Endemic and Invasive Pests and Diseases

Initiative Themes

The Endemic and Invasive Pests and Diseases Strategic Initiative protects our food, natural resources and communities, each threatened by a wide variety of pests and diseases. These threats include arthropods, vertebrates, weeds, and pathogens. The risks of these pests and diseases to our health, environment and economy are critical, especially considering California’s changing climate. The initiative creates, improves and enriches our abilities to prevent, control and mitigate pests and diseases.  The initiative pursues solutions to these challenges in the following key focal areas: 

• Keeping invasive pests and pathogens out of California
  
  
• New problems with existing pests and diseases
  
  
• Integrated management 

 

Public Value: The EIPD SI helps build our state economy, protect our natural resources, builds capacity of our people and communities and helps ensure we have safe food and drinking water.

Our Strategic Initiatives help unify, communicate and advocate for the work we do.

 

Grand Challenges

The EIPD SI panel support the EIPD work by bringing a broad spectrum of expertise and practice and help identify emerging issues such as:

• Emerging pests (e.g., Citrus Greening)
  
  
• The public understanding the role of science in safe and effective pest management (e.g., urban and household pesticide use relative to use on other systems)
  
  
• Pursuing new technologies for existing pests (e.g., breeding for powdery mildew)

 

Impact

See UC Delivers for examples of impact in EIPD.

UC ANR members can share the impact of their work - it's easy. Click here to find out how.

 

Why it's important to manage invasive pests

Rapid Expansion of hybridized tumbleweed - Check out this amusing video 

Funding

See funding opportunities listed with UC ANR Contracts & Grants

See Opportunity & Matching grants (small grants to help with urgent time-sensitive needs)