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STERF Research & Development programme

Strategic research objectives

The golf and turfgrass industry, like other land-based industries, has to take responsibility for sustainable societal development, i.e. produce golf courses and other turfgrass areas of a high standard while at the same time ensuring the sustainable use of natural resources and contributing to functioning ecosystems.

The aim of STERF is to support R&D that can help the golf industry to fulfil these ambitions. The activities of STERF should lead to improvements in the quality of golf courses, as well as economic and environmental gains for the industry and society as a whole.

The strategic objectives for STERF-funded R&D activities are that:

  • The design, construction, management and administration of golf courses provide optimal conditions for playing quality, the degree of utilisation of the course, and management inputs.
  • The design, construction, management and administration of golf courses are economically and environmentally sustainable, for example with respect to plant nutrient requirements, water and energy use, drainage and control of weeds and plant diseases.
  • Golf courses contribute to improving the relationship between golf and ecosystems, enhance the natural and cultural values of the landscape and promote biodiversity.


R&D Sub-programmes

It is apparent that the golf and turfgrass industry faces a number of local and international challenges, all of which will need concerted and collective solutions, underpinned by robust, applied science. To meet the challenges the sector has to face STERF has created four international and trans-disciplinary R&D sub-programmes, including:

Progress in these programme areas will ccollectively lead to improvements in the quality of managed turfgrass areas as well as economic and environmental gains for the industry. The key objectives of the programmes are to coordinate design and running of R&D activities, and to manage the eeffective dissemination of outputs (new knowledge) through channels and formats which are easily accessible to end-users. STERF shall play a key role expanding the programmes on an international level.