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Genomlysning SLU Nätverk växtskydd 2026
SLU Nätverk växtskydd
Vi utforskar hur man kan skydda grödor och träd från sjukdomar, skadedjur, väderskador, ogräs och invasiva arter, samt hur man skapar hälsosamma miljöer för växter. Nätverket kopplar samman SLU-forskare och externa aktörer och är en plattform för att få ut den senaste forskningen om växtskydd i samhället.
SLU är ledande inom växtskyddsområdet och dominerar svensk forskning, samverkan och utbildning med mer än 200 forskare. Det är cirka 10 % av alla forskare vid SLU. Växtskyddsforskare samverkar aktivt med intressenter inom jord-, trädgårds- och skogsbruk.
Växtskydd handlar om att skydda växter från sjukdomar, skadedjur, väder, ogräs och invasiva arter. Ämnesområdet har stor ekonomisk betydelse för jord-, trädgårds- och skogsbrukssektorerna. Växtskydd omfattar växthälsa och forskning om åtgärder som bekämpar och hindrar skadegörare från attspridas samt forskning om ekosystemtjänster. Nätverket är en fortsättning på den tidigare Plattform växtskydd.
Du kan gå med om du forskar inom växtskydd eller växthälsa eller om du är intresserad av växtskyddsfrågor och växtskyddsforskningen på SLU.
När du är med i nätverket blir du inbjuden till seminarier och workshops och får vårt nyhetsbrev som skickas ut 2–4 gånger per år.
Genom kontakt med er som är rådgivare, odlare, industri, myndigheter och intresseorganisationer vill vi hålla oss uppdaterade om vilken forskning som behövs och vilka frågor som är viktigast för er.
Som forskare på SLU blir du dessutom uppskriven på en e-postlista där du håller koll på allt som händer inom växtskydd på SLU och som du också själv kan använda för att dela med dig av information.
Kontakter
· Katja Fedrowitz, koordinator för SLU Nätverk växtskydd
· Anneli Adler, coordinator för SLU Nätverk växtförädling och avel
Att samla SLU-forskare inom ett forskningsområde i nätverk har visat sig vara ett effektivt sätt att stärka SLU:s profil och förbättra dialogen mellan intressenter och forskare.
Forskningen kring växtskydd och växtförädling vid SLU är spridd på SLU:s olika campus. Det gör att det blir en utmaning att koppla ihop forskarna för att skapa synergier och möjliggöra enkel tillgång till växtskydds- eller förädlingsforskning vid SLU.
– Det fakultetsövergripandende nätverkt SLU Nätverk växtskydd startades 2014 och har sedan dess blivit en viktig kontaktyta för forskare verksamma i de här områdena, säger Katja Fedrowitz, som är koordinator för SLU Nätverk växtskydd och samordnade SLU Nätverk växtförädling och avel fram tills förra året.
Instruktion för SLU Nätverk växtskydd
Syfte
SLU Nätverk växtskydd syftar till att:
öka interaktionen mellan forskning, utbildning och miljöanalys tillämpa ett tvärvetenskapligt arbetssätt och
dra nytta av och bygga på potentialen som utgörs av de många forskare som arbetar med växtskydd vid SLU:s olika delar.
SLU Nätverk växtskydd är en fortsättning på rektors strategiska satsning på fakultetsgemensamma ämnesområden som inrättades i januari 2014 (SLU.ua.2013.1.1.1-5722). Fakulteterna LTV, NI och S samarbetar för att kraftsamla forskning och undervisning om växtskydd vid SLU för ett ökat genomslag såväl vetenskapligt som samhälleligt.
Organisation och styrning
SLU Nätverk växtskydd leds av en styrande kommitte bestående av två ledamöter var från NI-, LTV- och S-fakulteterna, som tillsammans ska representera en bredd inom växtskydd. Ledamöterna utses av dekanen vid NI-fakultet, efter förslag från respektive fakultet, för en mandatperiod på tre år från och med 1 januari 2021.
Ordförandeposten innehas av ledamot från NI-fakulteten. Kommitten utser inom sig vice ordförande.
Kommitten ska utse koordinator finansierad av SLU Nätverk växtskydds medel, vars arbetsuppgifter är att initiera och samordna aktiviteter eller projekt inom växtskyddsforskning, -utbildning och -samverkan vid SLU. Nära samarbete med
forskningskoordinatorerna vid Grants Office förväntas. Prefekten vid den institution där koordinatorn är placerad har arbetsgivaransvar.
Avstämning om SLU Nätverk växtskydds verksamhet sker årsvis i form av en rapport för det gångna året samt en verksarnhetsplan ställda till NJ-fakultetens dekan senast 1 december 2021 och 2022. I slutet av 2023 ska kommitten presentera en större genomlysning som ska utgöra grund för beslut om eventuell fortsättning av nätverket.
Verksamhet
SLU Nätverk växtskydds verksamhet ska:
1. verka för en intern samordning av SLU:s resurser och insatser inom området växtskydd för grundutbildning, infrastruktur och samverkan,
2. verka för att kraftfullt stärka SLU:s profil inom området växtskydd gentemot omvärlden,
3. sprida ny kunskap om växtskydd genom populärvetenskapliga artiklar,
4. driva en digital kontaktyta på SLU:s webb för att underlätta samverkan och kommunikation
5. en gång om året anordna en workshop eller ett symposium för SLU:s forskare inom växtskyddsområdet.
Årsrapporter
SLU Plant Protection Network, 2025
Steering committee
The steering committee consisted of the following members during 2025:
• Anneli Lundkvist, NJ-faculty (chair)
• Jiasui Zhan, NJ-faculty (January-June 2025)
• Ola Lundin, NJ- faculty (August-December 2025)
• Malin Elfstrand, S- faculty
• Michelle Cleary, S- faculty
• Laura Grenville-Briggs Didymus, LTV- faculty (vice chair)
• Paul Becher, LTV- faculty
Katja Fedrowitz was the coordinator for the network (20% of full-time). The
steering committee met three times during the year (10 March, 26 June, 28
November). Activities for 2025 were planned with the given aim and requirements
from the Deans in mind.
Communication and better visibility of SLU’s plant
protection research inside and outside SLU
An external resource, Cajsa Lithell, was employed for 20 % to assist the
coordinator with communication. To increase visibility of SLU’s plant protection
research outside SLU we worked with newsletters, visibility at conferences,
collaborations, web pages and LinkedIn. To increase visibility of SLU’s plant
protection research inside SLU we worked with newsletters for staff, web pages
and LinkedIn.
The main activity for this year was the organisation of the Swedish Plant Protection
conference (Nationella växtskyddskonferensen), 12-13 November at SLU Alnarp
(https://www.slu.se/vaxtskydd25). The theme was "Skog, trädgård och jordbruk i
ett föränderligt klimat - nytänkande för en hållbar framtid”. A good opportunity to
connect plant protection researchers in Alnarp with visitors from the other SLUcampuses,
other universities and stakeholders. At one poster session, SLU centres
involved in plant protection were showcased. Nearly 180 people participated in the
conference, of which 66 were researchers from SLU. Other participants were from
Jordbruksverket (12), Skogsstyrelsen (4) and other authorities,
Hushållningssällskapet (10), Skogforsk (4), SVA (4), Sveaskog (4), other
SLU Plant Protection Network, 2025
2/5
universities as well as smaller companies and private persons. Ten students from
the BSc course Växtproduktion – ogräs och skadegörare (BI1352) participated as
well. Six volunteers (students from campus Alnarp) helped with practical things
during the conference.
The organization committee consisted of Katja Fedrowitz, Anneli Lundkvist, Björn
Andersson (https://internt.slu.se/en/cv-originals/bjorn-andersson/) and Cajsa
Lithell. The conference was co-financed by the SLU Plant Protection Network, the
SLU Forest Damage Centre, the NJ Faculty, the LTV Faculty and SLU Partnership
Alnarp. The conference book of abstracts is published here: https://www.slu.se/omslu/
organisation/centrumbildningar/slu-natverk-vaxtskydd/nationellavaxtskyddskonferensen-
2025/konferensbok/. Find the program of the conference
attached to this report.
Examples of other collaboration activities
• The chair and the coordinator have been in contact with the Plant
Protection Director of the Swedish Board of Agriculture, as well as with
other people at the Swedish Board of Agriculture.
• The chair and the coordinator took contact to the SLU Future One Health
platform to develop collaborative activities in future. The network was
presented by Anneli Lundkvist and Katja Fedrowitz at a meeting with the
platform’s leadership group on 15 September. An article about the network
was published on SLU One Health web page (https://www.slu.se/en/aboutslu/
organisation/future-platforms/slu-future-one-health/one-healthupdates/
interviews/researchers/anneli-lundkvist-plant-protectionnetwork/.)
• Ola Lundin and Paul Becher (deputy) represent SLU on the Swedish Plant
Protection Council (Växtskyddsrådet), which has been established under a
governmental mandate to the Swedish Board of Agriculture to support
forward planning on the needs, availability, and sustainability of plant
protection methods for Swedish agriculture. For more information, see:
https://jordbruksverket.se/vaxter/odling/vaxtskydd/vaxtskyddsradet-ochvaxtskyddsstrategin/
vaxtskyddsradet.
Events in 2025
The SLU Plant Protection Network was presented at:
• A webinar with the Swedish Society for Plant Pathology, 15 January, by
Laura Grenville-Briggs Didymus.
• The 14th Conference of the European Foundation for Plant Pathology, 5
June, by Laura Greenville-Briggs Didymus.
• The Swedish Plant Protection Conference (Nationella
Växtskyddskonferensen), 12-13 November 2025 (see above).
SLU Plant Protection Network, 2025
3/5
European Research Alliance: Towards chemical pesticide
free agriculture
• Information on the alliance is available at the network’s webpage since
autumn 2024.
• Research connected to the initiative were presented at the Swedish Plant
Protection Conference
Newsletters
Newsletters were sent out in March, July and October, and one will be sent out in
December. The newsletter list contains over 700 internal and external receivers.
The external receivers come from Jordbruksverket, Skogsstyrelsen and other
authorities, Hushållningssällskapet, LRF, Lantmännen, other universities as well as
smaller companies and private persons.
E-mail group
The E-mail group, plantprotection@slu.se, is used by SLU’s researchers to
disseminate information related to plant protection. The SLU internal email group
contains ca 230 researchers, students, and other interested in plant protection and
forest damage. Everyone working at SLU can join the group. The group is used
regularly to spread information between SLU researchers.
Printed material
Short summaries of a range of different research projects within plant protection at
SLU were compiled and distributed at the 14th Conference of the European
Foundation for Plant Pathology and the Swedish Plant Protection Conference.
Website
During spring 2025 the network’s web (www.slu.se/plantprotectionnetwork) was
created in SLU’s new system Optimizely. The website contains information on
plant protection activities at SLU, including news, events, publications and contact
information to other relevant centres and subject experts. It aims to be an important
channel for SLU's plant protection research community and be an umbrella page,
containing links to all relevant parts of relevant research at SLU. The website is
available in both English and Swedish.
The network was highlighted in SLU:s news in autumn with an article about the
Swedish Plant Protection conference: Hållbara lösningar i fokus på Nationella
växtskyddskonferensen | slu.se
Publication list
An update of the publication list for plant protection publications from SLU has
SLU Plant Protection Network, 2025
4/5
been done manually for 2025. The list is on the top for SLU:s program lists and
shows 1 988 publications.
How well visited is the web page?
Since SLU switched the old system EpiServer to Optimizely, we are missing some
data. The statistics below are from 1 August to 24 November and can therefore
unfortunately not be compared to earlier years. In addition, the statistic tool Visit
that SLU uses have been working on and off. Therefore, no numbers are presented
this year. But in general, the Contact a researcher page was most visited, followed
by the start page. Other well visited pages are About us, the Newsletter page and
Facts about plant damage. In addition, the page for the National Plant Protection
Conference was extremely well visited. Visitors from SLU found the page from for
example the Swedish National Plant Protection Conference, SLU Forest Damage
Centre, SLU Risk Assessment of Plant Pests and from our newsletter. External
visitors found the page mostly from Google and Bing. About half of the visits are
from SLU and the other half external. About 90% of the traffic is from computers
and 10% from mobile phones. The scientific article feed on the web that shows all
of SLU’s scientific articles on plant protection since 2014 is still working well and
shows the latest plant protection research at SLU.
Social Media
The LinkedIn account for the SLU Plant Protection Network was started in
November 2023 and has 2 281 followers (24 November 2025), most from Malmö,
Uppsala, Stockholm and Umeå, but also from abroad (mostly from Ethiopia, India,
Denmark and Pakistan). The posts often reach ca 4,000 accounts, mostly people
working in higher education, research services, biotechnology research, farming,
government administration, education administration programs, horticulture, food
and beverage manufacturing, agriculture, construction, mining machinery
manufacturing, environmental services and non-profit organizations. We post in
English and post most things from the SLU Plant Protection Network’s news
column. We also repost news, mostly from other SLU LinkedIn accounts.
X (Twitter)
The account @PlantSLU was started in August 2021 and we stopped using it at the
end of 2024. This was a decision made from the fact that X has lost millions of
users in Europe since Elon Musk bought the platform. At our account the activity
dwindled down to almost nothing. Instead, the research community and people
interested in research seem to mostly have migrated to Bluesky and Threads.
Today, we focus on LinkedIn instead.
SLU Plant Protection Network, 2025
5/5
Budget result for 2025
Budget result for 2025
Coordinator, 20% (*1,2,3,4,5) 327 500 kr
Communicator 20% (*2,3,4,5) 228 800 kr
Swedish Plant Protection Conference (*1,5) 200 000 kr
Best poster prize, symposium 2024 (*1,2) 10 000 kr
Unused money (*2, 3, 5) 23 340 kr
Total 789 640 kr
Budget comments
• Numbers in brackets indicate which of the aims & requirements were
supported by the respective activity.
• The budget result is only indicative at this stage.
• The total budget/year is 600 000 SEK. There was 189 640 SEK money left
over from 2024.
* The network should
1) work for an internal coordination of SLU's resources and efforts in the field of plant protection for
undergraduate education, infrastructure and collaboration,
2) work to strongly strengthen SLU's profile in the field of plant protection towards the outside world,
3) disseminate new knowledge about plant protection through popular science articles
4) operate a digital contact area on SLU's website to facilitate collaboration and communication,
5) once a year, organize a workshop or a symposium for SLU's researchers in the field of plant
protection.
* Instruktion för SLU Nätverk växtskydd. Beslut Dekanen 2020-12-07. Fakulteten
för naturresurser och jordbruksvetenskap, SLU. SLU ID: SLU.ua.2020. 1.1.1-4476.
2024
Communication and better visibility of SLU’s plant protection research inside and outside SLU
An external resource, Cajsa Lithell, was employed for 15-20 % to assist the coordinator with communication. To increase visibility of SLU’s plant protection research outside SLU we worked with newsletters, visibility at conferences, collaborations, web pages, LinkedIn and X (Twitter). To increase visibility of SLU’s plant protection research inside SLU we worked with newsletters for staff, a seminar series, a networking symposium, web pages, LinkedIn and X.
Examples of collaboration activities
• The coordinator together with the chair and communicator organised a networking symposium in collaboration with the SLU Forest Damage Centre and Skogforsk; see below.
• There have been collaborative activities between the network and the SLU Forest Damage Centre, SITES, the SLU Centre for Organic Food & Farming (Epok) and the SLU Grants Office; see below.
• The chair and the coordinator stay in contact with the Plant Protection Director of the Swedish Board of Agriculture, as well as with other people at the Swedish Board of Agriculture.
SLU Plant Protection Network www.slu.se/plantprotectionnetwork
• The chair, vice chair, and members of the steering group are part of a group lobbying for a plant health centre; see below.
Events in 2024
Lunch seminars
• 5 February: Introduction to SITES for plant protection researchers. Blaize Denfeld, Deputy Director for the Swedish Infrastructure for Ecosystem Science (SITES) program, SLU Uppsala. 5 participants
• 11 March: Plant protection research at the SLU Centre for Organic Food & Farming (Epok), SLU Uppsala & SLU Alnarp. Johanna Spångberg, Director of the SLU Centre for Organic Food & Farming (Epok), Anna Karin Rosberg, Department of Biosystems and Technology at SLU Alnarp, Ola Lundin, Department of Ecology at SLU Uppsala. 21 participants
Webinars and a symposium
• 22 March: Swedish horticulture and plant protection. Stakeholder event on horticulture. Collaboration with Hushållningssällskapet/HIR Skåne, LRF trädgård and Kiviks musteri. 23 participants
• 15 April: Navigating the Swedish funding landscape, with a special focus on plant protection research. Research coordinators Ulf Westerlund and Caroline Grabbe, SLU Grants Office. 27 participants
• 2-3 October. Networking symposium. Cooperation with the SLU Forest Damage Centre and Skogforsk. SLU Umeå and visit to Skogforsk at Sävar. 70 participants
Joint Action Plant Health
• The chair and vice-chair of the steering committee are included in the group appointed by the Dean of the NJ-faculty, working with Joint Action Plant Health.
• Information on the initiative is available at the networks webpage.
• The initiative has been presented orally during the networking symposium.
European Research Alliance: Towards chemical pesticide free agriculture
• Information on the alliance is available at the networks webpage since autumn 2024.
• The initiative has been presented orally during the networking symposium.
Newsletters
Newsletters were sent out in February, April, June and October, and one will be sent out in December. The SLU internal email group now contains ca 260 people. The newsletter list contains ca 664 internal and external receivers. The external receivers come from Hushållningssällskap, Jordbruksverket, Skogsstyrelsen and other authorities, LRF, Lantmännen, other universities as well as smaller companies and private persons.
E-mail group
The E-mail group, plantprotection@slu.se, is used by SLU’s researchers to disseminate information related to plant protection. Everyone working at SLU can join the group. The group is used regularly to spread information between SLU researchers.
Printed material
The illustration showing the different areas of plant protection and forest health research at SLU was updated in autumn 2024, and new postcards and posters were printed and distributed at the networking symposium.
Website
The network’s web (www.slu.se/plantprotectionnetwork) contains information on plant protection activities at SLU, including news, knowledge bank entries, events, publications and contact information to other relevant centres and subject experts. It aims to be an important channel for SLU's plant protection research community and be an umbrella page, containing links to all relevant parts of relevant research at SLU. The website is available in both English and Swedish.
The network was highlighted in SLU:s news in autumn with an article about the Networking symposium.
Publication list
An update of the publication list for plant protection publications from SLU has been done manually for 2022. A reminder has been sent to plant protection researchers to update new publications with the plant protection tag.
How well visited is the web page?
Available statistics from January 2024 to 8 November 2024 show that we had 880 visitors on the main page (1,063 visitors during 2023). Visitors from SLU found the page from for example the Department of Crop Protection, Plant protection research at EPOK, from SLU’s search function, from the newsletter and the SLU Forest Damage Centre. External visitors found the page mostly from Google and Bing. “About us” 74 visitors (previously 114), “Plant protection research in the
media” 54 visitors (previously 15), “Plant protection material” 80 visitors (previously 99), “Contact a researcher” 80 visitors (previously 101), “Join the network” 53 visitors (previously 43), “Newsletter” 166 visitors (previously 162), “Knowledge bank” 56 visitors (previously 94), “Joint Action Plant Health” 156 visitors. (previously 104) and the page “European Research Alliance: Towards chemical pesticide free agriculture” created 22 October has had 14 visits since then.
About half of the visits are from SLU and the other half external. About 80% of the traffic is from computers and 20% from mobile phones. We had less visits to the start page this year. It is hard to speculate why this is. Maybe a link to the network high up in the SLU structure has been taken down, or been moved downwards. In 2025, when SLU’s new web is launched, we will take care to do search optimization and try to promote this network at SLU.
The scientific article feed on the web that shows all of SLU’s scientific articles on plant protection since 2014 is still working well and shows the latest plant protection research at SLU.
Social Media
LinkedIn
The LinkedIn account for the SLU Plant Protection Network was started in November 2023 and has 1,065 followers (14 November 2024), most from Uppsala, Malmö, Stockholm and Umeå, but also from abroad. The posts often reach ca 4,000 accounts, mostly people working in education, research, information technology and business development. We post in English and post most things from the SLU Plant Protection Network’s news column. We also repost news, mostly from other SLU LinkedIn accounts.
X (Twitter)
The account @PlantSLU was started in August 2021 and has 467 (7 November 2024) followers, a 13% increase since last year. SLU researchers in plant protection have been invited to tag the account to be retweeted and to provide information that the network can tweet if they do not have their own accounts. We mostly repost SLU plant protection researcher’s posts but have also made our own posts. During 2024, we have spent more time on LinkedIn that X, as more and more researchers stop using X and move to other platforms, mostly LinkedIn.
2023
Communication and better visibility of SLU’s plant protection research inside and outside SLU
An external resource, Cajsa Lithell, was employed for 15% to assist the coordinator with communication. To increase visibility of SLU’s plant protection research outside SLU we worked with newsletters, visibility at conferences, collaborations, web pages, and Twitter. To increase visibility of SLU’s plant protection research inside SLU we worked with newsletters for staff, a seminar series, a networking symposium, web pages and X (Twitter).
Examples of collaboration activities
• The chair, communicator and coordinator have organised a networking symposium where all centres at SLU connected to plant protection were invited to present themselves; see below.
• The chair and the coordinator stay in contact with the Plant Protection Director of the Swedish Board of Agriculture, as well as with other people at the Swedish Board of Agriculture, which resulted in a common webinar; see below.
SLU Plant Protection Network www.slu.se/plantprotectionnetwork
• There have been collaborative activities between the network and the SLU Forest Damage Centre, SLU Future Food, SLU Global, the SLU Breeding Network and the SLU Centre for Biological Control; see below.
• The chair, vice chair, and members of the steering group are part of a group lobbying for a plant health centre; see below.
• SLU Grants Office was invited to one of the steering group meetings.
Events in 2023
Conference, webinar and symposia
• 12 May (International Day of Plant Health). Webinarium: Svensk växthälsa - en förutsättning för ökad produktion. Cooperation with SLU Future Food and the Swedish Board of Agriculture. 76 participants
• 23-24 May. Conference: Crop Protection futures in agriculture. Cooperation with SLU Future Food. SLU Uppsala. About 140 participants
• 5 September. Symposium dedicated to millets. Cooperation with SLU Global and the SLU Breeding Network. SLU Alnarp. About 100 participants
• 9-10 October. Networking symposium. Cooperation with the SLU Forest Damage Centre. SLU Alnarp. About 80 participants
Lunch seminar series
There have been 11–18 participants in each seminar.
• 30 January: Introduction to the Biotron in Alnarp. Ramesh Vetukuri, Department of Plant Breeding, SLU Alnarp. 15 participants
• 20 March: Plant Health Joint Action (Kraftsamling växthälsa). Riccardo Bommarco, Department of Ecology, SLU Uppsala. 18 participants
• 8 May: Damage-activated proteolysis during plant wound response and its potential application to improve pesticide selectivity. Simon Stael, Department of Molecular Sciences, SLU Uppsala. 11 participants
• 11 September: Fighting plant disease - resilience and resistance. Erik Andreasson, Department of Plant Protection Biology & Velemir Ninkovic, Department of Ecology, SLU Alnarp & SLU Uppsala. 18 participants
• 13 November: Effects of tillage on weed regulation by carabid beetles, Eirini Lamprini Daouti, Department of Crop Production Ecology, SLU Uppsala. 12 participants. Cooperation with the SLU Centre for Biological Control
Joint Action Plant Health
• In a letter to the government, SLU and the Swedish Board of Agriculture have proposed an initiative on plant health based on a mandate from the government. The initiative, called Joint Action Plant Health, will deliver
need-based knowledge, competence, and infrastructure to secure plant health in Swedish agricultural and horticultural production.
• The Dean of the NJ faculty has appointed a group that will work further with Joint Action Plant Health. The chair of this group is Magnus Karlsson. Other members include Riccardo Bommarco, Laura Grenville-Briggs Didymus, Anneli Lundkvist, and Erik Andreasson.
• The communicator of the network translated the proposal into English and made information on the initiative available at the networks webpage.
• There was a seminar organised about the initiative (lunch seminar 20 March, see above)
• The initiative has been presented by posters or orally during different events organised by the network
Calls
A call for researchers/others at SLU for attending conferences within the area of plant protection/plant health during 2023/24 was open between June and October 2023. 11 persons were granted money. More info on the call to attend conferences in plant protection.
Newsletters
Newsletters were sent out in March, June and October, and one will be sent out in December. One additional newsletter on special events was sent out in April. The SLU internal email group now contains ca 240 people. The newsletter list contains ca 615 internal and external receivers.
E-mail group
The E-mail group, plantprotection@slu.se, is used by SLU’s researchers to disseminate information related to plant protection. Everyone working at SLU can join the group. The group is used regularly to spread information between SLU researchers.
Printed material
Postcards were printed to increase the visibility on and knowledge about the network using the illustration that has been developed in 2021 to showcase the different areas of plant protection research at SLU. The postcards were distributed at different events such as the conference in April, an EU meeting in May that the SLU Forest Damage Centre organized, the millet symposium and the networking symposium.
Web page
The network’s web contains information on plant protection activities at SLU, including news, knowledge bank entries, events, publications and contact information to other relevant centres and subject experts. It aims to be an important channel for SLU's plant protection research community and be an umbrella page, containing links to all relevant parts of relevant research at SLU.
The network was highlighted twice on Vårt SLU at the Staff page – in spring with an article about the SLU Plant Protection Network and the SLU Breeding Network, and in autumn with an article about the Networking symposium.
Publication list
An update of the publication list for plant protection publications from SLU has been done manually for 2021-2022. A reminder has been sent to plant protection researchers to update new publications with the plant protection tag.
How well visited is the web page?
Available statistics from January 2023 to 7 November 2023 show that we had1063 visitors on the main page (263 visitors during 2022). Visitors from SLU found the page from for example the Department of Crop Protection, from SLU’s page “Växter - mat, foder och prydnad”, from SLU’s search function, from the Newsletter and the SLU Forest Damage Centre and from the Swedish Plant Protection Conference. External visitors found the page from Google, Bing, SLU Library and the SLU staff web. Statistics from other pages: “About us” 114 visitors (previously 38), “Plant protection research in the media” 4 visitors (previously 15), “Plant protection material” 99 visitors (previously 43), “Contact a researcher” 101 visitors (previously 26), “Join the network” 43 visitors (previously 16), “Newsletter” 162 visitors (previously 72) and “Knowledge bank” 94 visitors (previously 25). Since April 2023, we have a new page for the Joint Action Plant Health. This page has been visited 104 times since it was created.
We clearly have more visitors this year. Above statistics tell us that our web is an increasingly important channel for SLU’s plant protection research community now. We are reasonably well visited by external users, more so than last year.
The scientific article feed on the web that shows all of SLU’s scientific articles on plant protection since 2014 is still working well and shows the latest plant protection research at SLU.
Social Media
X (Twitter)
The account @PlantSLU was started in August 2021 and has 413 (8 November 2023) followers, a 34% increase since last year. SLU researchers in Plant Protection has been invited to tag the account to be retweeted and to provide
information that the network can tweet if they do not have their own accounts. We mostly repost SLU plant protection researcher’s posts but have also made our own posts. The account is reasonably helpful in spreading SLU’s research relative to the work that is put into it.
2022
SLU Plant Protection Network, 2022
Steering committee
The steering committee consisted of the following members during 2022
• Anneli Lundkvist, NJ-faculty (chair)
• Jiasui Xhan, NJ- faculty
• Jan Stenlid, S- faculty (vice chair as voted by the steering group)
• Karin Hjelm, S- faculty
• Laura Grenville-Briggs Didymus, LTV- faculty
• Erik Andreasson, LTV- faculty
Katja Fedrowitz was coordinator for the network (20% of full-time). The steering committee met five times during the year (14th of January, 6th of May, 31st of May, 25th of August, 24th of November). Activities for 2022 were planned with the given aim and requirements from the Deans in mind.
Communication and better visibility of SLU’s plant protection research inside and outside SLU
An external resource, Cajsa Lithell, was employed for 20% to assist the coordinator with communication. The communication strategy for the network was updated (see attachment 1). To increase visibility of SLU’s plant protection research outside SLU we worked with newsletters, visibility at conferences, collaborations, web pages, Twitter, and stakeholder events. To increase visibility of SLU’s plant protection research inside SLU we worked with newsletters for staff, a seminar series, workshops, web pages and Twitter.
Examples of collaboration activities
• The chair and coordinator have been involved in the planning of the plant protection conference 2022 (Nationella växtskyddskonferensen 2022).
• The chair and the coordinator stay in contact with the Plant Protection Director of the Swedish Board of Agriculture, as well as with other centra at SLU that work within plant protection.
• There have been collaborative activities between the network and SLU Global, the SLU Forest Damage Centre and SLU Skogsplantforum; see below.
SLU Plant Protection Network www.slu.se/plantprotectionnetwork
• The chair, vice chair, coordinator and members of the steering group have participated in a meeting with the Deans about the idea for a plant health centre.
• The coordinator had a meeting with SLU Holding regarding cooperation; a lunch seminar by SLU Holding to the network was a result of this (due to illness, the seminar that was planned for 2022 will no be held in 2023).
All activities in 2022
Events, workshops, and seminars
• 3 February 2022: Stakeholder event - SLU Plant Protection Network. This was the network’s first external stakeholder event, where the Swedish Board of Agriculture and the Swedish Plant Protection Council participated. In total there were 40 participants.
• 16 February 2022: Plant Protection Day 2022 (“Växtskyddsdagen 2022”). The coordinator of the network helped to organize the annual Plant Protection Day. Political decisions (e.g., Green Deal, Farm2Fork) and their effects on Swedish plant protection were discussed as well as how we can deal with new reduction targets for pesticides.
• 25 April 2022: Workshop by the SLU Skogsplantforum. A digital workshop on plant protection in cultivation of forest plants with 30 internal and external participants. The coordinator of the network gave a short presentation about the network during this event.
• 28 April 2022: Healthy harvests in a changing climate. A webinar arranged with SLU Global that brought together scientists, policy specialists, extension experts, and farming representatives to explore how linking nature-based solutions, IPM, and One Health can facilitate the design of climate-resilient plant health systems for smallholder farmers. Over 220 registrations (researchers, civil society groups, UN agency representatives, NGOs), and an online attendance between 60-70 participants at any one time.
• 28-29 June 2022: Borgeby Field Days, Växtskydd på flera fronter. Erik Andreasson from the networks committee gave a presentation as well as a guided tour. Lisa Beste helped with the event. Several other plant protection researchers gave presentations. 20 participants.
• 3 November: Stakeholder event - SLU Plant Protection Network & SLU Forest Damage Centre. Insights from colleagues at The Swedish Forest Agency and from the forest company Sveaskog. 30 participants.
• 8 November: Showing of SLU Biocentre and the SLU Ecology Centre to stakeholders and SLU researchers, followed by snacks and drinks. This event had to be cancelled due to low participation.
• 9-10 November: Swedish National Plant Protection conference 2022. Nearly 200 participants.
Lunch seminar series
There have been 11–18 participants in each seminar.
• 23 May 2022: Mechanistic modelling of potato yield loss caused by Phytophthora infestans, with José Gonzáles from the Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology. 10 participants.
• 30 May 2022: Cereal rust diseases, current status and future perspective, with Anna Berlin from the Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology. 15 participants.
• 22 August 2022: Moose in managed forest landscapes, with Wiebke Neumann from the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies. 18 participants.
• 19 September: Changes in leaf spot diseases in winter wheat, with Anders Lindgren from the Department of Crop Production Ecology. 13 participants.
• 21 November: Undersowing oats with clovers supports pollinators and suppresses arable weeds without reducing yields. With Fabian Bötzl from the Department of Ecology. 13 participants.
Calls
A call for researchers/others at SLU for attending conferences within the area of plant protection/plant health during 2022/23 was opened between May and October 2022. 21 persons were granted the money. More info on the Call to attend conferences in plant protection.
Newsletters
Regular newsletters were sent out in March, July, September and December. Two additional newsletters on special events were sent out in April and August. The SLU internal email group now contains ca 220 people. The newsletter list contains ca 520 internal and external receivers.
Coffee break meetings
Coffee break meeting were arranged during March-May on the web service WonderMe that is a digital coffee room where you can move your avatar to different places and have different discussions in the same digital meeting. The meetings were not very well visited with only 2-5 participants in each.
E-mail group
The E-mail group, plantprotection@slu.se, is used by SLU’s researchers to disseminate information related to plant protection. Everyone working at SLU can
join the group. The group is used regularly to spread information between SLU researchers.
Printed material
Roll-ups and a poster were printed to increase the visibility on and knowledge about the network. The illustration that has been developed in 2021 to showcase the different areas of plant protection research at SLU was used in both a roll-up and the poster.
• Three Roll-ups were designed and printed before the field days in Borgeby, one for the network and two for the Plant Protection Conference; they are used at SLU’s campuses and can be rotated for network activities.
• A poster has been designed and shown at the Plant Protection Conference in November and during the internal symposium of the Ecology department in October.
Film production
The 2-minute film that was produced in 2021 is shown on the network’s web page. It has also been shown on Facebook and Twitter (474 views) and has been shared by SLU plant protection researchers. On YouTube it has been shown 122 times.
The idea with the film was that SLU researcher could bring the film to conferences and other meeting. We do not have any data if this is something they do, but we should look into it. Unfortunately, we do not think anyone showed it at Borgeby or Almedalen. The film can be seen on YouTube.
Web page
The Network’s web contains information on plant protection activities at SLU, including news, knowledge bank entries, events, publications and contact information to other relevant centres and subject experts. It aims to be an important channel for SLU's plant protection research community and be an umbrella page, containing links to all relevant parts of relevant research at SLU.
How well visited is the web page?
Available statistics from April 2021 to August 2022 show that the English web page have had 1002 visitors on the main page. Visitors found the page from the Department of Crop Protection, from SLU’s search function, From the Swedish plant protection conference. Most visitors found the page from different search engines such as Google and Bing. Other page statistics in English: “About us” 8 visitors, “Plant protection research in the media” 11 visitors, “Plant protection material” 49 visitors, “Newsletter” 45 visitors, “Knowledge bank” 25 visitors, “Contact a researcher” 38 visitors, “Join the network” 19 visitors.
The Swedish web page have had 263 visitors on the main page. Visitors found the page from the Department of Crop Protection, from various news items, from SLU’s search function, From the Swedish plant protection conference. Most visitors found the page from different search engines. Here, the great majority of the visitors found the page via search engines. Other page statistics in Swedish: “About us” 38 visitors, “Plant protection research in the media” 15 visitors, “Plant protection material” 43 visitors, “Contact a researcher” 26 visitors, “Join the network” 16 visitors, “Newsletter” 72 visitors and “Knowledge bank” 25 visitors.
These statistics tell us that this is not an important channel for SLU’s plant protection research community now. However, the English start page is reasonably well visited, but mostly from external visitors. This is an indication that this is a good page to showcase plant protection research at SLU for an external audience. SLU researchers may find information they need in other places. Our page mostly collects information from other SLU pages (e.g., Departments and collaborative centres) and it is possible that visitors go there instead. In addition, we have a very informative newsletter where most information is available as well.
A new scientific article feed on the web that shows all of SLU’s scientific articles on plant protection since 2014 has been established and works well. Since it is a plug-in from the IT Department, we do not have any statistics on how many visitors we have on that page.
Social Media
The plan was to spread relevant information to the public through, for example, SLU’s Facebook page or specialized Facebook groups. But, we have not used Facebook groups to spread research as research news is not written by us. This research is spread by the writers in the channels they think is best. Instead, we have focused on Twitter.
The account @PlantSLU was started in August 2021 and has 309 followers (November 2022). SLU researchers in Plant Protection has been invited to tag the account to be retweeted and to provide information that the Network can tweet if they do not have their own accounts. We have mostly retweeted SLU plant protection researcher’s tweets but have also made our own tweets. Compared to other SLU accounts it has a quick growth of new followers. The account has been and has the potential to be even more helpful in the future to spread SLU’s research on plant protection. At the moment, Cajsa Lithell is working one day/ week for the network. In August 2022 (after one year of operations) an evaluation was done (see attachment 2).
Podcasts
Plant protection researchers at SLU are encouraged to participate in podcasts that already have a loyal audience. Information on plant protection researchers from SLU participating in a podcast has been spread in our channels. Helena Hansson, Riccardo Bommarco and Pernilla Tidåker has participated in the podcast “Feeding your mind” on sustainable food production in an episode called “Ett gyllene tillfälle att ställa om”. Georg Carlsson, Christina Lunner Kolstrup and SLU students Joar Löfberg and Robin Meijer has participated in “Feeding your mind” in the episode called “Kan agroekologi mätta världen?”. One active podcast is Skogsdoktorn where PhD students talk about their forest research that often involve plant health.
Making documents available for the visually impaired
Five thematic collaborative groups, so-called focus groups, conducted a fruitful dialogue with stakeholders in specific, plant protection-related topics within SLU's then Platform Plant Protection (2014-2020). The final reports from 2019, where the state of knowledge is summarized and ideas for the future are developed, has been made accessible for the visually impaired, been re-layouted and made available on the network’s web page and in SLU’s publication database Epsilon.
Plant protection photos
We sent out a questionnaire on what kind of photos SLU researchers need in their presentations and education. There was also an offer to involve C. Lithell to come and take photos of ongoing research. The response was sparse. However, photos were taken of PhD student Carol Kälin and put in SLU’s media bank.
In SLU's central archive at Ultuna there are approx. 7,000 diapositives with pictures of diseased plants. Within the SLU Plant Protection Network, it was investigated whether these could be used by scanning them in and storing them in a place where SLU's researchers can download and use them. In dialogue with SLU’s central archive, photographers of the diapositives, SLU’s photographer and responsible for the media archive and the librarian at the Department of Ecology, we concluded that this was unfortunately not possible. The reason was that we did not have the legal rights to digitalise more than a very small amount of them, a lot of photoshop work would be required to make them look good and we could only store ta few of them in SLU’s media bank. See separate document in Swedish about this process (attachment 3).
Budget for 2022
Budget 2022
Coordinator, 20% (*1,2,4,5)
240 000 kr
Communicator 20% (*2,3,4)
205 600 kr
Borgeby 2022, costs for moderator, travelling, roll-up (*2)
15 000 kr
Nat växtskyddskonferens, total approx. (164795 kr)
170 000 kr
Call for participation in conferences (*2)
105 000 kr
Total
735 600 kr
Budget comment
• The S-faculty had forgotten to send us the money in 2021, which is why we had more money available in 2022
Attachments
1. Updated communication strategy SLU Plant Protection Network 2021-2023
2. Evaluation of the Twitter account
3. Investigation on making diapositives in SLU's central archive at Ultuna available electronically
2021
SLU Plant Protection Network - Annual report 2021
Decision on SLU Plant Protection Network
A decision on the financing of SLU Plant Protection Network was done on 18th of November 2020. The instructions for the network were signed by the Dean (NJ-faculty) on the 7th of December 2020. On the 12th of February 2021, the decision on the members of the new steering group and the chair was signed by the Dean (NJ-faculty).
Steering committee
The steering committee consisted of the following members during 2021:
Anneli Lundkvist, NJ-faculty (chair) Jiasui Xhan, NJ- faculty
Jan Stenlid, S- faculty (vice chair as voted by the steering committee) Maartje Klapwijk, S- faculty (until 16.09.2021)
Karin Hjelm, S- faculty (from 17.09.2021) Laura Grenville-Briggs Didymus, LTV- faculty Erik Andreasson, LTV- faculty
The steering committee decided to have Katja Fedrowitz as coordinator for the network (20% of full-time).
The steering committee met six times during the year (19th of March, 6th of May, 24th of May, 25th of August, 1st of October and 12th of November). At the first meeting in March, the chair from the old steering group for SLU Platform Plant Protection, Riccardo Bommarco, was invited to give a short presentation on the platforms achievements. Ideas for improvement and the network were then collected by the entire group.
Activities for 2021 were planned with the given aim and requirements from the Dean in mind (attachment 1).
SLU Plant Protection Network www.slu.se/plantprotectionnetwork
Activities under 2021
Calls
- A special call for PhD students, postdocs, and technicians at SLU for attending online conferences or pursuing alternative professional development opportunities relevant to their study subject or project work within the area of plant protection/plant health during 2021 was open between the end of August and the end of December (attachment 2). Four person applied until the end of November and were granted the money.
Workshops
- A kick-off workshop was held on the 25th of October 2021 (attachment 3).
50 people from SLU participated. During this kick-off, several other centres at SLU working in the area of plant protection participated with short presentations. Ideas and wishes for the network were collected by all participants (attachment 4) and will be used by the steering group for future activities of the network.
Communication and better visibility of SLU’s plant protection research inside and outside SLU
- A new communication strategy was written (attachment 5).
- A new website was created (www.slu.se/plantprotectionnetwork)
- In cooperation with the library, scientific articles within the subject area plant protection with authors from SLU are now collected on a special page of the website (http://slubar.slu.se/vxsk/?file=pages/vxsk_page).
- An external resource, Cajsa Lithell, was employed for 20% from June to December 2021 to assist the coordinator with communication.
- A Twitter account was opened in the end of August. It has about 105 followers, and the posts go out to about 400 people.
- An illustration was designed by Cajsa Lithell in cooperation with people from the network, showing all areas within plant protection that researchers work in at SLU (attachment 6).
- A postcard with the illustration and an invitation to a kick-off workshop was printed in 1300 exemplars and has been distributed widely at SLU to make people aware of the network. New people have signed up to the network as a result of this.
- A poster has been created for people in the network to print or order from the coordinator. The aim of this is to create awareness of people at SLU that the network exist as well as to visualize in all places at SLU that there is research being done in plant protection.
- A short film of ca 1.5 minutes has been made by Cajsa Lithell, showing plant protection research at SLU. The film has the aim to increase knowledge about ongoing research in plant protection at SLU, and is to be
used at the website, in social media, and by SLUs researchers in events, conferences etc. The film can be seen here: https://youtu.be/oZKjrEi-0VY
- Plant protection research from SLU in the media is now being collected on an own page at the networks website.
- Two newsletters were sent out (on 1 April 2021 and 28 June 2021). A third newsletter is planned to be sent out before Christmas. The tool at SLU for sending out newsletters changed under autumn 2021, which is why there was a pause in sending out newsletters during this time.
- The SLU internal email group now contains ca 220 people. The newsletter list contains ca 450 internal and external receivers.
Internal and external collaboration
- The chair and coordinator have been involved in the planning of the plant protection conference 2022 (Nationella växtskyddskonferensen 2022).
- The coordinator of the network has been in contact with the Grants Office.
- The chair and the coordinator stay in contact with the Växtskyddschef of the Swedish Board of Agriculture, as well as with other centra at SLU that work within plant protection at SLU.
- The chair, vice chair and members of the steering group have participated in a meeting with the Deans about the idea for a plant health centre.
- The chair and coordinator have had a meeting with Daniel Gräns from SLU Skogsplantforum about collaboration in the future.
Budget for 2021
Preliminary costs
2021
Coordinator 20%
180 000 kr
Communicator 20% Jun, Aug-Dec
105 600 kr
Nationella växtskyddskonferensen 2022
100 000 kr
Nationella växtskyddskonferensen 2022; planning costs
8 500 kr
Special call for PhD students, postdocs and technicians
50 000 kr
Postcard Plant Protection at SLU (1300 ex.)
3 100 kr
Print of poster for plant protection researchers at SLU (40 ex.)
4 200 kr
Remaining funding for seed money project from SLU Platform Plant
Protection
46 000 kr
Total
497 400 kr
Budget comments:
The steering committee started to plan the activities for SLU Plant Protection Network in March after the decision on the members of the new steering group and the chair was signed by the Dean in February.
Due to the pandemic situation,
• there was some delay for one seed money project that had been financed by SLU Platform Plant Protection, and was therefore given the remaining money under 2021
• the National Plant Protection Conference (Nationella växtskyddskonferensen) was moved from 2021 to 2022.
• the kick-off for the network was held via zoom and not as a physical meeting. We therefore have 100 000 kr that were not used under 2021 and are allocated for meetings and seminars under 2022.
The coordinator worked under February 2021 only for the Department of Ecology at SLU and was therefore not paid by the SLU Network Plant Protection for this month.
Attachments
1. Aim and requirements of the SLU Plant Protection Network, connected to the activities under 2021
2. Special call for PhD students, postdocs and technicians at SLU
3. Programme SLU Plant Protection Network kick-off 25 October 2021
4. Ideas & expectations, SLU Plant Protection Network; kick-off 21 October 2021 (collected during the kick-off workshop)
5. Communication strategy SLU Plant Protection Network 2021-2023
6. Research areas within plant protection at SLU. Illustration by Cajsa Lithell.
Aim and requirements of the SLU Plant Protection Network, connected to the activities under 2021
The network should
1) work for an internal coordination of SLU's resources and efforts in the field of plant protection for undergraduate education, infrastructure and collaboration,
• Call for PhD students, postdocs & technicians at SLU
• Illustration on plant protection research at SLU
• Email group
• Poster and postcard to make the network visible at SLU
2) work to strongly strengthen SLU's profile in the field of plant protection towards the outside world,
• New communication strategy
• Short film on plant protection research at SLU
• Illustration on plant protection research at SLU
• Newsletter
• Website
3) disseminate new knowledge about plant protection through popular science articles
• Collection of scientific articles within plant protection at SLU on the web
• Collection of SLU:s plant protection research in the media on the web
4) operate a digital contact area on SLU's website to facilitate collaboration and communication,
• New communication strategy
• Short film on plant protection research at SLU
• Website
5) once a year, organize a workshop or a symposium for SLU's researchers in the field of plant protection.
• Kick-off on the 25th of October
Special call for PhD students, postdocs and technicians at SLU
General information
The SLU Plant Protection Network is launching a special call for PhD students, postdocs, and technicians at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) for attending online conferences or pursuing alternative professional development opportunities relevant to their study subject or project work within the area of plant protection/plant health during 2021.
The call aims to help PhD students, postdocs and technicians working within plant protection/plant health at SLU to cover the costs associated with participating in academic conferences or alternative professional development opportunities, including workshops, courses, licenses or books that enhance their professional development.
The SLU Plant Protection Network will give awards to as many as apply and are eligible on a first come first served basis, but not exceeding the limit of the SLU Plant Protection Networks budget for this call. Submitting an application for an award is not a guarantee of its acceptance.
Who can apply?
PhD students, postdocs and technicians working within plant protection or plant health at SLU, who are employed at SLU during the time of the conference or course or when pursuing the alternative professional development opportunity. The supervisor or work leader must agree on the attendance of the conference or the alternative professional development opportunity.
What can be applied for?
The SLU Plant Protection Network has a total amount of 50,000 SEK allocated to this call. A maximum of 5,000 SEK per person can be applied for, to cover conference fees or alternative professional development events as described below. Each person can apply once.
1) Conference attendance fee
The applicant can apply for the fee to attend an (online) conference in which the applicant is presenting a poster or a talk connected to plant protection/plant health in a wide sense. Other costs than the conference fee will not be covered.
2) Alternative professional development opportunities
a) The applicant can apply for the fee for attending an online workshop or course, which must be connected to plant protection/plant health in a wider sense. A course/workshop certificate that states the successful
attendance of the applicant must be submitted after the course/workshop has taken place.
b) The applicant can apply for licenses or books that are of importance for the work and that are to be used under 2021-2022.
Application procedure
The application should be made before the licence/book has been bought, or for conferences/courses that took place or will take place in 2021. Only actual costs up to the approved sum are reimbursed.
The applications are processed as they arrive. Last day to send in an application is the 31st of December 2021. If the application is approved, the applicant will get a written approval stating that the SLU Plant Protection Network guarantees a grant up to a certain amount.
For the attendance of conferences, workshops or similar, it is recommended that all costs are paid by the department until the course is over and the applicant has received a conference/ course certificate. To get the reimbursement, the department sends an internal invoice based on the actual costs together with a copy of the course certificate to the SLU Plant Protection Network.
The application must contain:
• The applicants name and workplace (department & faculty at SLU), as well as the supervisors/work leaders name and workplace
• Short description of the work of the PhD student, technician or postdoc and why the conference or course is relevant to attend or why the licence or book are important in a plant protection/plant health work context (max. 1 A4-page Times New Roman 12 point, single line spacing, 2 cm margins)
• Letter of approval from the supervisor (PhD students) or work leader (postdocs and technicians)
• Information on the conference (date, fee, form of presentation), course (date, fee, credits), licence (costs for one year) or book (costs)
Where to send your application
Mail your application electronically as a single pdf-file to Katja Fedrowitz (katja.fedrowitz@slu.se).
Further questions?
Please contact the coordinator Katja Fedrowitz (katja.fedrowitz@slu.se).
We look forward to receiving your application!
The Steering Committee SLU Plant Protection Network
2/2
Programme SLU Plant Protection Network kick-off 25 October 2021
Moderator: Anneli Lundkvist, chair SLU Plant Protection Network
09:00 Welcome, Ylva Hillbur, SLU’s Pro Vice-Chancellor for International relations
09:12 SLU Plant Protection Network – how does it work? Laura Grenville-Briggs Didymus, committee member SLU Plant Protection network
09:35 Networking session 1
10:00 Coffee break
10:15 SLU Forest Damage Centre, Åke Olsson
10:30 Networking session 2
11:00 Short break
11:05 Speed presentations: centres within plant protection at SLU
• SLU Risk assessment of plant pests, Johanna Boberg
• SLU Centre for Biological Control, CBC, Johan A Stenberg
• SLU Centre for Pesticides in the Environment, CKB, Mikaela Gönczi
• SLU Centre for Organic Food & Farming, EPOK, Johanna Spångberg
• SLU Fältforsk ämneskommitté Weed Control, Anneli Lundkvist
• SLU Fältforsk ämneskommitté Plant Protection, Erland Liljeroth
• SLU Wildlife Damage Centre, VSC, Lovisa Nilsson
• SLU Skogsplantforum, Daniel Gräns
• SLU Skogsskada, Jan Stenlid
11:45 Questions from the audience and closing remarks from the committee, Jan Stenlid, vice chair SLU Plant Protection Network
11:55 Workshop ends
12:00 NEW: Film “Plant Protection research at SLU” (ca 1,5 min)
More information about SLU Plant Protection Network.
Ideas & expectations, SLU Plant Protection Network; kick-off 25 October 2021
Summary
• To get new contacts, meet new people, establish new connections to other research groups and new collaborations, get to know what others in the field are working with, get to know people from other faculties and locations and bridge horticulture-agriculture-forestry, broaden knowledge in plant protection, find synergies in methods and technologies across disciplines, getting feedback from other researchers. This is exactly why we have the network, and we hope to facilitate the networking by offering different kind of seminars/workshops (both zoom and IRL), and by distributing relevant news in the different channels. We will also look into possibilities for zoom coffee breaks or a Slack/Teams group to discuss ideas.
• Many of you would like to see an overview on who is working with what in plant protection at SLU, not at least to be able to find new contacts, but also for stakeholders and students to get in contact with people in their areas of interest. Such an overview seems very hard to establish, as there are so many people working in the area, and as research groups are changing all the time. We will think further about it, also how we could better visualize the different centres at SLU within plant protection – if any of you have ideas on how to make this work, please contact us.
• Information on e.g. what is going on in plant protection at SLU can be found on our website – there at least we have a link to the latest scientific publications, to news within plant protection and calendar activities. Your important input here is to make sure that your research is visible in news pages at SLU. Talk to a communicator and tag your own publications, news and activities with the “SLU Nätverk växtskydd” tag. In that way, others in the network will be able to see your research as well. In our newsletter, we usually compile the latest activities and news from SLU within plant protection, including those from other SLU centres/networks. We will think about if we could introduce some people in each newsletter so that people get to know each other more.
• We also have a Twitter account. Even if you don’t have Twitter yourself, you can always ask Cajsa.Lithell@slu.se to Twitter something for you.
• Clearer information on how to join the network will soon be on the website.
• About once a year, we ask all heads of the departments to forward information on the network to their co-workers. In addition, we will in future also send this once a year to the postdoc association at SLU as well as the PhD-student email list. Each of you is welcome to invite new colleagues to the network and spread the information! Information on specific courses can be spread by all of you via our plantprotecion email group.
ACTIVITIES – we will plan future activities with below suggestions in mind. Not everything will be possible at once due to time/money restrictions, but thanks for all suggestions!
• Many have wished for regular events, such as workshops, meetings, online seminars or webinars. These could focus on defined topics, act as meeting point between researchers in order to get to know whom is working with what (e.g. series of presentations of plant protection researchers at SLU) and to discuss research/project ideas, work towards a written output that is potentially publishable (example: CBC (Centre for Biological Control), work on
common applications, or work strategically towards important solutions needed in plant protection.
• There could also be joint activities with other entities at SLU, both those centres working directly with plant protection (such as eg CBC), but also those having plant protection as part of their work, such as SLU Global or SLU Breeding Network.
• There is a wish for training workshops for researchers, e.g. in bioinformatics, digital tools for stakeholders, AI (Artificial Intelligence) (connected to the Digital strategy of SLU).
• There is also the wish to increase teaching exchange between groups, departments and faculties.
• Research funding or seed money – unfortunately, the resources for our network is limited to 600 000 kr/ year. We will therefore not be able to fund any research projects. However, the network has funded professional development opportunities for PhD students, postdocs and technicians in 2021, and will fund participation in the Växtskyddskonferens 2022 for students.
• A list of MSc projects/ coordinate MSc projects across SLU
We do not have lists on MSc projects within plant protection at SLU, as someone would need to produce and update such lists. Any volunteers?
PLANT HEALTH CENTRE
The issue is now driven by the Deans of the NJ and LTV faculties in discussions with SLU's management and the Swedish Board of Agriculture, and we are advised to talk about ‘coordination of plant health/plant protection’ instead of ‘centre’. It is important to remember that a proposal is NOT just an SLU matter but must take place in collaboration with the Swedish Board of Agriculture and other external stakeholders. Riccardo Bommarco, previous chair of the SLU Platform Plant Protection, is our contact person at SLU.
OTHER SUGGESTIONS
• Outreach: joint efforts; facilitate outreach efforts
• Stimulate joint applications
• Important to find ways to apply the basic science to practice
• Finding people to analyse data, and knowing the body of data out there is really important: central knowledge on data that can be mined in new ways and can be shared and explored together with researchers and those working in our associated centres
the network can help with curation of data and pointing others to the different data sets that are available.
• Strengthen collaboration/coordination for sustainable plant production aiming at reducing chemical pesticide input preventing pesticide resistance in pathogen populations and avoiding negative environmental impact of plant protection measures. A focus on healthy, food and feed production without pesticide residues and mycotoxins should also be supported through the network. With this as the base high yield of high quality should be considered also in a global perspective for supporting food security worldwide.
• A common place where people outside of SLU can find their way in and find the right people/researchers/centre that they need.
• Easier for stakeholders to find the right competence at SLU.
• The network can acts as door for out side world to SLU.
• Connecting academia and stakeholders. E.g. Role of plant protection in forest nurseries. Horticultural crop growers face problems with pesticides that are no longer allowed to use.
• To inform PhD students and their supervisors that we have NOVA PhD courses in plant pathology running for next 4 year (2022 in Sweden, then DK, NOR, FIN) – everyone can do this, e.g. by using the PhD student email list at SLU. The newsletter from the network tries to inform about relevant courses, and everyone in the network is welcome to send an email to plantprotection@slu.se to inform about courses.
Attachment 5
Communication strategy SLU Plant Protection Network 2021-2023
Table of contents
Summary................................................................................................................................. 2
1. Introduction........................................................................................................................ 4
1.1 Background – SLU Plant Protection Network.......................................................................... 4
1.2 Follow-up of the communication strategy from SLU Platform Plant Protection........................... 4
Publications specialising in plant protection.................................................................................. 6
Wider publications, containing plant protection information............................................................. 7
1.3 Communication tools............................................................................................................ 8
1.4 Delimitation.......................................................................................................................... 9
2. Purpose, objectives and target group........................................................................ 9
2.1 Purpose and objectives of this strategy.................................................................................. 9
2.2 Target group for communication of plant protection research activities at SLU........................ 10
3. Communication plan..................................................................................................... 10
3.1 Communication plan - summary.......................................................................................... 10
3.2 External questions on plant protection research at SLU......................................................... 12
4. Budget............................................................................................................................... 12
4.1 Necessary resources to realize the communication plan....................................................... 13
5. Follow up.......................................................................................................................... 13
6. References....................................................................................................................... 13
Attachment........................................................................................................................... 14
Overview of the communication plan for SLU Plant Protection Network....................................... 14
Summary
SLU Network Plant Protection aims to improve the dissemination of information on plant protection and plant health research from SLU to researchers, students and other centres and networks within SLU, and to professionals in the agricultural, horticultural and forestry sector in Sweden. Information to be disseminated are the latest research news from SLU as well as events and activities in the area of plant protection and plant health relevant to SLU, with a focus on Sweden, such as courses, conferences and calls. The network also aims to collect other information on plant protection at SLU, such as departments/ units where research in plant protection is conducted, other centres, popular science publications, etc. and make it available internally and externally, e.g. through the website.
Furthermore, the network aims to improve the visibility of the SLU Plant Protection Network among researchers at SLU, so that everyone interested in the networks activities will join. Last, but not least, the network aims to improve collaboration with the Grants office and to internally disseminate information on calls within the area of plant protection.
This communication strategy summarizes the changes that have been made since the previous communication strategy was written for SLU Platform Plant Protection in 2017, and provides suggestions on how communication can be further improved in the future.
This strategy does not include the production or use of plant protection-related teaching materials or plant protection information from all over Sweden, as this is outside the scope of the network.
In summary, the following overall communication plan is proposed for SLU Network Plant Protection (picture 1, attachment 1):
1. The website of the SLU Plant Protection Network informs on plant protection activities at SLU, including news, events, publications and contact information to other relevant centres and researchers (“subject experts”). The website aims to be an important channel for SLU's plant protection research community. It aims to be an umbrella, containing links to all relevant parts of plant protection research at SLU. However, information shown on the website must be easy to maintain and update, which is why information on specific research projects will not be shown.
2. A newsletter is sent out 2-4 times per year to those that signed up on our internal and external email lists, with updates on plant protection related news and events (e.g. courses, conferences, calls) that are foremost of interest to the plant protection community at SLU.
3. The E-mail group, plantprotection@slu.se, is used by SLU’s researchers to disseminate information related to plant protection. Everyone working at SLU can join the group.
4. Cooperation and synergies with other actors within SLU’s communication network, the Grants Office, and other centres, networks and platforms in the area of plant protection at SLU will be established or continue. Information relevant to the general public will be spread through, for example, SLU’s Facebook page or specialized Facebook groups.
5. A new Twitter account will be started. Our strategy will be to localize all SLU researchers that tweet about plant protection and help them spread their research here. In addition, we will tweet about popular science and scientific plant protection news from SLU. We will connect via Twitter to other centres at SLU, which will help the spreading of information.
6. Plant protection researchers at SLU are encouraged to participate in podcasts that already have a loyal audience. Information on plant protection researchers from SLU participating in a podcast will be spread via our channels.
7. A film on plant protection research at SLU will be produced during autumn 2021 to be used at the website and in social media. It will also be distributed within the network to be used by SLU researchers in their presentations, social media, events such as Almedalen and Borgeby etc. The movie will be in English (with a possibility to show English or Swedish subtitles).
8. A new scientific article feed on the web that shows all of SLU’s scientific articles on plant protection since 2014 has been established.
9. Popular science articles within plant protection from SLU will from 2021 be shown via
1) SLU news, which are shared in the newsletter and on the website,
2) a link from the website to summaries at SLU’s Knowledge bank that concern plant protection, and
3) on a new page at our website that links to a selection of articles or pods related to plant protection research at SLU.
10. At least one seminar, webinar or conference will be arranged by the SLU Plant Protection Network yearly. This will sometimes be an SLU internal activity, and other times an open event for SLU and stakeholders. The aim is to use some of these events to also present important external stakeholders to the network.
11. A postcard and a poster will be developed under 2021, advertising the network at SLU internally.
12. Survey to stakeholders about the use of plant protection publications from SLU:
If time allows, a simple questionnaire will be created and sent to researchers, counsellors and other stakeholders in order to get some insights in how plant protection publications from SLU are seen and used at the moment, and what could be improved.
The SLU Plant Protection Network is not responsible for any of the popular science publications from SLU. Nevertheless, the following is suggested for improving these publications in the future:
• The pdf copies from Faktablad om växtskydd - trädgård should be made available on the web.
• A cooperation with the Swedish Board of Agriculture in renewing the Faktablad om växtskydd - jordbruk would be welcomed.
• Tables of contents for the three main publications in plant protection from SLU should be developed in order to make it easier to search e.g. for certain pests.
• It would be nice if there was a website showing all LTV-fakultetens faktablad.
While the SLU Plant Protection Network is funded and employs a coordinator for 20%, the website, newsletter and e-mail group can be maintained, a basic workshop can be organized, and possibly updating of existing pages and links can also be included in such a service. Depending on available time, a questionnaire could be developed, spread and evaluated. For a success of the scientific article flow and the usage of the email group, the input and engagement of researchers within plant protection at SLU is needed. Likewise, successful collaboration will also depend on the collaborative partners. With an additional resource of 20% for six months, a Twitter account as well as the links to articles from the Knowledge Bank and the site showing a summary on popular science articles, pods etc from elsewhere in the media can be updated regularly during this time, and a postcard, poster and film can be made. If the Twitter account proves to be a success, possibilities for how it could be run in the future need to be looked at as well as how to update the sites summarizing popular science articles etc. in the future, when the external resource is not available.
1. Introduction
1.1 Background – SLU Plant Protection Network
The SLU Plant Protection Network was established in 2021 as a follow-up of the SLU Platform Plant Protection (2014-2020).
The purpose of the network is to increase the interaction between research, education, environmental monitoring and assessment, to apply an interdisciplinary approach, and to take advantage of and build on the potential of the many researchers who work with plant protection at SLU's different parts.
The following objectives have been given to the network:
The network should
1) work for an internal coordination of SLU's resources and efforts in the field of plant protection for undergraduate education, infrastructure and collaboration,
2) work to strongly strengthen SLU's profile in the field of plant protection towards the outside world,
3) disseminate new knowledge about plant protection through popular science articles,
4) operate a digital contact area on SLU's website to facilitate collaboration and communication,
5) once a year, organize a workshop or a symposium for SLU's researchers in the field of plant protection.
This communication strategy aims to
1) follow up the communication strategy from SLU Platform Plant Protection (2014-2020),
2) describe which communication tools could be used to help fulfilling above objectives for the SLU Plant Protection Network,
3) create a plan for future communication (communication plan).
In the following, the words “plant protection” will also include “plant health”.
1.2 Follow-up of the communication strategy from SLU Platform Plant Protection
The communication strategy for SLU Platform Plant Protection (Kommunikationsstrategi SLU Platform växtskydd, 2017) had two parts, a communication plan as well as a summary on popular science plant protection publications from SLU and a suggestion on how to deal with these publications in future, as several were not updated anymore, and pdf versions were not available.
One aim of the previous communication strategy was to establish a continuous flow of news from plant protection research at SLU. This wish had also been expressed by external stakeholders, who had found it difficult to find information about plant protection research at SLU. A news feed and a calendar feed were therefore created on the plant protection website with the help of a new tag, and the latest news were also taken up in the newsletter.
The following communication tools were part of the communication plan from SLU Platform Plant Protection:
• A website with a news feed that linked to new publications, dissertations, etc. in plant protection research at SLU, a calendar feed that showed activities within plant protection at SLU, a link to its newsletter, and links to pages of relevant centres, publications and researchers within SLU. The website had also information on the focus groups and their activities, as well on the research projects that were funded by the platform.
• A newsletter that came out 2-4 times/year since 2016 and summarized news and activities from SLU as well as relevant external activities, news and calls. New publications were taken up in the newsletter if they appeared on a SLU news page. Dissertations within the area were also included. The newsletter has been sent to approx. 400 people (external and internal) and is on average opened by 38% of them. Sometimes it has landed in spam.
• An internal email group with the address plantprotection@slu.se has been used by researchers for dissemination of plant protected related information. The group had in the end of 2020 ca 230 members.
• Cooperation between the coordinator and other actors in the network of communicators at SLU in order to disseminate information that could be relevant for a bigger group inside or outside SLU.
In 2019, a questionnaire was sent out to people from SLU in the plant protection e-mail group. Here, 59% (46 individuals) answered that the platform had been important for them for “Improved communication of and information on plant protection research and activities”.
The following challenges, improvement areas and solutions can be suggested for the above described communication tools:
• Website
o The website is not easy to find from SLU’s main page. This could be improved by ensuring that links to the website exist from all other plant protection relevant pages at SLU, such as relevant departments, other centres and CV pages of subject experts.
o It has been a challenge to keep the links to relevant centres and researchers up to date. A yearly follow-up by the steering group, imitated by the coordinator, could help here.
o It has also been a challenge to remind other communicators in the area to use the tag “Plattform växtskydd”. This tag has now changed name to “Plant Protection Network”. This information could be sent by the coordinator to the communication network, together with a reminder to use the tag.
o A feed showing the latest scientific plant protection publications has been established together with SLU’s library and is available since spring 2021 (see also under 3.1). Here the future challenge will be for scientists from SLU to remember to use the tag “SLU Plant Protection Network” when they register their articles in SLUPub. Regular reminders sent to the email group could help.
o In the questionnaire from 2019 mentioned above, the wish has been expressed for the website to also include information about research conducted at different departments and education available within plant protection at SLU. The coordinator, together with the external resource, can have a look in how to implement this; however, everything that is difficult to keep up to date will not be posted on the website.
• Newsletter
o The newsletters from SLU often go into spam. In autumn 2021, SLU will probably sign a new contract with a different newsletter tool provider. Hopefully this will solve the issue.
• Email group
o It has been a challenge to make members understand that everyone can post to the group. Often, posts go first to the networks coordinator for approval. The coordinator will also keep reminding the group on how to use the common email address.
• Cooperation
o Cooperation has worked well, especially related to activities and events at the International Year of Plant Health 2020 (IYPH 2020), where the platforms coordinator took the initiative and invited interested people, including other communicators, to several meetings. This resulted in some work sharing and a common webpage from SLU for the IYPH 2020.
o Since 2021, the coordinator of the network is also part of the communicator’s network at SLU. This will in future help with better cooperation and spreading via
e.g. SLU’s Facebook.
The SLU Platform Plant Protection has not been responsible for any of the popular science publications within plant protection at SLU, but has made some suggestions in the last communication strategy:
• Those publications that are no longer updated should be discontinued. It should be stated on the website of the publication if the publication is no longer updated, and whom one can contact for more information. A suggestion was that the library may play a role here.
• All old publications should be available as PDF.
• It would be useful to have table of contents to make it easier to search for special plant pests, plants, or other.
Here is a short summary on what has happened since:
Publications specialising in plant protection
• Faktablad om växtskydd – jordbruk
o Can be found as pdf version: https://www.slu.se/institutioner/ekologi/kontakt/bestallning/
o There is no specific contact given; only the general contact of the communicator and the librarian at the Ecology department (Anna Lundmark and Karin Eriksson). The coordinator of the SLU Plant Protection Network has close contact with both.
o The last revision was done by Björn Andersson and Annika Djurle in 2017.
o Anders Lindgren from the Swedish Board of Agriculture has under 2021 shown an interest in collaboration. He is in contact with Björn Andersson.
– trädgård
o Last publication was in 2011; this series is closed.
o It is available as pdf but not yet on the website https://www.slu.se/institutioner/ekologi/kontakt/bestallning/.
o There is no specific contact given; only the general contact of the communicator and the librarian at the Ecology department (Anna Lundmark and Karin Eriksson). The coordinator of the SLU Plant Protection Network has close contact with both.
• Växtskyddsnotiser
o Last publication was in 2017; this series is closed.
o Can be found here as pdf version: https://www.slu.se/institutioner/ekologi/kontakt/vaxtskyddnotiser/
o Given contact is the coordinator for SLU Plant Protection Network.
Wider publications, containing plant protection information
• LTV-fakultetens faktablad
o Is still published, but has no website with all publications.
o Contact is the library, given on the following page that describes how one can publish something in this series: https://www.slu.se/site/bibliotek/publicera-och-analysera/registrera-och-publicera/dokumentmallar/riktlinjer-for-publicering-vid-ltv-fakulteten/
• Fakta Skog
o Is still published as pdf: https://www.slu.se/fakulteter/s/forskning/fakta-skog/
o Contact details are available on Fakta Skog’s website
Other publications can be found from the following centres or websites connected to plant protection and SLU:
• SLU Centre for Biological Control, CBC
• SLU Centre for Organic Food & Farming, Epok
• SLU Centre for Pesticides in the Environment, CKB
• SLU FältForsk
• SLU Skogsplantforum
• SLU Skogsskada
• SLU's Forests programme
• Weed Advisor for Farmers and Gardeners
• Wildlife Damage Centre, VSC
The following can be suggested for the future:
• The pdf copies from Faktablad om växtskydd - trädgård should be made available on the web.
• A cooperation with the Swedish Board of Agriculture in renewing the Faktablad om växtskydd - jordbruk would be welcomed.
• Tables of contents for the three main publications in plant protection from SLU should be developed in order to make it easier to search e.g. for certain pests.
• It would be nice if there was a website showing all LTV-fakultetens faktablad.
1.3 Communication tools
The following communication tools could be used to help fulfilling the objectives (numbers in brackets) for the SLU Plant Protection Network stated under 1.1:
Objectives for the SLU Plant Protection Network:
1) work for an internal coordination of SLU's resources and efforts in the field of plant protection for undergraduate education, infrastructure and collaboration,
2) work to strongly strengthen SLU's profile in the field of plant protection towards the outside world,
3) disseminate new knowledge about plant protection through popular science articles,
4) operate a digital contact area on SLU's website to facilitate collaboration and communication,
5) once a year, organize a workshop or a symposium for SLU's researchers in the field of plant protection.
1. An internal email group for researchers in the area of plant protection at SLU (1)
2. A website, including a calendar, updated news, flow of new scientific articles, flow of new popular science articles (1, 2, 4)
3. A newsletter, for spreading intern and extern information (1, 2)
4. An active Twitter account (1, 2, 4) , for spreading internal and external information
5. An active Facebook account, or using SLU’s existing Facebook accounts, for spreading internal and external information (1, 2, 4)
6. A yearly seminar, webinar or conference (1, 2, 5)
7. A podcast or using SLU’s existing podcasts for spreading information on plant protection research at SLU (2)
8. A postcard and a poster, advertising the network at SLU internally (1)
9. A popular science brochure on plant protection research at SLU that can be distributed to stakeholders at diverse external events (2)
10. Cooperation and synergies with (a) other communicators through participation of the coordinator in the communicators network, (b) regular contact with the other centres, networks and platforms of SLU that are of interest to the network, as well as (c) to SLU’s Grants Office. (1)
11. A Film and/or short movies on plant protection research at SLU
12. Popular science articles (3)
• A new popular science web page that collects popular science articles, pods, news, radio programmes etc. on SLU’s plant protection research at the web and is accessible via the network’s webpage.
• Links to articles from SLU’s Knowledge bank on plant protection from the networks webpage
• Link from the networks website the popular science series from SLU. Finance new popular science articles in and a revision of “Faktabladen om växtskydd-jordbruk”
• Finance the writing of a popular science article in or a special number of a trade journal
• Finance the work of an editor for “Växtskyddsnotiser” as popular science paper for SLU’s plant protection researchers.
• Present the “plant protection researcher of the month” in Växtskyddsnotiser or in a newsletter
13. Plant protection material for teachers, counsellors, and others (1, 2, 3)
• Finance the update of SLU’s fact sheets on plant protection (Faktabladen om växtskydd-jordbruk/trädgård) and make them available for teachers and counsellors. Finance the development of new fact sheets when necessary. Maybe do this in cooperation with the Swedish Board of Agriculture.
• Create a link from the fact sheets to the app from the Swedish Board of Agriculture. The fact sheets could complement the app if the information is updated.
• Finance the update of the fact sheets with new pictures. SLU’s central archive has a plant protection section.
• Finance the development of a text book on the web, based on “Faktabladen om växtskydd-jordbruk”
• Finance the development of a more dynamic form, e.g. an app that is easy to read on e.g. a mobile phone, or a "Wiki fact sheet plant protection" (which looks like a Wikipedia page but can only be edited by certain people, eg Scholarpedia) or a system such as in Norway where you can print your own PDF (http://leksikon.nibio.no/). Updating a Wiki fact sheet may be easier, but it also requires more resources to build it. Such a new launch of the fact sheets in dynamic form could clearly show that SLU wants to reach out with research results and collaborate with other stakeholders and professionals in society.
14. Survey to stakeholders about the use of plant protection publications from SLU (2, 3)
• Create a simple questionnaire to researchers, counsellors and other stakeholders in order to get some insights to how plant protection publications from SLU are seen and used at the moment, and what could be improved.
1.4 Delimitation
This communication strategy aims primarily to increase the news flow and dissemination of plant protection research at SLU and does not include the production or use of plant protection-related teaching materials or plant protection information from all over Sweden. Point 13 above, as well as parts of point 12 will therefore not be included in the communication plan specified below.
The network has limited resources, which implies that certain improvements will only be able to be made with additional resources (see also under 4.).
2. Purpose, objectives and target group
2.1 Purpose and objectives of this strategy
This communication strategy for the SLU Plant Protection Network has the purpose to improve the dissemination of information to SLU's plant protection research community and, to some extent, towards external stakeholders. It aims to follow up the communication strategy for SLU Platform Plant Protection (2014-2020) and to create a communication plan with tools that can help to fulfil the objectives given for the SLU Plant Protection Network.
The more specific objectives for this strategy are
1. To make the latest research results in plant protection from SLU easily visible to other researchers and professionals
2. To spread information on plant protection activities (courses, conferences, announcements, etc.) among SLU researchers; main focus are activities organised by SLU, and second focus are activities organised outside SLU
3. To collect other information on plant protection at SLU, such as departments/ units where research in plant protection is conducted, other centres, popular science publications, etc. and make it available internally and externally, e.g. through the website
4. To improve the visibility of the SLU Plant Protection Network among researchers at SLU so that everyone interested in the networks activities will join
5. To improve collaboration with the Grants office and to internally disseminate information on calls within the area of plant protection
6. To evaluate and follow up the old communication strategy.
2.2 Target group for communication of plant protection research activities at SLU
• SLU internally: researchers working in the field, students, other centres or departments at SLU (e.g. CBC, CKB, EPOK, FältForsk, Partnership Alnarp, SLU Future Food, SLU Future Forest)
• SLU externally: professionals and researchers working in the field, other stakeholders and interested people
3. Communication plan
3.1 Communication plan - summary
In order to improve the dissemination of information of SLU’s plant protection research, both within and outside SLU, and to increase the news flow in plant protection, SLU Network Plant Protection proposes the following (attachment 1):
1. The website of the SLU Plant Protection Network (www.slu.se/plantprotectionnetwork) informs on plant protection activities at SLU, including news, events, publications and contact information to other relevant centres and researchers (“subject experts”). The page includes:
a. Relevant news and events at SLU that are visible via a news and a calendar feed with information on dissertations, news from plant protection research at SLU, and activities from the network. News and events need to be tagged in order to get into the feed. SLU communicators will be made aware of the new tag “Plant Protection Network” and will be reminded to use it.
b. A link to a site from the library where the most recent scientific publications within plant protection at SLU from can be found (see also point 8)
c. A summary of relevant articles from SLU’s Knowledge bank (see also point 9)
d. A summary of relevant articles, pods etc. from SLU researchers in the media (see also point 9)
e. Contact information to other centres or activities within plant protection at SLU
f. Contact information to subject experts within plant protection at SLU
The website is thought to be an important channel for SLU's plant protection research community. It aims to be an umbrella, containing links to all relevant parts of plant protection research at SLU. However, information shown on the website must be easy to update, which is why information on specific research projects will not be shown. Links to relevant centres and subject experts will be yearly followed up for validity by the coordinator and steering committee. The visibility of the website will be improved by making sure that links to the website exist from all other plant protection relevant pages at SLU, such as relevant departments, other centres and CV pages of subject experts. The website is in Swedish and
English, but not all pages are translated. Pages that are most relevant internally or in research are in English, while pages that are most relevant to stakeholders are in Swedish.
2. A newsletter is sent out 2-4 times per year to everyone interested (internally and externally) with updates on plant protection related news and events (e.g. courses, conferences, calls) of interest to the plant protection community at SLU. The newsletter has ca 400 internal and external recipients. One can sign up for the newsletter on the website. If time allows, the newsletter will in future also feature a “researcher of the month”, in order to further increase knowledge about each other in the network. In addition, other important stakeholders outside SLU could be presented in the newsletter. Under 2021, the format of newsletters sent by SLU will probably be changed, which will also affect the newsletter from SLU Plat Protection Network.
3. The E-mail group plantprotection@slu.se is used by SLU’s researchers to disseminate information related to plant protection. Everyone working at SLU can join the group. Currently, the group has ca 200 members. The group will be reminded every now and then to use this email address actively.
4. Cooperation and synergies with other actors within SLU’s communication network, the Grants Office, and other centres, networks and platforms in the area of plant protection at SLU will be established or continue. Information relevant to the general public, will be spread for example through SLU’s Facebook page or specialized Facebook groups. Under 2021, the network will also have help from the communicator for the SLU Centre for Biological Control (CBC) as well as for Skogsskada, Cajsa Lithell. This will also increase the possibilities for improving communication for the network.
5. A new Twitter account will be started. The strategy will be to localize all SLU researchers that tweet about plant protection and help them spread their research here. In addition, we will tweet about popular science and scientific plant protection news from SLU. We will connect via Twitter to other centres at SLU, which will help the spreading of information.
6. Plant protection researchers at SLU will be encouraged to participate in podcasts that already have a loyal audience, for example Radio Science, Feeding your Mind or Vetenskapsradion Klotet. If we know about plant protection researchers participating in a podcast, the news will be spread via our channels.
7. A film on plant protection research at SLU will be produced during autumn 2021 to be used at the website and in social media. It will also be distributed within the network to be used by SLU researchers in their presentations, social media, events such as Almedalen and Borgeby etc. The movie will be in English (with a possibility to show English or Swedish subtitles).
8. Scientific article feed – In 2021, a new web feature was created in collaboration with the library, showing newly published scientific articles within plant protection from researchers at SLU (dating back to 2014): http://slubar.slu.se/vxsk/?file=pages/vxsk_page&lang=sv. When registering new publications in SLUpub, there is now a tag that the researchers can click in order for the article to appear in the list. Researchers will be regularly reminded to do this.
9. Popular science articles within plant protection from SLU will from 2021 be shown via
4) SLU news, which are shared in the newsletter and on the website,
5) a link from the website to summaries at SLU’s Knowledge bank that concern plant protection, and
6) on a new site on the networks website that links to a selection of articles or pods related to plant protection research at SLU.
10. At least one seminar, webinar or conference will be arranged by the SLU Plant Protection Network yearly. This will sometimes be an SLU internal activity, and other times an open
event for SLU and stakeholders. The aim is to use some of these events to also present important external stakeholders to the network.
11. A postcard and a poster will be developed under 2021, advertising the network at SLU internally. The postcard will be used for advertising the internal kick-off event in 2021. The poster will be available for order for everyone working within plant protection at SLU.
15. Survey to stakeholders about the use of plant protection publications from SLU
A simple questionnaire will be created and sent to researchers, counsellors and other stakeholders in order to get some insights to how plant protection publications from SLU are seen and used at the moment, and what could be improved.
The current communication plan excludes an own Facebook account, a brochure, as well as any work connected to SLU’s publications (Faktablad, Växtskyddsnotiser). A separate Facebook account for the network is not deemed necessary as SLU has several Facebook accounts, and there are plenty of opportunities to spread important information on plant protection. Nowadays, brochures are not used to a large extent. In addition, many events are online due to the Corona pandemic, which is why we decided not to invest in developing a brochure. The SLU Plant Protection Network has not the resources to manage and develop the popular science series that SLU once had (e.g.
Växtskyddsnotiser & Faktablad om växtskydd – jordbruk/trädgård). However, the network’s website is thought to be an umbrella information point with a collection of links connected to plant protection research at SLU.
3.2 External questions on plant protection research at SLU
The SLU Plant Protection Network has not the aim to be an information centre for questions from the general public. However, questions to the networks coordinator or committee by the general public can be redirected to the subject experts or other suitable researchers. One can also inform about other centres of competence, such as Skogsskada. The networks website aims to show contact details for the different centres at SLU as well as for subject experts at SLU so that questions from the general public can go there directly.
4. Budget
To implement the communication plan, resources are needed to keep the website, newsletter, e-mail group, scientific publications site and Twitter continuously updated and alive, to collect, share and improve information about SLU's plant protection research at SLU's web pages, to organise workshops, to stay in contact with the other centres, networks and platforms, as well as to make a film, postcard and poster.
The costs include
• A coordinator working 20%, 2021 - December 2023 (approx. 15% for communication)
• An external resource 20%, June 2021; August – December 2021
• Newsletter tool licence
• Costs for poster/postcard printing
• Additional resource after December 2021
4.1 Necessary resources to realize the communication plan
• Editor for the website of SLU Plant Protection Network
• Editor for the newsletter from the SLU Plant Protection Network
• Editor for a Twitter account
• A person that is updating the email-group and keeps it alive
• A person that is reminding researchers to use the tag for their publications
• A person that is checking that the website is linked to from other relevant webpages and is keeping contact to other partners at SLU
• A person that is making a postcard and a poster for the network
• A person that is making a short film on plant protection research at SLU
• A person that organises a workshop or similar together with members of the committee
• A person that updates regularly the webpage with popular science from the media
• A person responsible for making, distributing and evaluating the questionnaire
While the SLU Plant Protection Network is funded and employs a coordinator for 20%, the website, newsletter and e-mail group can be maintained, a basic workshop can be organized, and possibly updating of existing pages and links can also be included in such a service. Depending on available time, also a questionnaire can be developed, spread and evaluated. For a success of the scientific article flow and the usage of the email group, the input and engagement of researchers within plant protection at SLU is needed. Likewise, successful collaboration will also depend on the collaborative partners. With an additional resource of 20% for six months, a Twitter account as well as the links to articles from the Knowledge Bank and the site showing a summary on popular science articles, pods etc from elsewhere in the media can be updated regularly during this time, and a postcard, poster and film can be made. If the Twitter account proves to be a success, we must investigate how to continue running it in future. An evaluation on how to update the sites summarizing popular science articles etc. in the future, when the external resource is not available, must be done.
5. Follow up
This strategy will be implemented in autumn 2021 and will be followed up by the coordinator and committee of the SLU Plant Protection Network in 2023. Depending on resources and on continuation of the network, the strategy will need to be amended.
6. References
• Communication strategy SLU Platform Plant Protection (written in Swedish under the title: Kommunikationsstrategi SLU Plattform växtskydd 2017)