The coordinator of RATION Prof. Karpouzas is presenting the current state and progress of RATION in the Workshop on the development of a fit-for-purpose approach for assessing the risk of low-concern active substances which was organized by EFSA in Thessaloniki, Greece on the 15-16th of January 2025.
Continue Reading4RTH NEWSLETTER OF RATION
The fourth e-newsletter of RATION was issued. Have a look on the activities of RATION so far and its prime goals).
Continue ReadingRation synergy with NextGenBioPest!
NextGenBioPest is a Horizon EU project that meets the challenge of increasing crop yields, while reducing the use of chemical pesticides by delivering novel and improved products, methods, and practices for the rational control of the most difficult-to-manage arthropod pests and pathogens, with substantially reduced pesticide use. The project will provide a new toolkit for plant protection in key vegetable and fruit crops including diagnostics for pest and pathogen identification and incrimination, novel Biological Control Agents and methods to augment their performance in the field, RNA-based pesticides, Low Risk/Green chemicals, plant resistance inducers and innovative agronomic and ecological practices. These innovations will be integrated with existing approaches, to achieve effective, environment friendly and sustainable crop protection.
Check the link for more: https://www.nextgenbiopest.eu/

ABIM 2024
The main findings and activities of RATION were presented in the ABIM 2024 Conference which was organized in Basel, Switzerland on the 21-23 October 2024. The researchers of RATION along with the member of the advisory board Dr S. Arpaia, an expert in the risk assessment of dsRNA, presented their work and had the chance to discuss with the audience the future work on the area of risk assessment of low risk pesticides. The RATION workshop was organized with the valuable help of IBMA and it was attended by over 100 people.
Continue ReadingUpcoming fourth Stakeholders Forum Workshop of RATION on 2 December 2024!
Check out the program and meet via Zoom!
Continue ReadingRATION conference participation in Germany
Dr. Dimitrios Karpouzas and Dr. Khalid Amari Baba were invited to present their work in the Conference: Novel Pesticides ‘Towards Sustainability in the Regulatory Framework of the EU’ that was held in Düsseldorf Germany in 19th and 20th of September 2024. Both Professors has the opportunity to talk about RATION progress and activities and ds-RNA pesticides and the work performed by RATION in this area.
Continue ReadingRation Researchers presenting their work in July satellite event, Micrope 2024
On the 19th of July 2024 a workshop with the title “Possible future guidance and risk assessment for novel microbial and microbiome solutions for biocontrol in European agriculture” was organized by AIT as a satellite event of the International Symposium Micrope. Researchers from RATION like the coordinator Dimitrios Karpouzas, Dr Brader Gunder (AIT), Dr Antonis Chatzinotas (UFZ) and Dr Jose Luis Alonso Prados (CSIC-INIA) presented the work done in the area of microbial pesticides risk assessment in the project RATION and talked about novel microbial solutions like phages, protists, consortia and data requirements.
Continue ReadingPresentation of RATION in the 19th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology (ISME19) in Cape Town, South Africa
The work presented addresses two aspects that are targeted in RATION, towards the development of a new RA scheme for dsRNAs as low-risk biopesticides: (a) the mode-of-action of small RNAs in the plant, focusing on epigenetic effects on the plant genome, and (b) the movement of sRNAs in the root-to-shoot access.
Continue ReadingOn-line Workshop on RA of dsRNA-based pesticides
On Thursday 29th of August an on-line workshop took placeto establish initial contact with the Task Force involved in WP4, which focuses on the risk assessment of dsRNA-based pesticides, and facilitated meaningful interaction among its members. The outcomes included a comprehensive introduction to RNA interference (RNAi) and a focused discussion on critical issues surrounding dsRNA risk assessment through a webinar. The 34 workshop participants engaged in an in-depth Q&A session, addressing the Task Force members’ concerns regarding the risk assessment of dsRNA-based pesticides.
Continue Reading3rd E-newsletter of RATION
The third e-newsletter of RATION was issued. Have a look on the activities of RATION so far and its prime goals).
Continue Reading