The Early Warning Threat Identification project will effectively identify emerging plant biosecurity threats that are not detected by existing systems. The project will provide improved tools to prioritise and identify emerging plant pests.

What is the biosecurity problem?

Currently there is lack of capacity to quickly identify many new and existing plant biosecurity threats.

The main outputs of this project are to:

• develop an early warning capability to identify threats using artificial neural network models
• provide lists of invasive species prioritised according to 'weights' indicating the invasion threat they pose to Australia given their distribution elsewhere in the world;
• identify and understand plant pest and disease pathways.

Who will be the end-users of this research?

The new protocol to identify emerging plant threats will be delivered as a computer-based package. The package will be used primarily by State and Federal agencies charged with undertaking the identification and assessment of external threats. The package will be used in conjunction with risk analysis protocols to identify pest threats and to prioritise them. These rankings will support decision-making, assist in allocating resources, and support the development of pre-emptive approaches to threat mitigation. The species weights produced by the project will serve as a model input to the project CRC10010.