Bacterial Plant Diseases Coordination Team
Lead Research Organisation:
Forest Research
Department Name: Centre for Ecosystems Soc and Biosecur
Abstract
The CT will collate and review all research proposals funded within the Bacterial Plant Diseases programme prior to the kick-off meeting to identify synergies across planned science outputs, key stakeholders and impact plans for each project. This initial analysis will form the basis of early discussions within the CT Board and EAP as to how best to mentor scientific objectives and coordinate stakeholder engagement activities going forward. This assessment will also provide an overview of the project specific objectives and enable the CT to identify overlaps between projects and ensure these are communicated to the PIs to maximise project productivity. Furthermore, the CT will explore whether there are technologies or datasets being deployed/developed that may be of use or beneficial to other projects and will inform those PI's accordingly. This activity will be ongoing and may provide greatest value in the final year of the initiative, when new and novel findings are emerging.
The CT will collate and review all research proposals funded within the Bacterial Plant Diseases programme prior to the kick-off meeting to identify synergies across planned science outputs, key stakeholders and impact plans for each project. This initial analysis will form the basis of early discussions within the CT Board and EAP as to how best to mentor scientific objectives and coordinate stakeholder engagement activities going forward. This assessment will also provide an overview of the project specific objectives and enable the CT to identify overlaps between projects and ensure these are communicated to the PIs to maximise project productivity. A 'stakeholder mapping' exercise will identify the relevant stakeholder community with potential interest in the outcomes of the funded projects. The resulting stakeholder database will build on a stakeholder map previously developed within the Phyto-threats project by MM. A single, online stakeholder survey will then be conducted within the first six months, and after the initial project overview, to identify what information and outputs stakeholders are most interested in based on the funded projects.
Collectively the CT and requested support have considerable experience in organising events from developing clear objectives, identifying and inviting attendees and managing the event on the day.We envisage that each event will promote interaction and exchange of information/data among projects to facilitate interdisciplinarity as well as target relevant stakeholders. We aim to ensure collective understanding of the research problems within different ecological, cultural, socio-economic and political contexts.There will be three main annual events involving all the project teams and key stakeholders. These are: the kick-off meeting early in yr 1, a mid-term grant holders' workshop in yr 2 and an end of programme dissemination event in yr 3. The kick-off meeting will be organised in conjunction with the Programme Management Group (PMG) and through the CT Board and EAP to set the most appropriate agenda and target stakeholders following review of the research proposals and impact plans. We will also organise three annual events involving just the CT and the science teams and including a 'themed' workshop at each of these events; these aim of these events will be to facilitate cross-project collaboration and engagement and interdisciplinarity.
The most popular and well attended national key stakeholder events for each sector will be identified. The CT will proactively develop a set of activities in which researchers from the different projects will be given the opportunity to present their work and seek feedback and inputs into their projects. The CT will also write or commission a series of short articles for technical/trade magazines outlining the ongoing project work and what it means in terms of practical management of bacterial diseases.
The CT will collate and review all research proposals funded within the Bacterial Plant Diseases programme prior to the kick-off meeting to identify synergies across planned science outputs, key stakeholders and impact plans for each project. This initial analysis will form the basis of early discussions within the CT Board and EAP as to how best to mentor scientific objectives and coordinate stakeholder engagement activities going forward. This assessment will also provide an overview of the project specific objectives and enable the CT to identify overlaps between projects and ensure these are communicated to the PIs to maximise project productivity. A 'stakeholder mapping' exercise will identify the relevant stakeholder community with potential interest in the outcomes of the funded projects. The resulting stakeholder database will build on a stakeholder map previously developed within the Phyto-threats project by MM. A single, online stakeholder survey will then be conducted within the first six months, and after the initial project overview, to identify what information and outputs stakeholders are most interested in based on the funded projects.
Collectively the CT and requested support have considerable experience in organising events from developing clear objectives, identifying and inviting attendees and managing the event on the day.We envisage that each event will promote interaction and exchange of information/data among projects to facilitate interdisciplinarity as well as target relevant stakeholders. We aim to ensure collective understanding of the research problems within different ecological, cultural, socio-economic and political contexts.There will be three main annual events involving all the project teams and key stakeholders. These are: the kick-off meeting early in yr 1, a mid-term grant holders' workshop in yr 2 and an end of programme dissemination event in yr 3. The kick-off meeting will be organised in conjunction with the Programme Management Group (PMG) and through the CT Board and EAP to set the most appropriate agenda and target stakeholders following review of the research proposals and impact plans. We will also organise three annual events involving just the CT and the science teams and including a 'themed' workshop at each of these events; these aim of these events will be to facilitate cross-project collaboration and engagement and interdisciplinarity.
The most popular and well attended national key stakeholder events for each sector will be identified. The CT will proactively develop a set of activities in which researchers from the different projects will be given the opportunity to present their work and seek feedback and inputs into their projects. The CT will also write or commission a series of short articles for technical/trade magazines outlining the ongoing project work and what it means in terms of practical management of bacterial diseases.
Technical Summary
Despite underpinning key breakthroughs in plant immunity, plant bacterial diseases have failed to attract the research support accorded to fungal and oomycete diseases. Consequently, bacterial phytopathology skills have been eroded and expertise lost to academia and industry, yet these diseases pose major risks. The coordination team has critical contacts within the community and wider expertise in social science to identify synergies and interdisciplinarity, ensure appropriate technology engagement, embed impact and monitor progress across projects. Most importantly, we will develop a structure to engage stakeholders and ensure findings are communicated through interactive gatherings, targeted social media/publishing opportunities and specific showcase events.
Publications
| Title | 'Bac in the Picture' photo competition |
| Description | A photo competition open to all those participating in Bacterial Plant Diseases programme projects, the aim being to create a fun activity to bring the project teams together and help them learn a bit about each other's work. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The results were announced and shared before Christmas. Prizes were given and bookmarks featuring winning entries were circulated to all project teams and the CT. The images submitted will be used to enhance BPD communications and make them more representative of the projects. The competition process also raised some questions about the best ways to communicate across the teams. |
| URL | https://bacterialplantdiseases.uk/and-the-winner-is-revealing-our-bac-in-the-picture-photo-competiti... |
| Title | Introduction to the Bacterial Plant Diseases programme commissioned by SciAni |
| Description | The nine BPD projects are introduced in this two-minute animation. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The animation is available to view online and is linked to the Bacterial Plant Diseases programme website. The animation was developed in collaboration with project PIs and aims to raise awareness of the projects and increase potential interactions. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HELw_WCOXw |
| Description | Flexible Talent Mobility Account |
| Amount | £40,634 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/X017656/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2023 |
| End | 03/2023 |
| Title | Guide on how to monitor and record research impacts |
| Description | A guide was produced for Bacterial Plant Disease Programme projects that provides detailed information on how to create and record research impacts through greater stakeholder engagement. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Greater conceptual understanding of the importance on stakeholder engagement to increase research impacts. The guide also builds project team capacity to think through and enact relevant activities to promote impacts |
| Title | PhytoBacExplorer: A Phylogenomic Resource for the Phytobacterial Community |
| Description | A collaboration between Warwick University Medical and Life Sciences and Exeter University, PhytoBacExplorer is built on the highly successful human EnteroBase chassis. PhytoBacExplorer will provide a complete pipeline from bacterial phytopathogen sequence assembly and annotation, through to formulating advanced queries. It will provide clear benefits for researchers studying fundamental aspects of microbiology and plant science who need basic support for genomic analyses. Furthermore, those with more advanced bioinformatic skills have the opportunity to interrogate phytogenomic relationships, geographical location, host spp. data, effector complement and associated polymorphisms, and predicted metabolic pathways to answer outstanding questions in evolution, horizontal gene transfer and ecology of these phytopathogens. With implementation of the EnteroBase chassis, we envisage PhytoBacExplorer will not only improve capacity and capability to meet the current and future challenges of bacterial diseases of crop and tree health in the UK but assist in biosecurity diagnostics and management of the UKs borders and with future incursions of phytobacterial diseases. Within the BPD programme we envisage PhytoBacExplorer will not only provide a central repository for bacterial sequences but improve capacity and capability to meet the current and future challenges of bacterial diseases of crop and tree health in the UK, assist in biosecurity diagnostics and management of the UKs borders against future incursions of phytobacterial diseases. The first publicly accessible functional iteration of PhytoBacExplorer using Xanthomonas sequences will be available in spring 2023 |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | With implementation of the EnteroBase chassis, we envisage PhytoBacExplorer will not only improve capacity and capability to meet the current and future challenges of bacterial diseases of crop and tree health in the UK but assist in biosecurity diagnostics and management of the UKs borders and with future incursions of phytobacterial diseases. Within the BPD programme we envisage PhytoBacExplorer will not only provide a central repository for bacterial sequences but improve capacity and capability to meet the current and future challenges of bacterial diseases of crop and tree health in the UK, assist in biosecurity diagnostics and management of the UKs borders against future incursions of phytobacterial diseases. The first publicly accessible functional iteration of PhytoBacExplorer using Xanthomonas sequences will be available in spring 2023 |
| Description | 'Fighting Bac' online stakeholder workshop 'Making microbes our allies' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | 54 attended (103 registered) excluding speakers with around 25% identifying as stakeholders. Added 44 new contacts to our mailing list. Stakeholder participants were brought up to date with new technologies and implications for their work with plants/trees. Five projects gave future focussed talks and guests were invited to give feedback on next steps which were captured on a Padlet . The Padlet contains valuable feedback including offers to facilitate contact with industry and advice on scaling. The event had a global reach with guests joining from as far afield as Australia, Chile, Greece, Malaysia, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey. Stakeholders attending included Allensmore Nurseries Ltd, Johnsons of Whixley, Joseph Rochfords Gardens Ltd, Forestry England, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, RS Cockerill, DEFRA, Horticulture Trades Association, MARDI (Malaysia). Stakeholders will be more 'informed' as potential users of research; they will be more able to participate in continuing dialogue with BPD researchers as to utility and relevant application of emerging technologies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | 'Fighting Bac' online stakeholder workshop 'New technologies for predicting and detecting bacterial plant diseases' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | 71 attended (152 registered) excluding speakers with around 20% identifying as stakeholders. Added 58 new contacts to our mailing list. Stakeholder participants were provided with a new perspective, on microbes as potential positive agents, not always negative. Three projects gave future focussed talks and guests were invited to give feedback on next steps which were captured on a Padlet. The Padlet contains valuable feedback including suggestions for decision making tools and working more closely with biosecurity specialists. Stakeholders will be more open to new approaches utilising microbe 'allies', in environmentally friendly technologies. They will be more interested in these areas and more able to participate in continuing dialogue with BPD researchers as to utility of novel approaches. Stakeholders showed a lot of interest in application of diagnostics but there was evidence that this was for more general assessment of potential pathogen presence rather than targeting of specific pathogens. This indicates potential opportunities to better engage in diagnostic approaches and their utility. Event had a global reach with guests joining from Argentina, Belgium, China, Egypt, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia and Tunisia. Stakeholders attending included Appletreeman, Biobest Group NV, Darby Nursery Stock, James Coles Nurseries, Plant Health Solutions Ltd, RS Cockerill, Sakata Seed Corporation, Trees Please Limited, Walberton Nursery, Defra, Forestry Commission, Horticultural Trades Association, MARDI (Malaysia), Natural Resources Wales, RHS, Senasa (Argentina). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | @BactPlantDis Twitter account |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The @BactPlantDis Twitter account has 760 followers (+95 since December). Top tweets include the call for Pseudomonas syringae pathovars (25 retweets, 28,700 impressions), announcement of tree disease factsheets ( retweeted 18 times, 1559 impressions) and our post for International Day of Women and Girls in Science (retweeted 13 times, 1155 impressions). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | All project science update virtual meeting December 8th |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | ~68 attended, comprising BPD programme science teams and CT. All eight projects were represented with PIs or other project team members giving 15 min science updates, with 5 min discussion time afterwards. Allowed project teams to continue to develop a sense of being part of a wider research community on bacterial plant diseases, increased familiarity and communication across projects. Enabled greater understanding of science progress to date and where projects have shared interests (for example in suppressive soils). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | All project team meeting, 8-9th March 2023, Newcastle |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | All project team meeting held over two days, with day one focused on showcasing the science progress to date of all the eight projects and the second day devoted to reflections, legacy planning and training. In particular the science talks generated much discussion with usually more questions than there was time for. There was also a poster session which facilitated further discussion and exchange of ideas. Members of the scientific advisory group and representatives from Defra, SASA, RGBE, Nottingham University and The Sainsbury Lab also attending this meeting to allow an external perspective, feedback and insights plus contributions to the legacy planning conversations. On the second day we heard reflections from funder/policymaker and there was a session on how to ensure that each project generates impact and a legacy going forward, with ideas and thoughts on how that can be achieved. Everyone enjoyed the opportunity to meet and understand what each group is doing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | BPD programme YouTube channel |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The BPD programme channel has 56 subscribers and now hosts 27 videos which have collectively been viewed 2074 times. Most popular is the animation which has been viewed 787 times. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMGWWoz_ReDlKe55AsFjT2A |
| Description | BPD programme quarterly newsletter |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | In January 2022 the Coordination Team launched a quarterly newsletter. It was distributed to 331 people on our MailChimp mailing list which includes researchers, stakeholders and others who have opted to receive it. A third of these opened the email and 31 clicked at least one link. The most popular link was Bac-Stop's Odes2Oaks campaign. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://bacterialplantdiseases.uk/bac-chat-newsletter-january-2022/ |
| Description | BPD website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Since relaunching on 8 November the site has now received 3,783 visits. The 'best' day was when the new site launched with 156 views. Average views per day are gradually increasing - 29 per day in January, 31 in February and 42 in March. News posts are being added most weeks with 3 in January and 4 in February. The most viewed post is the Tree Disease factsheets (175 views) followed by the photo competition winners (174 views) and the call for Pseudomonas syringae pathovars (159 views). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
| URL | https://bacterialplantdiseases.uk/ |
| Description | Bacterial Diseases of Plants Imitiative data management and training survey |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A data and training survey was initiated to assess (i) the nature, volume and type of data being generated across the projects and (ii) whether the Co-ordination team could identify training needs. This was broadly designed to capture genomic, metabolomics, field sample data, biological samples and "other" data. A key driver was to understand the volume of data, how it was being stored and in what format as well as sharing and whether there was a need for a data repository and how material, such as bacterial isolates or plant germplasm would be stored in the future. This was a productive exercise in getting projects to think carefully about what was being collected, the associated metadata and even the methodologies employed to do this. This will be followed up in the next year when all groups are working at full capacity and they have a better understanding of the challenges. The survey catalysed the BDP data management workshop that was run in February. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Bacterial Plant Diseases Programme - Introducing BPD Pathogens: an Early Career Researcher Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | A mini-symposium aimed primarily at early career researchers in each of the nine funded projects was held in order to foster a sense of belonging to a wider programme and for early career researchers to get to know each other. This was felt to be particularly important giving the ongoing impacts of Covid lockdown and associated limits on progressing with research. Early career researchers from each project (mainly PDRAs) introduced themselves and presented on their focal pathogens, providing background as to why these pathogens are important, and what research questions will be tackled. There were 55 attendees from across the projects plus attendees from UKRI, each presentation generated questions and discussion. Early feedback suggested that the mini-symposium had been well received, allowing sharing of science and debate around the science. It was decided afterwards to repeat this event in a year's time. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Bacterial Plant Diseases Programme all project team meetings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Three virtual grant holders meetings were held in 2020 (May, July and November) and one so far in 2021 (March) with all members of all nine funded projects invited to attend. The overall aim of these meetings was for the different projects to get to know each other and to engender a sense of community across the programme. Project PIs were invited to describe overall aims, expected outcomes and introduce any new starts. The Coordination Team (CT) also outlined its own plans for engagement with project teams as well as stakeholders, and how it can help to support the projects, particularly in relation to generating impact. The CT also updated project teams on activities (events and training) planned for 2021 and the March 2021 meeting included a training session on Researchfish. These meetings also provided an opportunity to discuss difficulties arising from Covid and to outline the positives, i.e. what has each project been able to achieve despite the challenges. Project presentations were followed by questions and discussion. Cross-project communications started where science synergies and potential for sharing approaches and resources have been identified and new informal collaborations were initiated. There was also a request for a virtual workshop on impact generation by two of the projects, now expanded out to include four more projects |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Bacterial Plant Diseases YouTube account (created in 2020) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Our BPD Youtube channel has 90 subscribers and hosts 33 videos. The videos have collectively been viewed 3774 times. The most popular is still the intro animation which has now been viewed 1028 times. We added one video this quarter - a review of 2023. This was created using photos submitted by team members and taken at events during 2023. It was well received by the project team and since uploading on YouTube is has been viewed 43 times. The existing videos continue to provide a valuable resource. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| Description | Bacterial Plant Diseases programme all project team meetings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | The CT provided an update on future activities, Joana Vicente launched the Photo Competition ('Bac in the Picture') including five categories. Sarah McLusky introduced herself and initial communication plans, Debbie Harding outlined reporting requirements and polled for interest in an 'in person' mid-term meeting and PIs presented updates on science progress following the field season and on stakeholder engagement. Feedback obtained from project teams via 'Padlet' indicated that a 'hybrid' mid-term event was preferred (both in-person and online) and this will be planned for early 2022. Project teams also provided feedback on the BPD website and what they would like to see on it; Sarah McLusky will take this on board in her redevelopment of the website. Greater awareness was generated among project teams of each other's research progress to date. Launch of Photo Competition among BPD programme members will assist in building a sense of being part of a community of researchers and will help raise awareness of bacterial plant diseases externally. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Bacterial Plant Diseases website https://www.bacterialplantdiseases.uk/ |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Since relaunching on 8 November 2021, the Bacterial Plant Diseases website has now received 13,379 visits (+1633 since last report). The 'best' day in this quarter was 26 January 2023 (83 views) - the day after we published our most recent newsletter suggesting that drove traffic to the site. Most popular pages this quarter have been the BAC-STOP and Xanthomonas Threats project pages and the disease decline model post. Of the new blog/news posts the most visited is the bookmarks reveal (14 Dec). News of the updated disease decline spiral published by BAC-STOP remains the most popular news post and has now received 440 total views. Average views per day are steady at around 30 per day. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| URL | https://www.bacterialplantdiseases.uk/ |
| Description | Bacterial tree diseases and their impacts - ensuring a healthy future for our trees |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The aim of the event was to explore some of the current challenges facing stakeholders with respect to bacterial tree diseases. It also sought to build relationships and identify some of the ways that researchers and stakeholders could work together on these challenges to ensure a healthy future for the UK's trees. The programme included 3 speakers and 3 panellists with different perspectives on the topic as well as the opportunities for audience contributions and questions. The workshop was attended by 53 participants. The participants were asked on registration to self-identify as researcher, stakeholder or 'just interested'. Attendees were around 50% researchers, 25% stakeholders and 25% just interested. There was a slightly higher rate of 'no-shows' among stakeholders. Attendees represented a broad range of organisations including ADAS Horticulture, Animal & Plant Health Agency, ICAR-IIHR, National Trust for Scotland, NIBIO, RHS, Symbiosis, UK Squirrel Accord and universities as far afield as South Africa and the Middle East. With permission we added 58 new contacts to our mailing list. Videos of the presentations were uploaded on our YouTube channel and have had numerous viewings. The potential severe impact of bacterial canker of cherry, as demonstrated by Richard Harnden (the speaker from Berry Gardens), raised discussion about how resilience of cherry orchards could be improved. The role of clean planting stock and reduction in reliance on imports was also discussed as being of particular concern in face of greatly increased national tree planting targets. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Bacterial tree diseases from past to future - how to identify, manage and prevent new introductions |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The aim of the event was to raise awareness and understanding of both current and emerging bacterial tree diseases, and to share advice on what people can do to help limit their spread. The three speakers covered long-established bacterial tree diseases such as cherry/plum canker and ash canker (John Mansfield), more recent invasive species, such as horse chestnut bleeding canker (Sarah Green) and future threats and mitigation (Alistair Yeomans).The webinar was attended by 56 participants (+ 5 speakers and organisers). Attendees were around 50% researchers, 25% stakeholders and 25% just interested. Attendees represented a broad range of organisations including ADAS, APHA, Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru, Dunnet Forest, National Trust for Scotland, NIBIO, Plants and Apples, RHS, Scottish Forestry, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Symbiosis Consulting UK and Woodland Trust. With permission we added 22 new contacts to our mailing list. Videos of the presentations were uploaded on our YouTube channel. General awareness of bacterial plant diseases was raised. Feedback indicates enthusiasm for similar events in the future and more 'fact sheets' or similar accessible resources. This message has been communicated to project leads and we anticipate such resources will be produced in the coming year. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Conference presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presented at the BSPP Presidential Meeting, Our Plants Our Future on the Bacterial Plant Diseases Initiative and the Xanthomonas Threats progress. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Critical friend impact discussions with projects |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Each project within the BPD programme have been invited to 1-2 meeting to support the evolution of impact generation and documenting impacts in progress |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Data Management and Community-building workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | The BPD programme provides an opportunity to develop data management methods that are shared across all projects. This can be an exemplar for future related projects. The first step in this process is to engender the importance of good data management amongst the PDRAs and technical staff involved in each project. The workshop delivered in January 2021 focused around a talk from Tjelvar Olsson at the John Innes Centre on the basics of data management and was aimed at preparing BPD participants for taking care of the data that will be generated in their projects. A second major aim of the workshop was to begin the building of a community amongst participants across different projects. This was enabled by participants introducing themselves, their projects and the challenges they anticipate having to overcome. Ultimately, the CT hope to develop a data repository that will allow ease of access to the outputs from each project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Early Career Researcher Development Workshop (Sheffield 12-13 Oct) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Three Early Career Researchers (ECR) worked with the CT to plan the workshop. 19 ECRs attended (all projects represented) with a further 8 speakers and members of the Coordination Team. A meeting for ECRs was identified as a key aim at the full team meeting in March. The CT worked with three ECR members - Sara Franco Ortega, Jamie Harrison and Sundeep Kaur - to plan and deliver the 2 day workshop. The ECRs input was hugely valuable and, at their request, the resulting event was more about relationship building and professional development and less about sharing science. The workshop was very well received with the presentation skills workshop (with external trainer Duncan Yellowlees) and icebreaker 'bingo' particularly popular. Suggestions for further events included more on alternative career paths including industry, more on transferable skills, more on science/research and a longer presentation skills session. As a result of the workshop the ECRs have set up a group mailing list and WhatsApp group to stay in touch with each other. They are also organising a concurrent session at the ICPP2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Email list and Bac Chat Newsletter |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Since launching in January 2022 we have now produced 5 editions of our Bac Chat newsletter (Jan, Apr, Jul, Sep 2022 and Jan 2023). Our mailing list is steady this quarter at 502. Emails have an open rate of around 35% and a click rate of around 10%.The newsletters are a way of sharing news, blog posts and upcoming events. The most clicked link on our last email was for details of the upcoming projects meeting, followed closely by the news story about the Defra biosecurity strategy. The list is approx. 2/3 researchers and 1/3 stakeholders. In February 2023 we moved our mailing list management from Mailchimp to Mailerlite. This is because Mailchimp has started charging for mailing lists bigger than 500 whereas Mailerlite allows up to 1000 free. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| Description | FTMA Placements programme (Jan-Mar 2023) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Researchers (especially early career researchers) from Bacterial Plant Diseases programme projects spending 1-2 weeks in placements, either with industry, policy or other science institutions. Eight placements planned with 5 of 8 projects taking part. Participants will develop skills and understanding related to a different work environment, enhancing career development. Increased understanding of stakeholder priorities and their preferred research outputs, facilitating impact. Participants will develop or further strengthen relationships with potential future partners or employers which will be beneficial for future research collaborations, knowledge exchange and impact. Placement partner organisations will learn more about latest research and strengthen their relationship with research institutions and with individual ECRs. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Grower perspectives on bacterial plant diseases; what are the challenges and how can science help? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The aim of the workshop was to help the Coordination Team identify the most important concerns of industrial stakeholders, and ways in which the science can and should be addressing these concerns. Speakers as well as researcher and stakeholder panellists encouraged researchers in plant bacterial diseases to: engage early and often with stakeholders; maintain ongoing two-way conversations to stay up-to-date with stakeholder needs and to communicate findings as early as possible; and to use readily accessible dissemination/communication vehicles, avoiding jargon. The workshop was attended by 84 participants and led to the identification of key steps going forward, including i) continuing to facilitate conversations between programme researchers and stakeholders, ii) holding additional, targeted workshops bringing researchers and stakeholders together, iii) encouraging projects to ensure they are considering stakeholder needs through each stage of their project, iv) assisting projects in the development of accessible, useful, clear dissemination outputs to share findings with stakeholders throughout, and v) promoting visibility of the programme and projects so that stakeholders can find both researcher contacts and information readily. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Knowledge exchange and impact workshops |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We provided knowledge exchange and impact guidance to project leaders and team for 8 of the 9 Bacterial Plant Disease Programme projects. The content of the events focussed on practicalities to empower the projects to enhance their own non-academic impacts with their own stakeholders. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
| Description | LinkedIn group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We have created a LinkedIn group where we will post news related to the Bacterial Plant Diseases activities. Currently (March 2021) we have 45 members. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9026318/ |
| Description | Mid-term hybrid BPD programme meeting held in Sheffield 15/16 March |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | The meeting was attended by @40 in person participants and @35 online participants. The meeting included research updates from all projects as well as stakeholder engagement and impact activities, finishing up with what the BPD projects would like to see from the CT going forward. Greater understanding and awareness of science approaches and outcomes across projects with agreement for greater communication between projects which share themes/methods. Enthusiasm was expressed for more face-to-face meetings especially around the professional development needs of early career researchers. Feedback also highlighted the desire to improve stakeholder engagement through dedicated project team/stakeholder meetings based on priority themes. For in person attendees the meeting was particularly effective at helping to build networks and community. Online attendees were less engaged but felt much better informed about the projects. The CT have learned a lot about running hybrid events and what the projects want going forwards. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | PBD initiative research project overview; support, monitoring, identifying opportunities and risk assessments |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A research team of Prof. Murray Grant (molecular plant pathology) and Dr Joana Vicente (phytopathogen bacteriologist) have monitored BPD projects through a combination of 1:1 meetings with PIs (and co-I's) and attending monthly lab meetings of a number of groups. The initial focus was on assessing initial establishment of functional Teams in a very challenging environment during which many Universities were still reconfiguring their administration support at the same time as BPD Grant award letters were received. At time of writing most groups were up to strength but we all impacted, most quite substantially by both Covid and Brexit. Of the 8 projects, only 2, Suppressive Soils (Sheffield) and Des-Blackleg (Dundee led) started in September with Sheffield managing a full growing season sampling and the Cherry Canker (NIAB) project managing to sample for Pseudomonas using existing resources. Common issues arising included recruitment delays across all levels (administration through to travel restrictions), getting contractors to undertake core field sampling facilities, access to field sites, furlough, reduced laboratory/glasshouse and dedicated facility capacity to comply with social distancing. This impacts both productivity and often impedes or prevents the ability to train new staff properly. The dual impact of Covid lockdown and Brexit has resulted in delays in laboratory supplies (in many cases by over 2 months) and access to field sites as well as bringing in plant material from Europe. Collectively these factors mean there could be a real risk of loss of field sampling in 2021 and the ability to complete all 3 sampling seasons where applicable without an extension. By nature of visa's for skilled staff, contracts may have to be offered beyond the current project end dates. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
| Description | Plant Health Week (9-15 May 22) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | A webinar on bacterial plant diseases had 57 live attendees, videos viewed 169 times. Blog posts viewed 201 times, website hits 2x higher than typical week Twitter campaigns #PlantsMakeLifeBetter and #HelpingKeepPlantsHealthy achieved 10,000 impressions - 5x higher than typical week 62 new mailing list subscribers New resources webpage launched (viewed 133 times so far). Collaborating with DEFRA Plant Health Action team and taking part in an existing campaign raised our profile considerably and provided a structure and focus for our activities. As a result of this collaboration Sarah McLusky was invited to contribute to future Plant Health Week comms planning (see below). Association with Plant Health Week boosted our global reach and brought in a lot of new contacts. All projects got involved in some way - whether through blog posts, the webinar or tweeting - boosting researchers' confidence to engage. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation on the BPD programme and what it can offer to the UK Science Partnership for Animal and Plant Health |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This activity raised awareness of the BPD programme within Defra and the Research Councils, generated discussion and suggestions on how to increase impact. Outcomes include key responses to the stakeholder survey from high level stakeholders. The activity has also paved the way for the CT to continue liaising with the Partnership over the three years of the programme on a regular basis |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Promotion of BPD activities on social media |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | On 14 February 2023, the @BactPlantDis Twitter account has 1170 followers . 12 original tweets have been posted. Top tweets included pictures from our Dec projects meeting (1262 impressions) and a post about change in PI of one of the projects (2488 impressions).Top tweets in early 2023 were the announcement of Andrea Harper taking over as project lead for Ralstonia Phage (2488 impressions) and our case study in the new Defra Plant Biosecurity Strategy (1698 impressions). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| Description | Stakeholder engagement and impact workshops |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We provided knowledge exchange and impact guidance to project leaders and their teams including early career researchers for all Bacterial Plant Disease Programme projects. The content of the events focussed on practicalities to empower the projects to enhance their own non-academic impacts with their own stakeholders. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Stakeholder questionnaire |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Engagement with stakeholders via a survey to understand their needs and the most effective ways that projects and the Bacterial Plant Diseases Programme Coordination team can engage with them over the next 3 years. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Twitter account |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Our Twitter account, Bacterial Plant Diseases UK @PlantDis, was created in July 2020 and now has 411 followers (March 2021). We have done 442 tweets (average of 1.91 tweets per day) and received 291 user mentions and 285 retweets. The account has been used to disseminate news related to the BPD projects and events (currently online). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/BactPlantDis |
| Description | Webinar on the Bacterial Plant Diseases Programme for Plant Health Week |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | As part of #PlantHealthWeek the CT hosted a webinar to an audience of around 100 people, including from the UK and overseas, that introduced the nine BPD projects as well as the importance of stakeholder engagement and impact studies. This is a permanent record to introduce the BPD projects, which can be used to promote the programme throughout the grant period, and is available on the Bacterial Plant Diseases Programme website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efvnDIUbrq8& |
| Description | Website development |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We have been developing a website that introduces all nine BPD projects. We had around 200 visitors in February/March - most might be researchers, but might also be reaching some professional practicioners and stakeholders. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
| URL | https://www.bacterialplantdiseases.uk/ |
| Description | YouTube channel |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We have set up a Bacterial Plant Diseases YouTube channel. Currently it has 11 videos. The animation that introduced all the BPD projects has over 400 views. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMGWWoz_ReDlKe55AsFjT2A/videos |