The project aimed at promoting the capacity for innovation and the acquisition of new technologies by companies and SMEs in the Italian-Slovenian cross-border area by developing synergies and cross-border networks among companies operating in the wine sector, SMEs operating in the ICT sector, Research Centres, and Universities, and by encouraging eco-innovation processes that will ensure the more efficient use of natural resources and a reduction of the use of chemical products in agriculture.

The project’s concept stemed from the need for the wineries participating in the project to make the transition towards more sustainable agricultural methods, as opposed to those currently in use, in order to fight the two diseases that usually affect the health of their crops and compromise the quality and quantity of their final products: downy mildew and powdery mildew.

The PPs have acknowledged this need by establishing a stable cross-border cooperation network consisting of 17 companies, 2 research centres, and 1 university (subsequently expandable), which is committed to collaborating on the development of the business fabric and on scientific and applied research, with the common goal of researching innovative solutions to support the wine and agricultural sectors, with important repercussions for the entire program area.

SUSGRAPE was therefore established in order to help companies operating in the wine sector adopt ICT vineyard management technologies, through experimentation with an agriculture Decision-Making Support System (DSS), as well as the relative technical training of the operators, implemented within 2 different agricultural areas near the Italian-Slovenian border. The DSS consists of an environmental monitoring system associated with the development of two agronomic forecasting models, which have been customised for the territories covered by the project and integrated within a special software application. The benefits of this system include a reduction in both CO2 emissions and the use of chemical substances in vineyard cultivation activities, as well as a reduction in water consumption for irrigation purposes, and an improvement in the health and quality of the final product.

SUSGRAPE also analysed the potential of applied microbiology in agriculture through the cross-border genetic analysis of the bacterial populations that characterise the grapevines, with the aim of obtaining the basis for the development of new biopesticides.

Denis Scandella
denis.scandella@areasciencepark.it
+39 040 375 5203

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