Success Story: Bridging Insect and Plant Biology with AgroServ

I am Francesco Sorrentino, a PhD researcher at the University of Eastern Finland, working on insect chemical ecology – how pollutants like ozone disrupt insect pheromone communication.

Through AgroServ, I stepped outside my main field to explore the other side of the interaction: how plants perceive insect pheromones.

Our first application hit a wall. The imaging facility we had identified could not support the project due to its technical complexity. Rather than give up, we waited for the next call – and in the meantime, the idea grew into a larger framework funded by the Research Council of Finland (the PHESERE project). Through AgroServ we were put in contact with the Portuguese Platform of BioImaging (PPBI, Porto), where we found strong support from day one. Together with PPBI and INFRAVOL (EMPHASIS, Naples), we refined the proposal – and in the second call, the project (PIRIDAS) was selected.

At PPBI, advanced microscopy let me observe cellular responses in plants exposed to pheromones – processes I had only studied conceptually. At INFRAVOL, we are now connecting these observations to plant volatile emissions and herbivore interactions.

The biggest impact was on me as a researcher: I moved beyond a single disciplinary perspective, gained new methods, and built collaborations across Europe. Research is often limited not by ideas, but by access to the right tools and expertise. European research infrastructures bridge exactly that gap.