The VIRTIGATION project looks back on 4,5 years of research & innovation to protect tomato and cucurbit crops from emerging plant viruses. Relive the highlights from our final scientific symposium and project meeting, which took place from 6-7 November 2025 in Leuven, Belgium.
VIRTIGATION project final event gathers key plant health stakeholders
The final scientific symposium of the VIRTIGATION project took place on 7 November 2025 at the Irish College Leuven. This event highlighted the main findings achieved by the VIRTIGATION consortium, and further provided an outlook on the future of horticultural plant protection in the EU. 70 key plant health stakeholders attended the project’s final symposium, including policymakers (i.e. EPPO, European Commission Directorate for Food Safety and Health, NVWA – National Plant Protection Organisation of the Netherlands), agro-industry actors, growers, extension services and researchers. An additional 70 stakeholders attended the VIRTIGATION final event online.
Plant health policy and scientific insights from the symposium
In their interventions, plant health policymakers from the EPPO (Charlotte Trontin), the European Commission (Panagiota Mylona) and the NVWA (Marleen Botermans) emphasised:
the complexity of addressing emerging plant pests,
the need for better surveillance of emerging plant viruses and incentives for growers for timely reporting,
the essential role of diagnostics in policy implementation,
and the challenges posed by the use of unauthorised plant protection products.
The policymakers from EU and national level further stressed that implementation at EU Member State level is essential for the delivery of effective plant protection measures.
The VIRTIGATION project’s final symposium further gathered Adrian Fox from the UK-based Fera Science and Wulf Menzel from the Leibniz Institute DSMZ (i.e. plant virus collection curation) as keynote speakers. The scientists underlined the importance of continued mitigation efforts against emerging plant viruses such as ToBRFV and ToLCNDV. While the widespread adoption of technologies like high-throughput sequencing (HTS) has dramatically shortened response times to virus outbreaks, access to biological materials still remains restricted by legal frameworks such as the Nagoya Protocol.
VIRTIGATION project partners present main results achieved
At the final symposium, VIRTIGATION partners then presented their main results achieved during the project’s lifetime. VIRTIGATION partners Volcani Center and TECNOVA firstly shared key findings on ToBRFV sanitation control. Thereafter, VIRTIGATION partner DCM CORP reported on its research conducted for a possible cross-protection approach against ToBRFV, which did not turn out to be a viable ToBRFV mitigation option. In combination with ToBRFV-resistant cultivars, cross-protection creates high selection pressure and might lead to resistance-breaking strains.
The University of Catania outlined project findings on whitefly biocontrol. In this regard, first efficacy trial results from VIRTIGATION have shown that biopesticide formulations developed by KU Leuven displayed strong potential for effective whitefly biocontrol. In particular, these novel biopesticide formulations performed in trials comparably to commercial bioinsecticides, and were also compatible with beneficial insects.
VIRTIGATION partner Wageningen University & Research (WUR) then presented the project’s main achievements on breeding for ToBRFV and whitefly resistance. In the concluding presentation of project results, new innovations for diagnostics of plant viruses were presented by WUR and EMWEB. Thereby, EMWEB presented the new functionalities of its Genome Detective platform which enhance plant virus detection, including the addition of RCA (Rolling circle amplification). EMWEB also outlined the discovery of surprising ToBRFV sources in its research, such as in wastewater.
Looking ahead: Key takeaways from the VIRTIGATION symposium panel debate
The VIRTIGATION symposium concluded with a spirited and lively panel debate, where invited keynote speakers discussed with stakeholders and VIRTIGATION partners on the next steps forward for horticultural crop protection in the light of emerging viruses. Thereby, they converged on the following priorities to be pursued going forward:
Greater use of HTS, particularly for plant (product) import surveillance.
Improved global coordination and equitable access to diagnostic tools.
Stronger data sharing, critical for early detection of emerging viruses.
Start integration of AI for horizon scanning and large-scale data analysis.
Closer collaboration among growers, NPPOs such as NVWA, scientists and EU regulators, with EU projects like VIRTIGATION acting as hubs for cooperation.
VIRTIGATION project final meeting
The final project meeting of VIRTIGATION took place a day before the final symposium, on 6 November 2025, also at the Irish College Leuven. This meeting focused on project results achieved and the preparation of the final technical report to the European Commission. Moreover, the meeting included a final session with the VIRTIGATION advisory board. In this session, VIRTIGATION advisory board member Darren Martin from the University of Cape Town congratulated the project on its achievements, in particular in the second half of its duration with key findings reported in several scientific publications.
Darren Martin also lauded the strong communication work done by VIRTIGATION to bring the science to the public and stakeholders. Finally, Martin recommended to further build on the project’s research achievements, by going deeper e.g. with its mixed viral infections research through the conduction of a genome-wide association study to better understand the evolution of emerging viruses such as ToBRFV and ToLCNDV.
More information about the final event and results of the VIRTIGATION project
- Watch the aftermovie of the final symposium on YouTube
- Watch the interviews with keynote speakers Marleen Botermans (NVWA), Charlotte Trontin (EPPO), Adrian Fox (Fera Science) and Wulf Menzel (DSMZ) on YouTube
- Discover a summary of VIRTIGATION project results achieved in our final press release
- Explore publications, datasets, deliverables, and software from VIRTIGATION at our open-access Zenodo community, which will remain active post-project
© Cover photo: Badger Productions
