History

On May 1st 2014 the merger between the Institute of Plant Virology (IVV) and the Institute for Plant Protection (IPP) of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) led to the new Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (IPSP). Both the former Institutes were already involved in the development of sustainable strategies for plant protection. The new Institute is made up of 5 Research Units: the Turin Headquarter (including the former IVV Units in Turin and in Grugliasco), the Turin Unit (fomer IPP Unit), the Florence Unit (fomer IPP Headquarter), the Portici Unit (fomer IPP Unit) and the Bari Unit (including the former IVV and IPP Bari Units).

Here are the brief histories of the two old Institutes.

The Institute of Plant Virology

The “Centro III” of Turin, part of the “Impresa Centro Nazionale sui Virus dei Vegetali” (CNR), was founded in 1962. In 1968 Centre was closed and the staff and the equipment were moved to another other research centre, the “Centro di Entomologia Alpina e Forestale”. The CNR President was convinced to maintain the “Centro III” open, but it was renamed Laboratorio di Fitovirologia Applicata (LFA) . In 1979 the Laboratory became Institute, the Istituto di Fitovirologia Applicata. In 2001 the name was changed into Istituto di Virologia Vegetale (IVV) – Plant Virology Institute, which represented for many years the main research centre on viruses and mycoplasmas in Italy and one of the best in Europe. From 2001 to 2014, the Institute was made up of three units: the Turin Headquarters, the Bari Unit (former Centro di studio sui virus e virosi delle colture mediterranee) and the Grugliasco Unit (former Centro di studio per il miglioramento genetico e la biologia della vite).

The Institute for Plant Protection

The Institute for plant Protection (IPP) was founded on 20 December 2000. IPP was made up of four Units: the Florence Headquarter (former Istituto per la Patologia degli Alberi Forestali), the Turin Unit (former Centro di Studio sulla Micologia del Terreno), the Portici Unit (former Centro di Studio sulle Tecniche di Lotta Biologica) e the Bari Unit (former Istituto di Nematologia Agraria Applicata ai Vegetali). The Institute was founded to integrate different skills and competencies for the study of plant biotic and abiotic stresses and for the development of sustainable strategies for plant protection.