SMARTER will assist, support and encourage national and EU institutions in the implementation of regulations concerning a) the import and release of Biocontrol (BC) agents and b) European-wide Invasive Alien Species (IAS) management. The Ambrosia project will become a model of how to improve and harmonize procedures to introduce macrobial (insects in our case) and microbial (pathogens) BC agents into Europe.

The action not only aims to develop European-wide recommendations to manage the model IAS Ambrosia and to implement them, but it will also serve as a template for developing and conducting region- and habitat-specific management plans against other IAS in Europe. The experience gained in this Action will be summarized in a document outlining a generic strategy to develop management plans against a wide range of IAS across biogeographic regions and political boundaries. Thus, this document will provide a tool to implement European-wide action plans against IAS.