The executive director of InnovPlantProtect (InPP), António Saraiva, took part in the conference “What are the challenges facing the national agroforestry sector over the next decade?”, which took place at the Escola Superior Agrária de Coimbra (ESAC) of the Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra last Tuesday, April 22.
The event, which brought together more than 150 participants and was organized by 17 national Competence Centres, discussed topics such as innovation, sustainability, soil conservation, monitoring cork oak forests and efficient agricultural management.
António Saraiva was part of the panel of commentators, whose speaker was Pedro Santos, Director General of CONSULAI, and moderated by Maria Custódia Correia, Coordinator of the AKIS Portugal Network. The opening session was attended by the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, José Manuel Fernandes, who announced the publication of the Ordinance of April 21 to open the Grant for Initiatives for the creation of Operational Groups (OG).
This initiative provides a total of 11 million euros for new GOs, with a maximum of 350,000 euros per project and eligible funding of 100%.
The GOs are considered crucial structures for transferring knowledge and strengthening the AKIS (Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System).
Special thanks to the 17 Competence Centers for the opportunity to participate in this productive meeting!
Beyond strategy: The secret ingredient of innovation
On the path to success, organizations define strategies, plan each step, and invest in crucial resources such as the sale of services and products, project applications, the development of solid business plans, and the protection of intellectual property. However, there is an often-neglected element that is fundamental to the flourishing of innovation: serendipity. But what exactly is this mysterious force, and why is it so vital to advancing agriculture and so many other areas?
When chance opens doors: The power of unplanned discovery
Serendipity lies in the art of finding something valuable when looking for something else. It's the unintentional discoveries that arise from unexpected situations. Throughout history, some of the most transformative innovations have not been the result of a rigorous plan, but rather of a fortuitous encounter with the unknown. Although deliberate research and methodical experimentation are pillars of scientific and technological progress, openness to the unexpected proves to be a powerful catalyst. When researchers cultivate this openness, they often come across revelations that have the potential to revolutionize entire industries, transform technologies, and expand our understanding of the world around us.
A close look at the “error”: The genesis of an innovative biofungicide
Today, we unveil the surprising and inspiring story of Maria Miguel, a talented researcher from the InPP's New Biopesticides Department, whose insight transformed a fortuitous event into a discovery of inestimable value: a broad-spectrum biofungicide capable of combating Botrytis cinerea, the relentless fungus responsible for the devastating gray mold disease in tomato plants. This pathology represents one of the greatest phytosanitary challenges in tomato cultivation, especially when grown in greenhouses, causing significant losses to producers if not controlled in a timely manner.
From discard to discovery: An investigator's insight
The journey of this discovery began in a scenario familiar to any researcher: the observation of Petri dishes, used to grow cell or microorganism cultures. In Maria Miguel's Petri dishes, colonies of the fungus Botrytis cinerea were growing, intentionally introduced there for study. However, something else caught her attention: one of the plates was contaminated by mold, and curiously, a clear zone surrounded this intruder. Instead of discarding the plate and ignoring it as mere contamination, Maria Miguel decided to investigate the reason behind that clear area. Her curiosity revealed that the mold had a surprising ability to inhibit the growth of Botrytis cinerea in its vicinity.
“Sometimes we look at something and think it's a mistake. The truth is that within a failure, there can be something good,” shares the researcher. The emotion and enthusiasm of a researcher when realizing that what at first seemed like an obstacle, a negative result, can actually be an opportunity, is contagious. For Maria Miguel, this “error” transformed into a serendipitous discovery with enormous potential.
Maria Miguel, a researcher at the InPP's Department of New Biopesticides, transformed an unexpected event into a groundbreaking discovery: a broad-spectrum biofungicide to combat gray mold in tomato plants.
Beyond chance: The active ingredients of scientific discovery
As the story of this biofungicide demonstrates, the world of science is full of examples of discoveries that arose from the unexpected. One of the most famous cases is the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928. While observing Petri dishes, Fleming noticed that a mold was producing a substance that eliminated Staphylococcus aureus bacteria around it. He identified the mold as Penicillium notatum and named his revolutionary antibiotic penicillin. Penicillin ended up becoming an extremely important drug for fighting infections.
However, chance is not the only protagonist of these important revelations. “Sometimes we have to follow our intuition and be able to prove that we are right or wrong,” explains Maria Miguel. In addition to intuition, a generous dose of curiosity, an open mind to accept unexpected results, a solid scientific knowledge, and the ability to see and advance to further investigations on surprising results play a crucial role in the alchemy of discovery.
The ecosystem of discovery: Fostering an environment conducive to innovation
There are other ingredients that contribute to the recipe for scientific success:
Creativity: The ability to generate new perspectives, concepts, questions, or solutions, and the willingness to explore existing ideas under a new light.
Flexibility: The courage to venture into unknown territories without fear of failure, thus increasing the odds of serendipitous encounters.
But no discovery flourishes in isolation. At InPP, the strong team spirit and culture of collaboration transcend departmental boundaries. Maria Miguel's discovery is a testament to this synergy, as she herself acknowledges: “My colleagues opened doors so that I could do my research.”
To foster innovation, organizations need to cultivate an environment that stimulates open discussions and connects people from diverse areas of knowledge and life experiences, without judgment; that encourages curiosity and receptiveness to new experiences; and that promotes a relentless pursuit of improving scientific knowledge, the fertile ground where serendipity can germinate.
Sowing the future: The impact of a discovery and the path of research
Although Maria Miguel is about to embark on a new journey, driven by a prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie doctoral fellowship - a program that supports the career of researchers and promotes excellence and innovation in research - her legacy at InPP is already flourishing. Her innovative discovery is opening new and promising doors for future research in the area of crop protection, demonstrating how, at times, it is in the unexpected that the potential to transform our world lies.
Beyond strategy: The secret ingredient of innovation
On the road to success, organizations define strategies, plan every step and invest in crucial resources such as selling services and products, applying for projects, drawing up solid business plans and protecting intellectual property. However, there is an element that is often overlooked, but which is fundamental to the flourishing of innovation: serendipity. But what exactly is this mysterious force and why is it so vital to the advancement of agriculture and so many other areas?
When chance opens doors: The power of unplanned discovery
Serendipity is the art of finding something valuable when you're looking for something else. It's the unintentional discoveries that arise from unexpected situations. Throughout history, some of the most transformative innovations have not been the result of a rigorous plan, but rather a chance encounter with the unknown. While deliberate research and methodical experimentation are pillars of scientific and technological progress, openness to the unexpected proves to be a powerful catalyst. When researchers cultivate this openness, they often stumble upon revelations that have the potential to revolutionize entire industries, transform technologies and expand our understanding of the world around us.
A close look at “error”: The genesis of an innovative biofungicide
Today, we unveil the surprising and inspiring story of Maria Miguel, a talented researcher from InPP's New Biopesticides Department, whose acumen turned a chance event into a priceless discovery: a broad-spectrum biofungicide capable of combating the Botrytis cinerea, the relentless fungus responsible for the devastating gray rot disease in tomato plants. This pathology represents one of the biggest phytosanitary challenges in tomato cultivation, especially when grown in greenhouses, causing significant losses to producers if it is not controlled in good time.
From discard to discovery: The insight of a researcher
The journey of this discovery began in a setting familiar to any researcher: the observation of Petri dishes, used to grow cultures of cells or microorganisms. On Maria Miguel's plates, colonies of the fungus Botrytis cinerea were growing, intentionally introduced there for study. However, something else caught her eye: one of the plates was contaminated by mold, and curiously, a clear area surrounded this intruder. Instead of discarding the plate and dismissing it as mere contamination, Maria Miguel decided to investigate the reason behind the clear area. Her curiosity revealed that the mold had a surprising ability to prevent the growth of Botrytis cinerea in its vicinity.
“Sometimes we look at something and think it's a mistake. The truth is that in a failure there can be something good,” the researcher shares. The excitement and enthusiasm of a researcher realizing that what at first glance seemed like an obstacle, a negative result, could actually be an opportunity, is contagious. For Maria Miguel, this “mistake” turned into a serendipitous discovery with enormous potential.
Maria Miguel, a researcher at InPP's New Biopesticides Department, who turned an unexpected event into a discovery that changed the course of her work: a broad-spectrum biofungicide to combat gray rot in tomato plants.
Beyond chance: The active ingredients of scientific discovery
As the history of this biofungicide shows, the world of science is full of examples of discoveries that came out of the blue. One of the most famous cases is Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin in 1928. While observing Petri dishes, Fleming noticed that a mold was producing a substance that eliminated bacteria Staphylococcus aureus around him. He identified the mold as Penicillium notatum and named his revolutionary antibiotic penicillin. Penicillin ended up becoming an extremely important medicine for fighting infections.
However, chance is not the only protagonist of these important revelations. “Sometimes we have to follow our intuition and be able to prove ourselves right or wrong,” explains Maria Miguel. In addition to intuition, a generous dose of curiosity, an open mind to accept unexpected results, solid scientific knowledge and the ability to see and move on to further research into surprising results play a crucial role in the alchemy of discovery.
The discovery ecosystem: Fostering an environment conducive to innovation
There are other ingredients that contribute to the recipe for scientific success:
Creativity: The ability to generate new perspectives, concepts, questions or solutions, and the willingness to explore existing ideas in a new light.
Flexibility: The courage to venture into unknown territory without the fear of failure, thus increasing the chances of serendipitous encounters.
But no discovery flourishes in isolation. At InPP, the strong team spirit and culture of collaboration transcend departmental boundaries. The case of Maria Miguel's discovery is testimony to this synergy, as she herself acknowledges: “My colleagues opened doors so that I could do my research”.
To foster innovation, organizations need to cultivate an environment that encourages open discussions and connects people from different areas of knowledge and life experiences, without judgment; that encourages curiosity and receptiveness to new experiences; and that promotes an incessant quest to improve scientific knowledge, the fertile ground where serendipity can germinate.
Sowing the future: The impact of a discovery and the path of research
Although Maria Miguel is about to embark on a new journey, boosted by a prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie PhD scholarship - a program that supports the careers of researchers and promotes excellence and innovation in research - her legacy at InPP is already flourishing. Her groundbreaking discovery is opening promising new doors for future research in the field of crop protection, demonstrating how sometimes it is in the unexpected that the potential to transform our world lies.
InnovPlantProtect (InPP) celebrated during the 38th Ovibeja two partnership protocols, with the Centro Operativo e de Tecnologia de Regadio (COTR) and with the Portugal Nuts - Dried Fruit Promotion Association.
Within the scope of the partnership with COTR, InPP proposes to develop, together with the competence center for national irrigation and its members, strategies to solve the challenges posed to agricultural production by pests and diseases, as well as providing services to the organization's member partners. The COTR, for its part, is willing to provide support in mapping the main challenges facing its members in terms of pests and diseases, and to make them aware of the InPP and its capabilities.
Gonçalo Morais Tristão, chairman of the board of COTR, and Pedro Fevereiro, executive director of InPP
The protocol with Portugal Nuts aims to collaborate on projects on the challenges facing nuts, including the development of new sustainable products and analytical and digital services for crop protection against pests and diseases, particularly for nut crops. Portugal Nuts, for its part, aims to put its members in touch with the InPP, introduce them to the services provided by CoLAB and support the InPP in identifying producers who meet the conditions for carrying out pilot projects and field trials.
João Roseiro, member of the board of Portugal Nuts, representing SLM Partners, and Pedro Fevereiro, executive director of InPP
The collaborative laboratory (CoLAB) InnovPlantProtect (InPP) was present at the Ovibeja 2022, no stand 64 of Institutional Pavilion, The event will take place at the Manuel de Castro e Brito Fair and Exhibition Park, in Beja, between April 21 and 25, 2022.
At the stand, it was possible to find out more about InPP's activity in the field of developing bio-inspired solutions for protecting crops against pests and diseases, including specific services and products that CoLAB is already prepared to offer to different sectors.
Part of the 33-strong team of researchers was on site throughout the five days of the fair to demonstrate InPP's various capabilities to visitors.
The Department of New Biopesticides, for example, showed biological control agents (BCA) - fungi and bacteria in Petri dishes - as well as healthy rice plants infected with the fungus Magnaportheoryzae, which causes rice pyriculariosis, and some BCA which inhibit the M. oryzae. The Department of Formulations and Process Development took samples demonstrating the encapsulation of active biocontrol agents (pre- and post-processing), allowing visitors to produce alginate “balls” (small capsules) with their own hands.
Researchers from the Department of Data Management and Risk Analysis talked about microbiome analysis and the development of risk models, and demonstrated the dashboard of a weather calculator developed at InPP. In terms of Protection of Specific Crops, It was also possible to learn more about the laboratory services we offer, namely molecular identification and diagnosis, as well as how biocontrol tests work. in vitro, and monitor the work carried out on the wheat disease yellow rust, among many others.
Videos, photos and presentations were always available on a monitor, so that visitors could virtually “enter” our house, laboratories, fieldwork, events and other initiatives, as well as chat with the team present to welcome them.
Within the Saturday, April 23rd at 3pm, In the ACOS Auditorium, the InPP organized a colloquium on the subject of “Protecting crops to feed the world: from soil microorganisms to pest and disease monitoring techniques”.
The executive director of InPP took part in this conference, Pedro February, who presented CoLAB, iLaria Marengo, director of the Monitoring and Diagnostics department, who spoke about remote sensing applied to crop protection, and Ricardo Ramiro, director of the Data Management and Risk Analysis department, who addressed the topic of the soil microbiome.
Pedro Fevereiro also took part in the seminar ACOS - The Southern Farmers' Association organized on the 23rd at 10:30 a.m., entitled “How to feed the planet?”, the theme of Ovibeja 2022, at the ACOS Auditorium, and at the colloquium “The European Green Agenda. Agricultural sustainability and food sovereignty”, which took place at the Friday, April 22nd at 4pm, at the Expobeja Auditorium.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
“Consultório das Plantas” was the name of the activity aimed at the youngest that InPP held on Saturday 23rd, at around 4pm, as part of the programming of the Alentejo Agricultural and Agri-Food Biotechnology Center (Centro de Biotecnologia Agricola e Agro-Alimentar do Alentejo) (CEBAL) at the 38th Ovibeja.
To demonstrate the importance of treating diseased plants with environmentally sustainable solutions, InPP researcher Tânia Pinto took samples of olive trees infected with peacock's eye, a disease caused by the fungus Spilocaea oleaginea, and Petri dishes with fungi, to explain the importance of analyzing the pathogen in search of a solution.
Dr. Tânia sprayed the diseased sample with a “biomedicine” spray and showed examples of healthy olive trees so that the young visitors could see the difference.
Within the sunday late morning, The executive director of InPP, Pedro Fevereiro, will be with CEBAL for an informal chat with visitors.
PARTNERSHIP PROTOCOLS
At Ovibeja, InPP signed two partnership protocols with COTR - Centro Operativo e de Tecnologia de Regadio and Portugal Nuts - Associação Promoção Frutos Secos, with a view to collaborating in the development of solutions to protect crops against pests and diseases. Read more.
Today, three classes from Alcáçova Primary School planted nearly two dozen trees next to the Amoreira Aqueduct in Elvas, in an initiative that brought together the school, the InnovPlantProtect sustainability team, the Elven municipality and Bolschare.
It was with tiny hands and feet, but a lot of gumption and willpower, that around 50 students from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th years of school from the Alcáçova Primary School, In Elvas, they took shovels, hoes, watering cans, buckets and 19 one-meter-high almond trees to plant them in the area around the so-called “Amoreira arches” in Rossio de São Francisco, next to the historic Elven aqueduct.
They had the help of the teachers, the technicians from SOF Jardins and the researchers from the sustainability team of the InnovPlantProtect (InPP), InPP Greeners, which launched this action, Cláudia Almeida Silva, Cátia Patrício, Cristina Azevedo e Joana Castro. And the weather: after initially being planned to mark World Tree Day 2022, on March 21, the activity took place this afternoon, April 6, with the sun shining.
The area where the planting took place belongs to the Elvas City Council (CME) and the almond trees were donated by Bolschare. With this action, InPP Greeners sought to make elementary school students aware of the importance of trees for life. The almond trees were chosen because not only are they part of the work being carried out by InPP, but they are also of great economic interest to the region and are very beautiful landscape trees.
The CME immediately embraced this initiative “for obvious reasons”, says Councillor Hermenegildo Rodrigues, who was on the ground today accompanying the activities. “As decision-makers, we have to value changes in habits and attitudes when it comes to the ecological footprint and, above all, involve those who will be the future decision-makers,” said the councillor.
Simão, aged 7, was one of those who tried his hand at eating an almond - there are already mature almond trees there; he was surprised when InPP department director and Greeners member Cristina Azevedo showed the children the drupe's epicarp, with its characteristic green color. For Simão, “if there weren't trees, the world wouldn't have trees”, which are also very important “because they give us apples and pears”.
This was “a very rich initiative, because the students need this kind of activity, which involves them, associates them with the city and gives them the ‘power to do’”, observed Ana Teresa Babinha, a 2nd grade teacher. “And there was an opportunity for everyone to do it, to try their hand at planting,” said the teacher, who praised the action for getting the children to actually “get their hands dirty”.
Ana Teresa Babinha also highlighted the fact that the students will now be responsible for looking after these almond trees, in a system yet to be defined by the school. What's more, it's an activity “that will come to life in the classroom”, because it's an opportunity to approach the topic of the importance of trees in a new way in the context of formal learning.
The InPP Greeners are InnovPlantProtect's (InPP) sustainability team, created at the end of 2021 to share knowledge and good practices that lead to the creation of more sustainable laboratories and institutions, as well as promoting the adoption of more sustainable behaviors by all citizens. Follow them on Twitter at @InPPGreeners or contact them by email at inpp.greeners@iplantprotect.pt.
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