ICOPE – New challenges in the cooling of power electronics in aircraft
December 19, 2020
3D skin cancer analyser
December 22, 2020The Agricultural Machinery Unit (UMA), and the Centre for Sensors, Instruments and Systems Development (CD6) of the UPC are participating in the European project NOVATERRA, to develop new strategies to eliminate or significantly reduce the use of the pesticides that are most damaging to the environment and to consumers’ health, and to avoid their most negative effects. The new strategies will be used for integrated management of pests, diseases and weeds in grape and olive crops of the Mediterranean.
NOVATERRA will develop a series of innovative, integrated, sustainable strategies that are feasible technologically and economically, from three perspectives. The first is the use of alternative, natural protection products, such as biopesticides, biocontrol agents and adjuvants, and innovative formulations. Second, a smart agricultural platform will be developed to apply the products more precisely (smart farming). Finally, new soil management will be tested using strategies of functional biodiversity and robotics to manage weeds for better crops health with less chemical products.
On completion of the project, the most efficient integrated pest management (IPM) strategies will be selected and implemented, to measure the impact of the use and protection of crops on human health, air, soil, biodiversity and energy; in a decision support system (DSS) that will be developed as a web application.
NOVATERRA has received funding of 4.9 million euros from the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme of the European Union. It will last four years (October 2020 to September 2024). The project is coordinated by the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA). Seventeen other participants are involved in addition to UMA of the UPC: 3 from Spain, 3 from France, 3 from Italy, 1 from Belgium, 3 from Greece and 4 from Portugal.
Related Projects
- The Resource Recovery and Environmental Management (R2EM) of the Center for Research in Multiscale Science and Engineering (CCEM) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC) is leading the HARMONIZE project, which focuses on the recovery and valorisation of ammonia from urban and industrial waste streams. The project is part of a larger initiative, MemTecWare, coordinated by the UCM.
- The Tecnologia Orientada a la Comunitat (TOC) research group at UPC, in collaboration with the Centre d'Estudis Porcins de Catalunya, leads the AEROFER project, which aims to demonstrate the viability of liquid fertilisers derived from pig manure in aeroponic cultivation, with the intention of later extrapolating it to conventional crops, thereby closing the loop from waste to resource, with a positive environmental impact on the region.
- The Agricultural Mechanization Unit (UMA) coordinates RENOVATE, a European project aimed at fostering the exchange of practical knowledge among farmers to optimize sustainable crop management through innovation.
- The project, led by the Paper Engineering Research Group (CELBIOTECH) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC), aims to obtain different subproducts from the waste generated during industrial hemp cultivation, also known as hemp fibre. The proposed processes are technologies already used in biorefineries and the paper industry but with different raw materials.
