Overall Aim
The development of a network of academic and industrial bodies enabling the comprehensive training of young researches which will explore the complex interactions between pesticides and soil microbes leading to the development of risk assessment procedures and experimental guidelines. This objective will be achieved through a balanced scheme of new recruitments and secondments that will support an inter-sectoral technology transfer.
Main Research Aim
The interactions between pesticides and soil microorganisms are complex and their outcome might bring ‘felicity’ for microbes which are able to utilize these chemicals as an energy source and rapidly degrade and detoxify it or as a ‘curse’ for soil microbes which are vulnerable to the inherent toxicity of these chemicals. The main research objective of LOVE-TO-HATE is to explore these complex interactions between soil microbes and pesticides using advanced molecular tools which will the factors deciding which way the balance will go (stimulation or inhibition)
Scientific and Technological Aims