MASSA – Knowledge Center for Sustainable Agricultural Modernization and Food Safety is one the primary CAIS from Campus Sul and is headquartered at the Elvas CoLAB.
InnovPlantProtect (InPP) is the head infrastructure of one of the three primary applied knowledge and innovation centres from the recently created Campus Sul, a consortium that unites the University of Évora (UÉ), NOVA University of Lisbon and University of Algarve. NOVA and UÉ are InPP associates.
The Centres for Applied Knowledge and Innovation for Sustainability (CAIS, in the Portuguese acronym) are focused in designing “innovative solutions in specific areas of sustainable development in the South, from already existing infrastructures”, explain consortium officers. The specific goal of CAIS MASSA – Knowledge Center for Sustainable Agricultural Modernization and Food Safety, headquartered at InPP, in Elvas, is “to promote an agriculture which is based on a sustainable model, aligned with the principles of circular economy and eco-economy (…), contributing to the development and ‘cohesion’ of Southern and Iberian Interior territories”.
The primary theme lines of action are 4: innovation applied to agriproduction, valorization of endogenous natural resources, promotion of Mediterranean diet and the training of human resources in the area of sustainable agriculture. Strategic partners in this CAIS include Municipalities, Regional Coordination and Development Committees (Algarve, Alentejo, Lisboa), the National Institute of Agrarian and Veterinary Research (INIAV, also InPP associate), Bayer Crop Science, Syngenta Crop Protection (both InPP associates), Fundação Eugénio de Almeida, Fraunhofer Institute and the Portuguese Young Farmers Association (AJAP), as well as other academic partners at Iberian and international levels.
Campus Sul – Southern Interuniversity Association was puclicly launched on December 22, 2021, at Évora University’s Auditório do Colégio do Espírito Santo. InPP’s CEO was one the speakers in the afternoon session (Science Day@South). Pedro Fevereiro delivered a talk on Innovative Bio-based Solutions for Crop Protection in a panel entitled “Research in the area of Earth and Social Innovation”.
Learn more about the Innovation component of Campus Sul and about the primary CAIS, including MASSA.