(São Paulo Advanced Research Center for Biological Control)
SPARCBIO appears as a world centre for advanced studies on biological control in Brazil. The center is the result of FAPESP partnerships withen Koppert Biological Systems and Universidade de São Paulo ESALQ/USP in support of high-level scientific research for the development of the sustentable agriculture technologies.
The center’s aim to establish a new model to control pests and diseases for tropical agriculture with mission of develop research projects, products and technologies that will result in a strong relationship with this novel integrated pest management and their adoption in a modern and sustainable agriculture.
Those products and technologies that comes from researchers has challenges as to improve brazilian farmers point of view in relation of biotech competitivity and responsabilities.
SPARCBIO organizationally placed under the Department of Entomological and Acarology at Universidade de São Paulo, located in ESALQ/USP and a research team led by PhD José Roberto Postali Parra.
Other professors from brazillian universities as Unesp, UFSCar, UFES, UFV and internationals partners as University of California, Davis and University of Minnesota, USA, as well as researches from Embrapa and international researches from INRA, Sophia Antipolis (France), USDA and ARS (both USA) and UCPH from Dynamark also are integrants of the advanced research center.
The center has the participation of several researchers and specialists directly involved with the project and with the following lines of research:
- Find of new control biological agents.
- New technologies development.
- Knowledge generation in integrated pest and disease management.