The H2020 POnTE Project Web site: an online resource for scientific dissemination on emerging pest diseases

The International Research Consortium POnTE (Pest Organism Threatening Europe) is being funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme to investigate four pathogens (i.e. Xylella fastidiosa, CandidatusLiberibacter solanacearum, Hymenoscyphus fraxineus and Phythophtora spp.) representing a major threat to strategic crops and natural landscapes in the EU, and identify integrated management strategies for their containment. The wide range of studies conducted within the Project tasks on key emergent pests and the rising request for accessing up-to-date references over the Internet, suggested the need to provide a larger variety of real-time information about the project and its targets for a much wider variety of end-users. A WordPress-based web portal (www.ponteproject.eu) has been created by the Coordination Team to support collaborative platform functions, enhance the project’s visibility and provide in a flexible manner a rapid dissemination of valuable information, fostering raise of general knowledge and public awareness on relevant themes in plant pathology. Answering to the modern challenges, accounting for an effective web-based pest information system, the resource is intended as an open-access platform to share scientific achievements, upload promotional material and fact sheets, communicate conferences and training courses, report press review and legislative regulations. A social media presence on Twitter and Facebook channels was set up from the early stages in order to enable a two-way communication with a web-active audience and work towards a continuous engagement of the major plant pathology networking platforms and institutional accounts. To keep Project partners and interested parties always informed of the web site updates and encourage frequent visits, a newsletter is being released on a weekly basis.