The Vaia storm of 2018, which led to the destruction of entire forests throughout north-eastern Italy, had as a serious consequence the proliferation of the bark beetle. This is a beetle naturally present in woods, which feeds mainly on damaged plants. The large availability of woody material present after Vaia allowed the parasite to go from an endemic to an epidemic presence in our territory. With over 8 million trees already dead due to the insect, it is expected that at the end of the epidemic, the damage caused by the bark beetle could even be equal to that of the Vaia disaster. In response to this emergency, the research project on the bark beetle was born, conducted by the Departments of Territory and Agro-forestry Systems (TESAF) and Agronomy, Animals, Food, Natural Resources and Environment (DAFNAE) of the University of Padua. The project aims to finance two three-year PhDs in Silviculture and Forest Entomology for the study of the epidemic phenomenon and new prevention methods and tools.