Plants are threatened by a plethora of pathogens, with fungi accounting for important crop and post-harvest losses worldwide. Despite widespread spraying of fungicides, losses keep rising in the current warming world and the increasing use of chemical (and toxic) fungicides favours the emergence of resistant fungi strains. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop a new generation of highly efficient and environmental-friendly fungicides for securing present and future food availability. Classic RNA interference (RNAi) tools based on double-stranded RNA have been used for inducing antifungal resistance in plants, despite their lack of high specificity. More modern and highly specific RNAi tools are based on artificial small RNAs (art-sRNAs). Art-sRNA tools have been optimized mainly for high efficacy and transgenic use but are not well adapted for GMO-free application and have not been used yet for inducing antifungal resistance in plants. FunSynVIGS seeks to develop a novel, GMO-free RNAi technology consisting in systemic, viral vector-based fungicides expressing art-sRNAs for plant immunization against pathogenic fungi. The specific objectives are: (1) The development and optimization of viral vector-based fungicides expressing art-sRNAs against Botrytis cinerea, the causal agent of the gray mold disease, in the model plant species Nicotiana benthamiana. (2) The application of viral vector-based fungicides for immunizing tomato plants against B. cinerea. Successful completion of these objectives will provide a novel class of mobile RNAi-based fungicides for inducing highly efficient antifungal resistance in crops.

It is commonly known that Portland cement production causes tremendous environmental impacts. In this context, sustainable binders are desired. Alkali-activated materials (AAMs) have attracted increasing attention due to their lower embodied energy and 25-60% less CO2 emission. The most widely used precursors to synthesise AAMs are ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS), fly ash and metakaolin. Among these, alkali-activated GGBFS (AAS) is the dominant class of AAMs in large-scale production. However, the availability of GGBFS is becoming limited due to the policy changes related to green transition of the iron and steel industry, which consequently impedes the commercial scale production and use of AAS. To deal with this issue, researchers are searching for alternative metallurgical slags, such as ferronickel slag, copper slag, lead-zinc slag and electrolytic manganese residue. Although many efforts have been made, the current utilization of these metallurgical slags as precursors is still restricted. One of the biggest obstacles is the considerable amounts of heavy metals (HMs) in these metallurgical slags. Effective immobilization of HMs within AAS has become a critical issue for utilizing these metallurgical slags. Against this background, we aim to determine the performance of AAS binder in immobilizing HMs under in-service conditions. The effects of slag chemistry and alkaline activator on solidification as well as ions leaching, cracking and redox condition in slag on stabilization of HMs in AAS will be elucidated. Moreover, a novel reactive-transport model considering the binder chemistry and shrinkage-induced cracking will be established for the first time to predict solidification/stabilization of HMs in AAS. The results of this project will provide a solid foundation for assessing the performance of AAS in immobilizing HMs, which is essential for the sustainable development of AAS and efficient treatment of hazardous wastes by using AAS binder.