Core Group Meeting 2019 (Catania)

When the EuroXanth COST Action CA16107 approached its midterm in April 2019, a Core Group Meeting was organised at the Università degli Studi di Catania, Dipartimento di Agricoltura e Ambiente, in Catania/Sicily, Italy, on February 25-27, 2019, in order to plan the second half of this COST Action. 

In addition to Members of the Core Group, key persons from other multi-national initiatives in our field had been invited, thus fostering our links to them, generating synergistic effects and achieving sustainable outputs. This meeting improved the research coordination and capacity building activities of the COST Action, as stated in the Memorandum of Understanding, and fostered existing and created new links with the other European initiatives.

The meeting welcomed 21 participants from 14 countries (see below) and served as a platform to discuss strategic issues (organisation of COST events during the upcoming grant periods; preparatory work for tangible Deliverables; budget planning; midterm reporting, opportunities for dissemination activities) and to evaluate approaches how to better encourage Early Career Investigators to take leading positions.

List of Participants

Name	Role	Country	Consortium
BOCH, Jens	WG3 Leader	DE	EuroXanth
BOSIS, Eran	WG2 Vice Leader	IL	EuroXanth
BRAGARD, Claude	Chair	BE	EFSA Panel on Plant Health
CARUSO, Paola	Coordinator	IT	ORPRAMed
CATARA, Vittoria	Vice Chair	IT	EuroXanth
CIRVILLERI, Gabriella	MC Substitute	IT	EuroXanth
COSTA, Joana	WG1 Leader	PT	EuroXanth
DREO, Tanja	Panel Member	SI	EPPO Panel on Diagnostics in Bacteriology
EL MOUJABBER, Maroun	Coordinator	IT	Cure-XF
HOLEVA, Maria C.	MC Member	GR	EuroXanth
JACQUES, Marie-Agnès	Internal & Financial Monitoring Reporter	FR	EuroXanth
KALUZNA, Monika	STSM Coordinator	PL	EuroXanth
KOEBNIK, Ralf	Chair	FR	EuroXanth
KOVACS, Tamas	WG4 Vice Leader	HU	EuroXanth
LESTER, Katherine	Coordinator	GB	Euphresco “Xylella fastidiosa and its insect vectors”
MORELLI, Massimiliano	ECI	IT	EuroXanth
OBRADOVIC, Aleksa	Panel Member	RS	POnTE
PEŇÁZOVÁ, Eliška	ECI	CZ	EuroXanth
POTHIER, Joël F.	WG2 Leader	CH	EuroXanth
SAPONARI, Maria	Coordinator	IT	XF-ACTORS and Euphresco “Harmonized protocol for monitoring and detection of Xylella fastidiosa in its host plants and its vectors”
VICENTE, Joana	Science Communication Manager	GB	EuroXanth

The Minutes of the Core Group Meeting are available for download: Core Group Meeting Catania 2019 Minutes.