Beneficiary 7. Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Frick, Switzerland
The Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) is one of the world’s leading organic farming research and technology transfer centres. FiBL has nine research divisions in plant production, animal production, food quality, and socio-economics. FiBL has been a partner in 27 European research projects. Several projects in Latin America, Asia, Africa, Mediterranean regions and Eastern Europe are conducted by the group of international cooperation. Alongside research, high priority is given to transferring knowledge into agricultural practice through advisory work, training courses and expert reports as well as various modern methods of documentation. The close links between the different fields of research and the rapid transfer of knowledge from research to advisory work and agricultural practice are FiBL’s strengths.

• The Plant Pathology Department (PPD) at FiBL has “state of the art” plant pathology, e.g. indoors screening of novel substances (fungicides, elicitors, adjuvants, improvers of soil suppressiveness, seed dressings) and outdoors factorial field experiments for pesticide trials according to EPPO guidelines are available at the institute. Plant/soil analysis facilities are available within the department of soil science. FiBL staff is also involved in the assessment of novel crop protection agents for organic agriculture as well as the development of improved guidance documents for the evaluation of botanicals for inclusion in Annex I under  EU-Directive 91/414. PPD staff will be responsible for the evaluation of novel compounds against plant diseases in WP 4 and will also provide consulting to compost manufacturers within the consortium in WP 5.

47. Dr. Lucius Tamm is the head of the PPD and was appointed in 1999 member the board of directors, representing 5 research departments with app. 35 staff working in plant sciences and quality research. LT has been working on plant pathology in top fruit, grapevine, and potato production systems both in R&D and the extension services. His work has focused on epidemiological studies and implementation of disease forecaster models in organic production systems. Since 1996 he has also been closely involved with the evaluation and registration of crop protection materials for use in organic agriculture as well as the development and evaluation of fungicides, biocontrol agents and elicitors in several EU-funded research projects. Recent topic related publications are given in the footnote.
48. Dr. Jacques G. Fuchs is a plant pathologist PPD and has more than 15 years experience in research on interactions between soil micro-organisms and plant health. JF has been working with antagonistic bacteria and fungi to protect plants against soil-borne diseases. Since 1994 he has specialised on the influence of microbiological communities on the development of plant diseases, especially on the potential of compost microflora to protect plants. He has developed several bioassays to characterise the disease suppressive capacity of substrates and soils. JF is advisory consultant of leading composting plants in Switzerland and he is involved in the training of compost manufacturers. He is also co-author of the Swiss guidelines for compost quality production.
Role in the project

• Research on plant disease management with botanical PPP (WP4)
• Research on composting technology involving wood residues (WP5)