Agriculture is currently confronting (i) an increasing human population and (ii) limitations of soil use due to, among other reasons, pollution levels above food safety threshold values. Some agricultural practices increase the heavy metal content (HM) of agricultural soil, representing an important threat for the European agricultural development. The use of microorganisms as plant growth promoters has been increasingly studied for a number of years, but it has only recently been proposed to improve plant metal tolerance. Regrettably, plant-microorganism-pollutant interactions are still poorly understood and the molecular underlying mechanisms are mostly unknown. The abovementioned challenges for agricultural production require the study of these mechanisms to better promote a more efficient and sustainable agriculture. This project will venture into new unchartered territory by focusing on the molecular interactions between a probiotic actinobacterium (Micromonospora cremea) and its host, Pisum sativum (garden pea), in the presence of HMs. We will evaluate the capacity of M. cremea CR30 to improve plant tolerance to HM polluted soils, in addition to unraveling the molecular dialogue during the first and late steps of their interaction. Early step interactions are crucial in plant promotion and protection against external stresses, like pollution by HM. Here, we propose the use of new -omic technologies to study these molecular interactions between plants and microorganisms under metal stress, providing a new pathway for an improved soil management. This project addresses a crucial objective in food security, the development of sustainable agricultural practices to control potentially adverse HM effects on plant health.

In the EU, changing precipitation patterns pose challenges to the wine sector, urging it to adapt to shifting climate conditions. IsWINE aims to quantify the effect of land management practices on the water pool of vineyards, providing valuable information on climate change adaptation. As European winegrowers increasingly recognize the urgency of harmonizing sustainability practices with economic viability and grape quality, New Zealand vineyards stand out as role models, demonstrating their long-standing commitment to sustainability. At the intersection of environmental and agricultural sciences, IsWINE will establish two pilots, one in Northern Spain and another in New Zealand, to empirically test the correlation between different land management practices and soil moisture, grapevine water uptake, and water use efficiency of grapevines using isotope geochemistry. This approach will allow meaningful insights into vineyard resilience and cross-learning between the two regions. EU wine stakeholders will participate in defining adaptive management measures resulting from the pilots, thereby delivering tangible solutions aligned with the sector. By generating actionable knowledge, IsWINE can equip European vineyards with adaptation measures to balance environmental stewardship and agricultural productivity. These efforts align with the European Green Deal and the Common Agricultural Policy, supporting many strategies and two EU Missions of the Member States. IsWINE will be hosted by three highly qualified institutions. The outgoing phase (24 months) will take place at the University of Auckland under the guidance of Asso. Prof. Luitgard Schwendenmann, the return phase (12 months) at the Neiker Technology Center under the supervision of Dr. Ana Aizpurua, and a secondment (3 months) will take place at the University of Barcelona under the guidance of Dr. Adrià Barbeta.

AdSoils project aims to evaluate, validate, and develop artificial advanced soil technology for its commercial exploitation as a tool for screening crops from belowground. As part of the Farm to Fork strategy, the European Commission aims at reduced “nutrient losses of at least 50% by 2030, while ensuring no deterioration in soil fertility. This is expected to lead to a reduction in fertiliser use of at least 20%”. The breeding and agrochemical sectors are now seeking ways for crops to acquire water and nutrient more efficiently, supplying seeds, compounds and inoculum that reduce soil contamination and make crops more resilient to climate change. Assessing the effectiveness of such strategies is a major bottleneck because current screening technologies are destructive costly and time consuming. Within the ERC consolidator grant 647857 “SENSOILs”, an artificial soil that becomes transparent during watering has been successfully developed. This technology, suited for small scale laboratory research, has shown great potential, enabling the discovery of new forms of mobility by soil bacteria and mapping root induced chemical gradients at microscale resolution. Adsoils project proposes to move a step further and to demonstrate that the AdSoils solution can be fabricated and applied in commercial screens for the discovery of agrochemicals and genomic regions involved in water and nutrient use efficiency. The project will identify cost-effective fabrication routes enabling a close mimic of natural soils and will produce a sufficient volume to validate the soil prototype with industrial end-users.