiversity and identify new resilience traits; ii) implement breeding activities, including new breeding techniques and mutagenesis, iii) introduce safer and more sustainable strategies against pathogens. Demonstration fields will be set up in all the most important EU regions interested in viticulture to improve the efficacy of applied integrated pest management protocols in combination with the new resilient genotypes. S4G aims to support farmers and researchers, to provide advisory services and actors in value chains by establishing an interrelated community that will facilitate exchange of knowledge and of the best practices at different levels and socio-economic resilience. S4G impacts will add value to the wine heritage of the EU regions by reducing chemical treatments (at least by 50%), using strategies that are less hazardous to the environment and favouring beneficial organisms. S4G will contribute to safeguard the territory (particularly those areas with a high concentration of vineyards), human health, farmers, the population living in grape-growing areas and consumers