Research Team: Mimmo, T. (coordinator), Cappello, C. (project manager) Laurent, C., Borruso, L., Tiziani, R., Cesco, S.
Duration: 2023 – 2027
Coordinator: Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (Competence Centre for Plant Health)
Partners: University of Eastern Finland, Universität Hohenheim, American Farm School, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università Di Bologna, Re Soil Foundation, Plantpress, FCiências.ID – Associação Para A Investigação e Desenvolvimento De Ciências, Faculdade De Ciências Da Universidade De Lisboa, Solutopus, University Stefan Cel Mare Suceava, The James Hutton Institute, Fundación Ibercivis, Quanta Labs, Universidad De Extremadura, Ambienta
Funding: European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions,
Topic: HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOIL-01-09 - Citizen science for soil health
Website: https://echosoil.eu/

ECHO - engaging citizens in soil science: the road to healthier soils aims to enhance existing and create new knowledge through amplification of novel scientific research by increasing awareness and literacy of soil health related issues. ECHO will lead and develop coordinated citizen science initiatives across European Member States and Scotland considering different land-uses and stakeholder needs. With its activities, ECHO contributes to the EU Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ to accomplish the transition towards healthy soils by 2030. The project aims to engage citizens in protecting and restoring soils by building their skills and enhancing their knowledge. Citizens will actively contribute to the project’s data collection, promote soil stewardship and foster behavioural change across the EU.

ECHO is based on 3 main principles:

1. to engage citizens motivating them to protect and restore soils;
2. to empower citizens by providing knowledge and an active role in data collection;
3. to enable citizens to directly participate in decision-making on soil issues.

ECHO will achieve this through co-creation with target societal groups as a cornerstone of delivering a step change in increased soil literacy in society across Member States. ECHO will develop tailor-made citizen science initiatives across EU Member States taking into account different land-uses, soil types and biogeographical regions as well as stakeholder needs, overcoming the recognised challenges related to age, culture, background and language (28 initiatives with 16500 sites assessed). Our ambition is to actively involve and engage citizens building the capacities and knowledge to promote soil stewardship across EU and foster social change through trust and improved understanding of soil. ECHO will create ECHOREPO, a long-term open access repository, fed with citizen science data to be exploited not only by scientists but also by the general public and end-users. This will leverage and provide added-value to existing data and other relevant soil monitoring initiatives.
With 16 partners from all over Europe, including 10 leading universities and research centres, 4 SMEs and 2 Foundations, under the coordination of the Free University of Bolzano-Bozen, ECHO will assess 16,500 sites in different climate and biogeographic regions to achieve its ambitious goals.

Project objectives:

1. Engage citizens through increased knowledge, stimulate their interest in soil health related issues and motivate them to protect and restore soils;
2. Empower citizens by inviting them to take an active role in data collection and soil science to generate knowledge on soil health for everyone’s benefit;
3. Enable citizens to take an active role and directly participating in decision-making on soil issues based on acquired knowledge.

Planned activities:

1. Organize tailor-made citizen science inititives across EU member states
2. Develop the CitizenScience Toolbox, a free resource including open access field guidelines, protocols and forums
3.  Desing and implement ECHOREPO, a long-term open access repository with a direct link to the EUSO

Research Team: Mimmo, T. (WP leader), Tiziani, R. Borruso, L., Cesco, S.,
Duration: 2023 – 2025
Coordinator: ANCI Toscana Associazione (ANCI)
Partners: Agencia de Gestion Agraria y Pesquera de Andalucia (AGAPA), Agroecology Europe (AEEU), Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Centro Tecnologico Nacional Agroalimentario Extremadura (CTAEX), Chambre Regionale d’Agriculture des Pays de la Loire (CAPDL), Ernährungsrat Stadtregion Stuttgart EV (ERSTR), undacion FUNDECYT-Parque Cientifico y Tecnologico de Extremadura (F-PCTEX), Landwirtschaftskammer Nordrhein-Westfalen (LWK NRW), Regional Rural Development Standing Working Group in SEE (SWG RRD), Regionalna Raxvojna Agencija za Podravje – Maribor (BRA), Regionalno Sdruzhenie Na Obstini Tsentralna Stara Planina (RAM), Stichting Louis Bolk Instituut (LBI), The University of Córdoba (UCO), Universidad de Granada (UGR), Universita degli Studi di Scienze Gastronomiche (UNISG), Universitaet Hohenheim (UHOH), Vegepolys Valley (VEG)
Funding: European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, HORIZON-CSA - HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions, HORIZON-MISS-2021-SOIL-02-06 - Engage with and activate municipalities and regions to protect and restore soil health
Website: https://humus-project.eu/

Summary: As part of the EU Soil Mission, Healthy Municipal Soils (HuMUS) project engages and activates municipalities and regions to protect and restore soil health. Municipalities are at the forefront of local soil management, regulation, innovation, and community-building and thus are pivotal to deploying the Soil Mission on the ground. In addition to raising awareness about the importance of healthy soils – the basis of all human economies – the project will empower communities to create suitable local solutions for themselves.
Using a trans-disciplinary approach and a multi-stakeholder methodology for planning and coordinating local production and consumption, HuMUS will stimulate social innovation. The participatory approach involves diverse stakeholders: citizens, farmers, landowners and land managers, consumers, civil society organizations, research institutions, businesses, and public authorities at the regional and national levels.
The focus of the project is holistic soil health, looking beyond only agricultural soil to all types of soil and land use.

Objectives:

1. Improve soil literacy in society
2. Facilitate the deployment of the Soil Mission at regional and local levels
3. Build capacities and knowledge base for soil stewardship
4. Co-create and upscale place-based innovations to improve soil health in all places
5. Engage with the land users and society at large

Planned activities:

1. Support the involvement of stakeholders and citizen in decision-making processes via cese studies, educational and capacity building activities, and exchanges of best practices at regional and local levels
2. Raise awareness about soil health of regional and local governments, businesses, and society society the Biological districts multi-stakeholder methodology
3. Encourage social innovation and the implementation of trans-disciplinary methods and tools
4. Empower regions and municipalities to reflect, deliberate, and propose appropriate and realistic solutions together with citizens and stakeholders through a participatory approach

Research Team: Mimmo, T., Schuler, H.
Duration: 2024 – 2024
Coordinator: Food and Environment Research Agency
Partners: European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Bujqesia), Osterreichische Agentur Fur Gesundheit Und Ernahrungssicherheit GMBH (AGES), Service Public Federal Sante Publique, Securite De La Chaine Alimentaire Et Environnement (FPS), Eigen Vermogen Van Het Instituut Voor Landbouw- En Visserijonderzoek (EV ILVO), Landbrugsstyrelsen (DAA), Maaeluministeerium (MEM), Agence Nationale de la Securite Sanitaire de l’Alimentation de l’ Environnement et du Travail (ANSES), Agdia-EMEA (AGDIA), National Food Agency (LEPL), Julius Kuhn-Institut Bundesforschungsinstitut fur Kulturpflanzen (JKI), Benaki Phytopathological Institute (BPI), Mediterranean Phytopathological Union (MPU), Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria (CREA), Centro Internazionale di Alti Studi Agronomici Mediterranei (CIHEAM-IAMB), Valstybine augalininkystes tarnyba prie Zemes ukio ministerijos (VATZUM), Nederlandse Voedsel En Warenautoriteit (NVWA), The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited (PFR), Norsk Institutt for Biookonomi (NIBIO), Glowny Inspektorat Ochrony Roslin I Nasiennictwa (GIORIN), Instituto Nacional De Investigaçao Agraria E Veterinaria (INIAV), Ministerstvo Podohospodarstva A Rozvoja Vidieka Slovenskej Republiky (MPRVSR), ABIOPEP SL (ABIOPEP), Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (INIA-CSIC), Statens Jordbruksverk (SJV), Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI), Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (TAGEM), Agency of Plant Protection and Quarantine under the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan (KHA), CAB International (CABI), Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited (HORTINNOV), Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), BIOREBA AG (BIOREBA), Eidgenössische Departement für Wirtschaft, Bildung und Forschung (WBF), International Seed Federation (ISF), Scottish Government (SG), The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), United States Departement of Agriculture (USDA)
Funding: Horizon Europe, HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ERA-01
(Enhancing the European R&I system), HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ERA-01-01

Summary: The success of the Euphresco self-sustained network as a platform for the coordination of European phytosanitary research has set the ground for discussions on the development of initiative(s) to address the needs of other regions of the world and on global phytosanitary research coordination. The aim of the project is to enhance national and regional phytosanitary research coordination beyond what the Euphresco self-sustained network has achieved and to set the foundations for global phytosanitary research coordination. This will be achieved by building on the foundations developed by the Euphresco self-sustained network and explore fit-for-purpose activities.

Project objectives:

1. to develop a strategic research agenda. The document will guide phytosanitary research programming activities of EU countries and support them to address regional and global challenges through synergies with other regions/continents of the world;
2. to organize joint calls on common research priorities to support and enhance international collaboration through the commissioning and implementation of research projects. Monitoring of the research projects will ensure that they remain relevant to the needs of the research funders and policy makers and impactful;
3. to develop and test models for the governance, the structure and the operation of a global network for phytosanitary research coordination. A business plan will be established to guide the development of a global network for phytosanitary research coordination;
4. to engage with relevant plant health research stakeholders and foster knowledge exchange, engagement in the project activities, co-development, dissemination and adoption of outputs.
   Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Research Team: Mimmo, T. (coordinator), Borruso, L., Tiziani, R., Foley, E.R., Noto, R.R.T., Trevisan, F.
Duration: 2022 -2025
Funding: Südtiroler Apfelkonsortium (SAK)
Partners: Südtiroler Apfelkonsortium (SAK), Free University of Bozen-Bolzano

Summary: The aim of the research project is to assess the effect and the potential of different cover crops  to enhance the chemical and biological soil quality focusing particularly on Soil Organic Matter Build-Up and the capacity of soils to enhance their carbon storage capacity. Soil analysis will thus include besides total organic carbon the different carbon fractions (i.e. labile and stable carbon pools) and the contribution of root turnover of the cover crops. The study will be carried out in different apple orchards across South Tyrol in close collaboration with local farmers and the South Tyrolean Apple Consortium, thus the study foresees both field (e.g. soil sampling, sawing cover crops) and laboratory work (soil and root/plant analysis with both chemical and molecular approaches).

Research Team:  Schuler, H. (coordinator), Corretto, E., Rau, V., Li J., Mimmo, T.,

Duration: 2023 – 2025
Partners: Institute for Applied Remote Sensing (EURAC)
Funding: Autonomous Province of Bolzano-Bozen

Summary: 
A series of damaging events, such as the Vaia storm, snow pressure events, as well as the extreme drought in the last summer, have led to South Tyrol's forests being significantly weakened, thus causing the outbreak of the European spruce bark beetle. Especially the long heat period this year has led to the rapid development and proliferation of this secondary pest. This has led to a population outbreak never observed before in the Southern Alps. The high number of beetles results that currently not only damaged and weakened trees, but also healthy trees are attacked and killed, causing enormous economic and ecological damage. The present project aims to investigate important aspects of the biology of this beetle in order to predict population development and to find possible antagonists that can limit its population development, to establish methods to detect infested trees at an early stage and thus minimize population pressure, and in the long term to develop strategies to make South Tyrol's forests fit for climate change and its consequences.

Research Team: Schuler, H., Pii, Y., Borruso, L., Di Cagno, R.
Duration: 2023 - 2024
Funding: Internal funding

Summary:  Digital Droplet PCR (ddPCR) represents a groundbreaking advancement in the field of molecular analysis. It is a precise and highly sensitive technique that has gained increasing popularity in molecular biology and diagnostics. ddPCR is a variation of traditional PCR that offers absolute quantification of nucleic acid targets, without the need for standard curves or reference samples. The technique leverages the principles of partitioning individual reactions into thousands or millions of discrete micro-reactions, or droplets. A sample containing the DNA or RNA of interest is partitioned into thousands of nanoliter-sized droplets. These droplets contain the target molecules, reagents, and fluorescent probes. Each droplet functions as an individual PCR reaction, amplifying the target sequence. The amplification reaction typically involves thermal cycling to produce millions of copies of the target DNA or RNA. Fluorescent probes in each droplet emit signals as the target amplification progresses. These signals are recorded in real-time and analyzed to determine the presence or absence of the target. The concentration of the target molecule is calculated by determining the fraction of positive (fluorescent) and negative (non-fluorescent) droplets. Therefore, ddPCR has the ability to provide absolute quantification of nucleic acid targets, which makes it invaluable in various fields, including genomics, transcriptomics, and molecular diagnostics. We highlight the versatility of ddPCR across agricultural, environmental, and food sciences, showcasing its potential to revolutionize research and applications in these fields.

Research Team: Schuler, H.
Duration: 2024-2026
Partners: University of Notre Dame (ND), Wayne State University
Call: NSF 23-549: Division of Environmental Biology (core programs) (DEB) - National Science Foundation – International programme
Summary: Symbiosis refers to interactions between species living in close contact. At one extreme, species can interact as obligate mutualists and represent Major Evolutionary Transitions (METs), where previously independent entities combine to create a new composite life form of increased biocomplexity. At the other extreme, a species may be parasitic or pathogenic to others. The endosymbiotic bacterium Wolbachia and its insect hosts provide a model to investigate how symbiotic relationships evolve and may cycle between mutualism and parasitism in an intracellular community. We hypothesize that interstrain competition is an important, understudied factor affecting the dynamics of Wolbachia symbiosis, disrupting bacteria and host from achieving a MET due to invasion of the system by reproductive parasitic strains causing cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). Theory predicts, however, that CI will degrade in single infected hosts with time in the absence of competition, allowing mutualism. As this occurs, a host can become open to invasion from CI strains, continuing the cycling process. We use the acronym COMMUTE, for COMpetion/ MUTulism for Endosymbiosis, to describe this turnover of Wolbachia strains. We propose to test the COMMUTE model between Wolbachia and its fruit fly hosts in the genus Rhagoletis by integrating results from genome sequencing, phylogenomics, and lab crosses. Rhagoletis possesses a diversity of Wolbachia singly and multiply infecting flies, with certain taxa lacking the bacteria all together. Examples exist of flies both acquiring and losing Wolbachia strains, and causing CI and being beneficial, possibly conferring fly resistance to parasitoid wasps. These changes have occurred over timescales ranging from the recent (40-100 ya) to distant (>100,000 ya) past. Thus, a time series exists in Rhagoletis to test the COMMUTE model and investigate the evolutionary dynamics of endosymbiont and host interactions traversing back and forth between conflict and cooperation without attaining a permanent stable state.  

Research Team: Orzes, G., Mazzetto, F., Cesco, S., Mimmo, T., Boselli, E., Nicolosi F.F., Carabin, G., Khan N.A., Molinaro, M.
Duration: 2022 - 2025
Partners: Spraylogics and Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
Funding: commissioned by Spraylogics Srl
Summary: The research activities commissioned by the Company Spraylogics located in Trento are undertaken within the discipline of Agricultural Mechanics, Soil Chemistry and Management Engineering  and mainly consist of:

• the testing an optical sensor developed by the customer in order to assess its potential use in a controlled environment (greenhouse/laboratories) for the identification of water, fertilizer and pathogen stresses; - the evaluation - based on the data from the field registers provided by the customer;
• the impact of the use of the sensor on a real production scale (experimental fields) on the economic, environmental and social sustainability of agricultural activities.