Prestigious EC award to Prof Gordon Hamilton and Dr William Kirk

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William Kirk in Greenhouse

Posted on 20 April 2012

Professor Gordon Hamilton and Dr William Kirk (pictured left) have been awarded a European Commission FP7 Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES) to support a new research collaboration studying thrips.

Thrips are a major agricultural and horticultural pest.  The objective of this prestigious international collaboration, the "Europe Australasian Thysanoptera Semiochemical (EATS) Network" is to develop novel semiochemical-based tools for sustainable thrips pest management and border detection.  The award has a total value for the European partners of €58,800 (ca. £52,000).  Keele's main role is to use a "mass spectrum library tool" currently being prepared here as part of a European Marie Curie Incoming International Fellowship on "Pheromone Identification for Environmentally Responsible Control of Thrips" to carry out an initial identification of the male-produced aggregation pheromone of two Australasian thrips pest species. The four-year award enables travel for meetings and sample collections between Keele and its partners in the Netherlands, Spain, Austria, New Zealand and Australia.

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