Strength in Partnership.

The project coordinator (PC) will act as the contact point to the European Commission and ensure timely execution of project activities, including planning, monitoring, and reporting. Apart from serving as the primary point of contact between the project team, partners, and the European Commission, CBS will facilitate communication among stakeholders and maintain relationships.
CBS is also managing the task 6.2 in WP6 in which CBS will collaborate with networks of professional growers to focus on: conventional open field horticulture, organic/agro-ecological open field systems, and conventional greenhouse practices. The task will be to co-create and implement behavioral change interventions within these areas.

UNEW is leading the work package on pilot sites and behavioural change actions to institute more sustainable and soil friendly horticulture (WP5). This includes work on strategies for facilitating behavioural change, labelling, managing a pilot site with amateur gardeners, as well as a policy paper on options to improve the uptake of more sustainable growing media. UNEW will also contribute to tasks relating to gender, IPR, assessment tools, educational resources, and communications..

AEIDL leads the Work Package 7: Communication, dissemination, exploitation, and stakeholder engagement ensuring the visibility of the Hort2thefuture project.

AEIDL creates communications outputs tailored to key stakeholders, such as growers, gardeners, educators, and policymakers. This includes the dissemination of project results, the promotion of sustainable growing practices through the Hort2thefuture podcasts, and the engagement of key stakeholders through the Stakeholder Advisory Board (SAB).

Growing Media Europe (GME) is a Brussels based NGO representing the European growing media producers. GME will assist with Tasks 2.1, 2.3.1, 3.4, 7.3 and be responsible for:

-Developing the LCA Tool to measure the environmental footprints of current and new growing media (Task 2.2.2).
-Mapping the existing and upcoming rules and regulations on the innovative growing media constituents and blends, to help ensure regulatory compliance and aid commercialization (Task 3.1).

GME will also communicate and consult with stakeholders in the growing media industry.

NIBIO will be strongly involved in all the three innovation work packages:
Innovation Accelerator for Sustainable Alternatives to Peat (WP3)
Innovation Accelerator for reducing use of inputs in horticulture (WP4)
Innovation Accelerator for Improving Soil Structure and Mitigating Soil Compaction (WP5)
NIBIO will be responsible for one of the pilot sites with professional growers (WP6), and will contribute in developing a conceptual framework to benchmark novel against existing reference horticultural production systems (WP2). Our team leader will be deputy coordinator of WP4: Innovation Accelerator for reducing use of inputs in horticulture

The CSCP will lead task 6.3 related to introducing and enhancing behavioural change toward more sustainable horticultural practices among amateur in Europe. As part of this work stream, the CSCP will establish three living labs in Germany, the United Kingdom, and North Macedonia.
In each lab, the products developed in upstream activities will be tested with end-users, collecting their feedback and passing it on to producers of peat-free soils. In task 7.5 the CSCP will lead the development of comprehensive educational resources on soil-friendly horticulture, engaging both students and consumers to enhance soil literacy through innovative materials and collaborative pilot testing in schools across Serbia and Germany.

AU leads WP3, aiming to develop low-cost, scalable alternatives to replace peat in horticulture. AU will also lead tasks to establish new management practices for peat-free blends and conducting large-scale trials to validate their commercial performance and sustainability in DK. In WP5, AU leads a task to develop tailor-made products for improving soil structure, carbon sequestration, and mitigating compaction in horticulture and conducts trials in both controlled and field conditions in DK.

The Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade (BEL), serves as Deputy Leader of WP6 and plays a pivotal role in contributing to comprehensive reviews on sustainable horticulture practices. BEL supports the organization of Living Labs focused on behavioral change among professional and amateur growers, and actively contributes to the development of strategies aimed at enhancing the adoption of sustainable growing media through improved labeling and point-of-sale interventions. Additionally, BEL is responsible for organizing and hosting a high-profile Policy Summit on peat alternatives. BEL will also lead the development of educational materials for schools and spearhead efforts to disseminate project findings within the academic community.

EUTA will be responsible for designing and producing Hort2thefuture online knowledge exchange platform, identity, and templates; providing training videos and materials for professional growers and amateur gardeners (WP7). EUTA will take part in the organisation of Pilot sites with professional growers (WP6). Also, our team leader will coordinate WP5: Innovation Accelerator for Improving Soil Structure and Mitigating Soil Compaction

Vlaco will act as contact point for WP4 and shall coordinate, amongst WP4-partners, the results, deliverables and meetings regarding all tasks pertaining to WP4 (more efficient/less use of water, fertilizer and pesticides). Vlaco will do this in close communication with EUTA (Steve Quarrie) and NIBIO (Ingunn Vagen). Vlaco is furthermore a partner in WP3 (T3.2. Documenting properties and characteristics of raw materials to build a mixing model) on accelerating innovations in peat-alternatives.

Corvinus co-leads the development of sustainability assessment methods and decision-support tools for measuring the economic and social impact of new peat alternatives. As part of this, Corvinus leads the refinement of existing SAFA indicators through four case studies. It also performs LCA and sustainability analyses to validate environmental and commercial performance and contributes to strategies for improving product uptake via labelling and point-of-sale materials.

UPCT is leading WP2 “Systems Mapping, Sustainability Assessment and Decision-support Tools” and it is the deputy of WP5 “Innovation Accelerator for Improving Soil Structure and Mitigating Soil Compaction”
UPCT is working on:
-Developing a conceptual framework to benchmark novel against existing reference horticultural production systems.
-Supporting the development of tools for assessing the economic, social, and environmental performance and viability of alternative novel production systems.
-Testing new growing media against peat-based growing media.
-Technological solutions that improve oxygen availability in soils using oxygenated irrigation systems.

Short description (up to 500 characters with spaces):
Within Hort2thefuture, Viaverda is performing applied research on optimized water use, both in sheltered and open field cultivations, and on fertilizer replacement in sheltered cultivations (WP4).

Pindstrup acts as deputy in WP3.
Pindstrup will act as the main growing media provider for the project and be involved on the following tasks:
-Mapping the potential impact of existing and upcoming rules and regulations on innovative growing media constituents and blends, as well as the regulatory and certification landscapes of market sectors to identify critical aspects for the commercialization of new blends.
-Formulating and distributing wood-fibre-based blends for controlled specific crop trials in collaboration with leading research institutions involved in the project.
Scaling up fit-for-purpose peat-free blends to be distributed across different horticulture segments and tested by professional growers in Denmark, Norway, Spain, the Netherlands, and Serbia.

ZELENI will be in charge of performing large-scale trials and validation of wood-fibre based blends in respect to finding peat-free medium (WP3). reductZELENI will take part in developing and in-nitrate probe for pepper plants (WP4), dissemination activities such as education of professional growers and knowledge exchange. (WP7)

ZELENI will be in charge of performing large-scale trials and validation of wood-fibre based blends in respect to finding peat-free medium (WP3). reductZELENI will take part in developing and in-nitrate probe for pepper plants (WP4), dissemination activities such as education of professional growers and knowledge exchange. (WP7)

CREA team will test best-performing CC species for reducing – preventing – restoring soil compaction in a field trial under organic farming, taking account of needs and interest of local farmers (WP 5.1.3). CREA will optimize no/MT operations for spring-summer vegetable crops directly transplanted into cover crop mulch and will test an in line-roller crimper to terminate the CCs and a no-till transplanter. A key activity will be the interaction with the network of local actors taking part in WP 6.2 to meet needs of farmers at a territorial level, according to the co-creation methodology. CREA team will lead WP 7.8, developing guidelines and coordinating the organization of Open Facility Demonstration

WR is the task leader for documenting the properties and characteristics of raw materials that are available across Europe and their performance in complementing wood fibre for different crop cultivations. Other partners involved in this task are Delphy, NIBIO, Pindstrup and VLACO

FPC is the task 3.3.2. leader where novel activated carbon with desired adsorption/desorption characteristics will be developed for new peat-free media. We shall combine the expertise in computational materials design with the knowledge in materials characterization to produce precisely designed carbons and develop protocols for large-scale synthesis.

toom Baumarkt will be involved in the WP 6 tasks of developing strategies for improving the
uptake of more sustainable growing media via labelling and point-of-sale material

IPTPO will develop Biopellets (WP5.2) providing an innovative approach to improving
soil structure using a long-lasting biochar/compost mixture formed into pellets for incorporation into compacted soils. Biopellets will be tested in field trials. Pre-commercial assessment (TRL6) of the Biopellets by IPTPO’s commercialisation office is planned by the end of the project.

The main objective is the development of the system for in-situ monitoring of nitrate ions under different growth conditions of plants.
The system will include impedance measurement/processing unit and a needle sensor. Nitrate concentration will be estimated from transfer function and changes of the Cole model parameters. The transfer function will be laboratory determined using various concentration of nitrate ions in a phosphate-buffered saline and the developed system.

RHP will be responsible in WP2 for the development of a tool to help the growing media industry and professional growers to select renewable constituents for their growing media based on their physical, chemical and biological properties. Also, RHP will support the selection of most promising constituents and creating blends as part of WP3

ENGELLYST will be responsible for designing field trials in horticulture in Denmark. Among other tasks, we will test the effects of different types of calcium and compare them to normal liming strategies. Additionally, we will produce high-quality compost for the project

NOVAGRIC is a company specialising in high-tech agricultural projects around the world. They focus on:
1.greenhouses.
2.Irrigation systems.
3.Fertigation.
4.Climate control in greenhouses.
5.Water treatment for agriculture.
Their team is made up of engineers and the largest assembly team in Spain. NOVAGRIC offers comprehensive services including:
-Project development from the initial concept to the implementation of the project.
-Manufacture of greenhouses, fertigation equipment and other agricultural components.
-Turnkey installation anywhere in the world.
-Technical assistance and consultancy
-Responsible resource management
Its aim is to positively influence both farmers’ profitability and overall sustainability.
Since the beginning, R&D has been the way the company has developed systems and equipment that are now part of its portfolio

JUAN AZCUE S.A. will design a portable and low-cost oxygenation equipment. The equipment will be easy to install and used in the irrigation head, either permanently to prevent anoxia in clay and compacted soils or temporarily after rainfall/soil flooding. The benefits of the portable prototype on the soil and crops will be tested in this project

Delphy will be involved in WP3 Innovation acceleration for sustainable alternatives to peat, especially for the tree cultivation in pot. Therefore Delphy will do a number of large scale trials on our research station for tree cultivation in Boskoop. Delphy is the connection between growers and supplier and delivers technical information and solution for the growing of trees, shrubs and perennials in potting containers.

CAJAMAR will be responsible for developing a web tool enabling recommendations on fertigation for greenhouse crops based on modelled daily nutrient extractions corrected with measurements of soil/plant nutrient status (T2.3.2). Moreover, CAJAMAR will take part in the organization of a pilot site with professional growers in the conditions of Mediterranean greenhouses (T6.2). Finally, CAJAMAR will organize and hold an open facility demonstration day aimed at professionals (T7.8)