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The sterile insect technique (SIT) is being applied against fruit fly pests in many areas of the world. Currently, factories have a capacity to produce several billion sterile insects per week, to irradiate them and to make them available for shipment to their destinations. There the emerging flies are fed and maintained for various periods of time in fly emergence and release facilities, and then collected for release. While much research effort has been invested in improving mass rearing and quality control procedures at the fly factory level, the post‐factory handling of sterile flies has received much less attention. A 6‐year FAO/IAEA Coordinated Research Project (CRP) was initiated with the participation of 31 research institutes from 17 countries to assess and validate ways to improve sterile male performance through better management during the critical period that starts with the arrival of pupae at the fly emergence and …