Proxectos

Rural communities across the EU face a unique set of sustainability challenges that are crucial to overcome if Europe is to reach climate neutrality by 2050. With one-third of Europeans living in rural areas rich in ecosystems and natural resources, empowering these communities is essential. With this in mind, the EU-funded STORCITO project addresses sustainable resource management and wildfire prevention, the transition to sustainable energy, and inclusive climate-neutral mobility. Over 36 months, it will develop tailored innovations across Europe’s diverse rural zones, including nature-based wildfire solutions, digital fire monitoring tools, and a climate-neutral mobility app. Co-created with local stakeholders, STORCITO aims to deliver practical tools, training, and policy guidelines to build resilience and foster sustainable rural development across the continent.

The project’s goal is to achieve soil sustainability through the eco-efficient, on-site use of lignocellulosic residues (LCR) generated in vineyards to improve soil health and quality, develop commercial products, and generate renewable energy. This approach reduces dependence on external inputs and enhances the agroecological health of vineyard systems.

To meet this challenge, the project will analyze the current state of vineyard soils, their health and quality, ecosystem services, and soil-vineyard management practices, while identifying measures to achieve sustainability and recovery, highlighting the potential of LCR within an eco-efficiency and biorefinery framework.

The project will also identify factors that facilitate or hinder the adoption of circular economy and eco-efficient practices in the sector. Ultimately, it aims to boost rural development through efficient resource use, attract skilled human capital, and strengthen the competitiveness and resilience of viticulture against climate change and future crises.

Viticulture is central to the cultural identity, economy, and tourism of the SUDOE region, playing a key role in rural vitality. To address the impacts of climate change, this project proposes natural, local solutions to improve vineyard soils, enhancing water retention, fertility, and biodiversity. The initiative uses biochar from uprooted vine stocks, combined with compost and biostimulants, to strengthen vineyards against summer droughts.

The project proposes: i) developing a mobile, efficient, and sustainable waste transformation pilot; ii) testing it in different locations across the SUDOE region; and iii) creating strategies for local organic waste management. The goal is to make viticulture more sustainable, valorize local organic waste, and support rural communities, cooperatives, and farmers, while promoting cross-border cooperation to adapt solutions to diverse environmental and socioeconomic contexts. The innovation lies in the holistic approach and low-cost mobile transformation processes, with the potential to transform the sector.

The main objective of Newpower is to solve the problems associated with the high generation of agricultural and forest waste, which accumulate more and more due to the abandonment of the rural environment, and that cause a large number of fires. Newpower will create a network of collaboration between public and private organisations of the SUDOE space, seeking the sustainable management of this waste, developing new conversion processes, obtaining renewable energies and new products with high added value, which will imply socio-economic benefits and the creation of qualified jobs. The innovative character of Newpower is based on harnessing agricultural and forest waste in a comprehensive way, reusing it rather than eliminating it.

Amid the ongoing environmental crisis, our food system faces unprecedented challenges, demanding increased productivity, inclusivity, sustainability and resilience. Despite various efforts, no initiative has successfully captured the global intricacies of the food system or effectively communicated with the diverse stakeholders. With this in mind, the EU-funded SOSFood project will leverage data exploitation and AI technologies to revolutionise decision-making across the food chain. Unlike previous initiatives, SOSFood adopts a multi-factorial, multi-actor and multi-scale strategy, ensuring a holistic perspective. The project’s outcomes include a consolidated food data space focused on sustainability and health, along with tailored decision-making tools for both industries and consumers.

Beneath our feet, a hidden crisis is unfolding. Crucial for ecosystem functions and services, soils are at risk, facing increasing pressures from land use changes, inappropriate management, and climate shifts. In this context, the EU-funded BIOservicES project aims to decode the intricate relationship between soil organisms, land use and management, and climate change. To assess their impacts and develop innovative tools for sustainable land management, BIOservicES will identify the pressures and drivers influencing soil life. To explore the relationship between soil organisms, soil structure, and ecosystem functions and services, the project will develop new indicators, digital tools, and models for climate-resilient land management practices. Moreover, it will take a collaborative approach with experimental sites spanning eight land uses and five biogeographic regions.

To ensure all EU soils are healthy by 2050, it is of utmost importance to integrate soil biodiversity (SOB) into land management. However, SOB gets less attention in large monitoring efforts than higher plants and vertebrates. As a result, its contribution to ecosystem services (ES) is undervalued, unquantified, and is not incorporated into EU policies. By creating a comprehensive evaluation framework and determining the cost-effectiveness of SOB indicators in different ecosystems, SOB4ES aims to improve current evaluations of ecosystem condition and to increase the uptake of practical applications to enhance SOB and its contribution to ES. Above all, SOB4ES transdisciplinary perspective will allow for inclusion of social, economic and political factors to transform soils into healthy systems.

El proyecto Net4Food supone la creación de una red de excelencia en el ecosistema alimentario de la Euroregión Galicia-Norte de Portugal, impulsando la aparición y puesta en marcha de nuevas soluciones innovadoras; valorando los recursos endógenos de la Euroregión; y promoviendo una alimentación sostenible, segura y saludable.

Wheat is an important crop in Europe. To keep it growing, scientists are studying soil and plant microbial communities. The EU-funded WHEATBIOME project will bring together academia, industry, food system actors and governmental authorities in six EU countries to carry out two case studies and a lab-scale demonstrator. The project will also study the role of microbial fermentation in food/feed quality and reduce food waste by recirculating wheat by-products. Another aspect of the research will be explaining the interactions between wheat (prebiotics, probiotics, bioactive compounds and immunogenic proteins) and the human/animal microbiota, and their effect on human and animal health. The findings will be used to develop farming practices for resilient and nutritious wheat crops. Specifically, the project will produce a new decision support system.

Europe’s soil is being irreversibly lost and degraded mainly due to natural factors such as climate change and human activities such as agriculture. While an investment in soils is necessary, soils can take decades to recover. Given this scenario, the EU-funded InBestSoil project will design an economic valuation system of the ecosystem services delivered by a healthy soil and the impacts of soil interventions, and assess its incorporation into business models and incentives. This will allow public and private organisations to assign economic value to their actions. Involving 19 partners like farmers and enterprises from 10 countries, InBestSoil will provide data, evidence, tools and models to assess how investment in soil health can contribute to long-term resilient and sustainable use of soil.

PROMISEANG is a 48-month project that aims to develop novel alternative proteins from marine underexploited sources (marine invertebrate and macroalgae discards and industrial biowastes) through biomass fermentation (solid-state and submerge processes), generating new microbial protein biomass, meeting market requirements for food, feed, and non-food (biomedicine, pharma and cosmetic) bio-based applications. A technically and economically viable biorefinery for microbial-based protein production will be demonstrated during the project, enabling higher production yields, reduced production periods, minimized environmental impacts, diminish the imports, and reduced production costs for proteins. PROMISEANG contributes to CBE JU with a translational, multidisciplinary and multi-actor approach, including cooperation between industries and academia across EU, to achieve a greener bio-based Europe. Following a zero-waste approach, PROMISEANG will also recover and biosynthesize interesting non-protein bio compounds and molecules (i.e., polysaccharides, lipids, polyphenols, PHA, etc.) for further use in food, feed and non-food applications. Research on novel protein streams from sustainable alternative sources will contribute to increase the protein availability in the EU, and reduce the actual dependency on imports. In short, PROMISEANG will upcycle of marine food wastes (WP2), apply innovative and sustainable technologies (incl. biotechnology, biochemistry, microbial fermentations, digital tools and machine learning, WP3), validate the nutritious, safety and bioactivities of protein products (WP4), valorise fermentation side streams through nanotechnology (WP5) and design, development and validation of food, feed and non-food products in relevant environments (WP6) including improvement of environmental, economic and social aspects, and production-efficiency performances (WP7), and strong communication, dissemination and exploitation plans (WP8).

AGROSUS will identify appropriate tools and agroecological strategies (AS) to prevent and manage the occurrence of weeds in relevant crops, in conventional, organic and mixed farming, at the eleven biogeographic regions of the European Union and associated countries (Continental–Mediterranean–Atlantic–Macaronesian–Pannonian–Anatolian–Black-Sea–Boreal–Alpine–Steppic–Artic), while reducing the reliance of synthetic herbicides to the environment and increasing biodiversity of agroecosystems. The consortium integrates a multi-actor approach for farmers’ decision making and for including the different perspectives from stakeholders to decision-makers that regulate and administer policies. In summary, AGROSUS will rely on i) expanded knowledge on problematic weeds on European agriculture, current weeding techniques, and problems encountered by farmers and advisors (around 500 farmers and advisors will be contacted for surveys, workshops and discussion groups), ii) advanced detection tools iii) establishment of cultural, mechanical, physical, biological, and biotechnological AS in 68 short-term experimental units sprayed all over Europe, iv) actions carried out with stakeholders and policy makers to promote the most appropriate initiatives at the field, administration and regulatory levels, and v) technology transfer and training of stakeholders for prevention and management of weeds. The tools and strategies designed will be developed, in collaboration with stakeholders, for the most problematic weeds of the different regions. These strategies will be implemented in the most economically relevant crops at the 11 biogeographic regions, and in conventional, organic and mixed farming systems. As well, the environmental impact, and economic and social costs and benefits of combined AS for weed control will be assessed in the 68 short-term fields and in 15 medium to long-term already in course agroecological fields, both in comparison with classical chemical weed management.

MRV4SOC proposes a comprehensive work plan for the assessment of carbon pools in 9 land use/land cover classes located in 14 demo sites.

It aims to design a comprehensive tier 3 approach accounting for changes in as many carbon pools as possible and fully aligned with national GHG reporting. The proposed approach will help establish a reliable and transparent carbon farming credits with a cost-effective monitoring, reporting, and verification methodological framework.

Climate change is a growing pressure on the agricultural industry. Aiming to deliver crops adapted to changing environments, the EU-funded Root2Res project will enhance the resilience of rotational cropping systems. It will consider the relevant root traits with respect to the impact of climate change. Innovations include phenotyping, genetic and modelling tools that will help breeders evaluate novel and existing genotypes of a range of crops (cereals, potatoes, legumes) as root ideotypes for different soil and climatic environments across Europe. It will also investigate the potential role of emerging crops (sweet potato, lentil) to enhance resilience to environmental change.

Plastic is a vital material in our economy and daily lives. Unfortunately, it is associated with high levels of waste and leakage to the environment. For instance, plastic debris and especially microplastics (particles less than 5 mm in size) can be found in agricultural soils – from silage bags and greenhouse cover films to sewage sludge and compost. The EU-funded SOPLAS project will assemble a multidisciplinary team to study the nexus of plastic–agriculture–soil. It will also train a new generation of leading experts. The project aims to identify the plastic cycle within agricultural soil systems and support the development of environmental policies related to mitigating the impact of plastics. The findings will advance our knowledge about the sustainable use of plastics in European agriculture.

The COPPERPLACE project develops and validates a series of integrated, innovative, and viable solutions to reduce the use of copper and its environmental impact in vineyards. The solutions promoted within the project will be transferable and durable to allow that the wine sector complies with the new European law and promoting environmentally sustainable production.

The Chemical Technology Unit of Eurecat participates in the project by developing encapsulation technology for new efficient phytosanitary products that allow reducing the amount of copper used without generating microplastics.

Olive and grape processing produces a residual biomass which most of time remains underexploited. To tap the potential of this residual biomass, the EU-funded UP4HEALTH project aims to work on a zero-waste sustainable process for olive and grape pomace, nut by-products and olive pits. Their residue will be transformed into a natural fruit water rich in polyphenols, polyphenol-rich dietary fibres, natural oily fruit extracts and prebiotic xylooligosaccharides that will be used in functional food, nutraceutical supplements and cosmetics. What is more, the remaining solid fraction from the hydrolysis of the olive pits will be used to produce energy.

EcoChestnut project aims at enhancing the development opportunities and boost the growth potential of European chestnut farmers & chestnut products producers.

EcoChestnut main output is an online comprehensive and tailored training on organic chestnuts farming & chestnut products manufacturing. The course focuses also on enhancing the competences on marketing strategy, communication with customers, and diversification of the activities.

EcoChestnut project supports farmers and producers in development of their potential for production and promotion of organic chestnuts & chestnut products. EcoChestnut will also provide the vocational trainers with learning methods and material to encourage farmers in their initiative.

Soil biodiversity and associated ecosystem services may result in crop production and quality increases. EU policies encourage management practices and production systems that ensure agricultural stability, resilience and growth. The EU-funded SoildiverAgro project aims to propose new practices increasing quality and production of crops while reducing external inputs. SoildiverAgro will be deployed in nine European regions using advanced management practices based on mycorrhiza and plant growth promoting bacteria, appropriate management of soil organisms, suitable crop rotations and intercropping, pest alert systems, nutrient catch crops, trap crops for pest control, by-products as soil ameliorants and adequate tillage systems. Project outcomes will be evaluated for soil biodiversity, ecosystems services delivery, and environmental, social and economic impact of crop management.

ECOBREED will improve the availability of seed and varieties suitable for organic and low- input production. Activities will focus on four crop species, selected for their potential contribution to increase competitiveness of the organic sector, i.e. common wheat, potato, soybean and common buckwheat. The project will develop (a) methods, strategies and infrastructures for organic breeding, (b) varieties with improved stress resistance, resource use efficiency and quality and (c) improved methods for the production of high quality organic seed. The objectives are:

• To increase the availability of seeds and varieties for the organic and low-input sector.
• To identify traits and combinations of traits suited to organic and low-input production environment including high nutrient use efficiency and weed competitiveness/allelopathy.
• To increase breeding activities for organic and low-input crop production.