The 21^st Euroblight workshop will be held at University of Vigo, Campus Ourense, Ourense, Spain 18-21 May, 2026. Registration opens on the 26^th November, 12.00, 2025.

Scope of the workshop

Recommendations resulting from the 2024 EuroBlight workshop in the Netherlands were:

• Coordinate disease surveillance & pathogen monitoring.
• Accelerate breeding efforts for resistance to new pathogen races.
• Coordinate assessment of the epidemic potential of new emerging variants of the pathogen
• Develop and test IPM/ICM based control strategies in diverse agroecological environments and combine with landscape-based risk and dispersal modelling tools and services.
• Rethink fungicide application strategies and disseminate information on fungicide efficacy aimed towards decision making.

Potato production in Europe faces increasing challenges from emerging, more aggressive Phytophthora infestans strains — some of which show reduced sensitivity to key fungicide modes of action, and others that can overcome varieties containing complex resistances. In Denmark, PFAS-based fungicides are now banned due to the detection of persistent TFA in groundwater. Currently, it is not known when and how this will influence PFAS-regulation EU-wide. At the last EuroBlight workshop in the Netherlands, it was reported that no new fungicide modes of action are currently in the development pipeline.

EuroBlight accepts the challenge to initiate, develop, test, and analyse innovative solutions for the sustainable control of potato late blight and early blight across Europe.

The 2026 workshop invites you to contribute to this mission through new insights, fresh initiatives, collaboration, capacity building, and the sharing of data and data science infrastructure. As Richard Harrison, Managing Director of the Plant Sciences Group at WUR, emphasized in his opening speech at the previous workshop: “One key question now is — what more can we do - together?”

Important themes for the workshop in Spain will be:

• How to manage late blight with limited access to traditional fungicides
• Fungicide resistance avoidance strategies and use of alternative products to control late blight and early blight
• Exploiting knowledge of the host, the pathogens and their interactions for improved control strategies and DSSs
• Combining local DSSs with Host and Pathogen information at the landscape level
• Global collaboration - understand, innovate and limit dispersal

Outline of the 2026 workshop

For the 21^st Euroblight workshop there will be a maximum of 100 participants. Participants offering an oral or poster presentation will be prioritized. Early career scientists are especially encouraged to participate!

The workshop will start on the evening of Monday 18^th May with our traditional welcome drinks and appetisers at the venue in Ourense.

Presentations will be grouped in five plenary sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday morning and  the workshop will split into three subgroups on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning. Subgroup sessions will include short presentations but will also discuss new research questions, protocols, trials plans, communication activities and new initiatives or research proposals.

Registration will open on the EuroBlight website on 26^th November, 12.00, 2025.

Local host

The local host is University of Vigo, Faculty of Sciences,  Professor M. Carmen Seijo Coello and her research group

Organising committee

• Jens G. Hansen, Aarhus University (DK) (web master, scientific programme)
• Alison Lees, The James Hutton Institute (UK) (scientific programme)
• Geert Kessel, Wageningen Research (NL) (sponsors)
• Mout De Vrieze Agroscope (CH) (Scientific programme)
• Carmen Seijo, Local host, University of Vigo
• Laura Meno Fariñas, Local Host, University of Vigo

Sponsors

We would like to thank all our sponsors for making this possible