Process monitoring is a crucial task for bioprocess optimization and will play a decisive role in the digitization of future bio-based production systems. System failure prediction technologies must be an integral part of monitoring schemes; however, these technologies are underdeveloped as far as the bioenergy industry is concerned. The objective of PRODIGIO is to establish a base of knowledge for the development of system failure prediction technologies that increase the performance of microalgae production and anaerobic digestion systems and advance towards more favourable techno-economic, environmental and social performance to achieve more sustainable microalgae biogas. By combining perturbation experiments in bioreactor systems and cutting-edge methods for big data analysis, PRODIGIO will decode the triggers, identify early-warnings, define threshold values, and calculate warning times for critical state transitions in bioreactors. Taking into account processes inefficiencies, we estimate that, along with the implementation of prevention countermeasures, PRODIGIO technology could contribute to increasing resource and energy efficiencies >50% throughout the production chain, which would translate into OPEX savings and GHG emissions reduction. The technological solutions that will derive from the project, such as a catalog of early warning signals for the failure of microalgae production and conversion-to-biogas systems, will be pre-commercial in nature; however, a roadmap will be compiled and updated during the course of the project that will identify priority research lines for further development and future implementation of technology. The results of PRODIGIO will pave the way for moving the entire microalgae biogas production chain efficiently towards its theoretical maximum, enabling the development of a fully integrated and truly sustainable microalgae biogas production industry and contributing to strengthening the EU's leadership in renewable fuel technologies.

Prolonged drought due to climate change has a severe impact on agriculture, requiring measures to secure yield stability under water-shortage conditions. This project aims to be a BOOSTER for developing innovative and sustainable strategies to create climate resilient and drought tolerant cereals. Two synergistic strategies will be implemented to achieve this goal. Firstly, a new approach will identify genomic variants in regulatory regions functionally associated with drought tolerance. Novel regulatory elements underlying resilience will inform efficient breeding efforts to create new drought tolerant cereal varieties. Secondly, novel seaweed extracts and microbial biostimulants will be developed as an eco-friendly approach for improving drought resilience. The two strategies will be tested in two cereals with different responsiveness to drought: European maize and Ethiopian teff, a cereal with high genetic similarity to the desiccation tolerant Eragrostis nindensis. BOOSTER will improve drought tolerance in both maize and teff, while simultaneously exploring the potential for transferring species-specific drought responsive features. By exploiting natural genetic variation to achieve drought tolerant genotypes and by developing biostimulants derived from living organisms, BOOSTER will take advantage of the already available natural resources to steer our agriculture towards novel drought tolerant varieties. Importantly, BOOSTER approaches and results are transferable to other crops. A tailored communication/dissemination strategy and a stakeholders’ engagement plan will ensure the expected outcomes and impacts. The project will produce increased maize- and teff-derived biomass resources under harsh drought conditions, will lower irrigation requirement, will strengthen competitiveness of European and African agri-food industry, and will provide concrete examples for improving public awareness about a sustainable use of bio-based technologies.

The RUSTICA projects provides a technical solution to convert organic residues from the fruit and vegetable sector into novel bio-based fertiliser products of high quality that address the needs of modern (organic) agriculture. The project’s ambition goes beyond the simple recovery of nutrients, and also includes the developments of economically viable and environmentally sustainable alternatives to mineral fertilisers with the same or improved agronomic value. The technical solution consists of 5 conversion processes (carboxylic acid platform, microbial biomass production, electrodialysis, insect breeding and biochar production) which can be combined depending on the available waste streams, and integrated with state-of-the-art technologies such as composting. Synergies between the individual conversion processes will be sought and optimized to maximize economic and environmental benefits, and the processes will be demonstrated at TRL7. The resulting ingredients (microbial biomass, mineral nutrient concentrates, insect biomass, insect frass, insect chitin, biochar) will be combined to obtain tailor made fertiliser products adapted to specific crop needs. Parallel with this technological innovation and integration, a multi-actor approach guarantees the implementation potential of the technologies in the agro-food chain, and will lead to sound business models. Several non-technical aspects (environmental and social LCA, legal framework, expected market developments...) will be evaluated in 4 European regions and 1 region in Colombia. Stakeholder involvement at each step guarantees the development of marketable end-products for the fruit and vegetable sector, with a high replication potential to other agricultural sectors. Cooperation with other EUfunded projects working on nutrient recovery from other waste products will stimulate a joint solution to evolve towards a sustainable and circular fertiliser management to close nutrient cycles within and between regions