Final report on social acceptance of virus-based PPPs

In this Final report, we present the research on the acceptance and acceptability of virus-based plant protection products (VB-PPPs) and the main findings so far. In the second section, we shall describe the psycho-sociological problem of virus-based biotechnological innovation starting from the mismatch between common and scientific knowledge. In fact, this kind of agricultural innovation is increasingly urgent to cope with new phytosanitary policies aimed at reducing the use of pesticides, and it clashes with a common sense of the virus as something negatively connoted. Therefore, acceptability can be described in terms of a ‘dilemma’ between opposing positions and interests, which corresponds to a more general knowledge gap between experts and non-experts. The research was structured to hold together the different points of view explored through different tools and methods. The views of 23 experts were explored through the Delphi method, carried out at three time points: before the Covid-19 outbreak, during the months of the lockdown, and one year later. In strong interaction with the first Delphi, we conducted 5 focus groups that were attended by 35 people. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 emergency, it was not possible to conduct the sixth focus group. In the results section we shall expose some framing of the dilemma from the experts’ side (Section 4.1), the role of social representations and more generally of risk perception by non-experts (Section 4.2), and finally we shall propose a sense-making model of acceptability as it emerged from the focus groups. In Sections 5 and 6, the main problems will be resumed deepening the more strictly communicative aspects indicating the future challenges both from the side of psycho-social research and, more generally, for the process of innovation of virusbased biotechnologies in agriculture.