Reseach Areas
WP1: Crop Health Epidemiology: Farm-scale monitoring of pests and biodiversity
The population dynamics, epidemiology, and crop impacts of pests and their symbionts are shaped by biological, environmental, and management processes across field to landscape scales. In WP1, national farm networks in Denmark and the UK will collect biological, environmental, and management data to track crop threats and biodiversity. Using an “every field as an experiment” approach, we aim to generate robust epidemiological models to understand the interactions driving crop health at multiple scales.
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WP Coordinator: Paul Neve (UCPH) & David Comont (Rothamsted Research)
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WP2: Experimental farm platform for One Crop Health
WP2 complements WP1 by conducting large-scale, long-term field experiments to enable high-resolution data collection for developing digital twins and understanding pest dynamics. These experiments will support research on disruptive cropping systems, mechanistic pest-environment interactions, and testing new technologies for pest detection and control, with Højbakkegård and Rothamsted serving as key experimental platforms.
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WP Coordinator: Jonathan Storkey (Rothamsted Research)
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WP3: Digital twins, tools and infrastructure for One Crop Health
WP3 focuses on developing digital twin technologies to enable precise, real-time crop health interventions by integrating pest monitoring, outbreak prediction, and targeted responses. The research distinguishes between digital models, shadows, and twins to guide the creation of tools that simulate complex crop health systems and their trade-offs.
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WP coordinator: Sune Darkner (UCPH)​
WP4: Next generation interventions for One Crop Health
WP4 includes 12 PhD projects across five partner institutions, aimed at training future scientists in systems-based approaches to sustainable agriculture. Each student will be supervised jointly by Danish and UK researchers, promoting international collaboration and mobility. The program will offer workshops, training, and networking opportunities, fostering an interdisciplinary and strategic research environment that prepares students for diverse career paths.
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WP coordinator: Paul Neve (UCPH)
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Project: Smart weeding: Ecologically guided precision management of arable plant biodiversity
PhD student: Matthew Perry
Main supervisor: David Comont
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Project: Impacts of agronomic practices on wheat stem diseases
PhD student: Bela Fistric
Main supervisor: Jon West
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Project: Developing image processing and machine learning tools for automatic identification and quantification of cabbage stem flea beetle pressure
PhD student: Lawrence Still
Main supervisor: Patry Ortega-Ramos
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Project: Towards a mechanistic understanding of disease suppressive soils
PhD student: Kelis Fisher
Main supervisor: Tim Daniell
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Project: Using environmental DNA to assess soil health bioindicators and their relationship to crop nutrition and production under different agricultural regimes.
PhD student: Sabina Schneider
Main supervisor: Penny Watt
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Project: The impact of functional biodiversity in insect-weed interaction
PhD student: Caroline Bayer Frøhling
Main supervisor: Stine Kramer Jacobsen
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Project: Harnessing eDNA for surveillance and management of agro-biodiversity
PhD student: Zhao Li
Main supervisor: Natasha de Vere
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Project: Breaking the bank: Weed seed decay in arable soils
PhD student: Leon Bedekovic Arnaut
Main supervisor: Paul Neve
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Project: The role of cropping system diversification supporting weed-arthropod interactions, biodiversity and ecosystem
services in arable fields.
PhD student: Suresh Banisetti
Main supervisors: Bo Melander and Claus Rasmussen
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Project: Untapping belowground plant interactions for optimal plant defence in crops.
PhD student: Amanda Thystrup
Main supervisors: Michael Kristensen and Benjamin Fuchs
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Project: Computer Vision for Monitoring of Pests, Weeds and Beneficials in Agricultural Fields
PhD student: Markos Aivazoglou-Vounatsos
Main supervisor: Kim Steenstrup Pedersen
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Project: Mechanistic co-simulation of Insects, Weeds and Plant Infestation in Agricultural Fields
PhD student: Eva Enevoldsen
Main supervisor: Sune Darkner