It's called PROSPER and it's a new European project that aims to transform European agriculture through the valorization of “orphan” legumes - resistant crops, little exploited, but with great potential to face the challenges of climate and food in the future.
The consortium, with total funding of around 5 million euros, brings together 27 partners from 13 European countries and Tunisia, including universities, research centers, companies and non-profit organizations in the agricultural sector. Among them are countries from the Mediterranean (Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal and France), Central Europe (Germany, Belgium, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania), Northern Europe (Denmark, Sweden and Finland).
The aim of PROSPER is to test and validate new agricultural diversification strategies, adapted to different climates and social and economic contexts, promoting more sustainable, innovative practices that are adjusted to the needs of different agricultural realities.
InPP, PROSPER's partner, will be responsible for analyzing:
Soil health and environmental impact
Energy efficiency and waste management
Nutritional quality of crops
Fair valuation along the production chain
To do this, the InPP team will use advanced technologies, such as real-time sensors and geospatial analysis, which will help study soil health, carbon sequestration captured by crops, water management and biodiversity, among others.
PROSPER is co-created with the main players in the agricultural sector, ensuring that the solutions developed do not remain on paper: they will be practical, useful and transformative.
The project starts in September 2025. We are ready to embark on this journey towards a greener, fairer and more resilient agriculture.
InnovPlantProtect (InPP) was present at the Science 2025 Meeting in Lisbon, at the Nova SBE Campus, to take part in the parallel session “Crop Protection for One Health, and Food and Environmental Sustainability”.
The Encontro Ciência took place from July 9 to 11 at the NOVA SBE Campus in Carcavelos, with the motto “Science, Innovation and Society”. Portugal's largest science and technology meeting was the stage for promoting and discussing the scientific, social, cultural and economic impact of research in Portugal, exploring the intersection between science, innovation and society, to inspire new ideas and foster transformative collaborations.
The director of the Data Management and Risk Analysis Department, Ricardo Ramiro, and the director of the New Biopesticides Department, Cristina Azevedo, presented some of the results of their work in this session co-moderated by the executive director, António Saraiva.
During the session, two important solutions for the agricultural sector, developed by our team, were presented:
iCountPests - an innovative app that uses AI to detect and count pests accurately and quickly in photos of chromotropic traps.
InPP 2 - a broad-spectrum biofungicide capable of fighting Botrytis cinerea, the fungus responsible for gray rot in tomatoes.
CoLAB MORE Colab - Collaborative Mountain Research Laboratory and Sfcolab - Collaborative Laboratory for Digital Innovation in Agriculture, were also present at the parallel session, as well as GREEN-IT, to discuss how science and innovation can tackle the challenges of climate change and promote more sustainable agricultural systems.
On June 30, InnovPlantProtect (InPP) was present at the meeting “7 years of CoLABs: impacts and perspectives”, which brought together political decision-makers, experts from the Portuguese innovation ecosystem, leaders from different sectors, representatives of public and private entities and the representatives of the 41 Collaborative Laboratories (CoLAB), at the Pavilhão do Conhecimento in Lisbon.
The meeting, organized by the Forum of Collaborative Laboratories (FCoLAB), aimed to reflect on the impact of the work carried out by the different CoLABs over the last seven years, as well as to address future prospects and identify strategies to boost the contribution of scientific research and innovation to the economy and society.
This initiative was an opportunity to showcase the products, services and solutions developed by CoLAB over the last seven years, highlighting its contribution to innovation, competitiveness and sustainability in various sectors of the economy. The application recently launched by InPP, iCountPests, which allows pests to be counted automatically using images from traps, reducing the time invested in monitoring and making it possible to create a pest history, was also highlighted.
The event was attended by the Minister of Education, Science and Innovation, Fernando Alexandre, the Secretary of State for the Economy, João Rui Ferreira, Manuel Heitor, from the IN+ Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research and former Minister of Science and Innovation, António Grilo, President of ANI, among others.
In his speech, the Minister for Education, Science and Innovation, Fernando Alexandre, highlighted the purpose of science at national level: “We hope that the science created in Portugal will generate innovation. More than technology, innovation is the answer to society's problems. You are the agents of change!”.
During the session, the main activity indicators and proven impact of the first seven years of CoLABs' activity were also presented, and multisectoral perspectives on their role in the national science and innovation ecosystem were debated, focusing on topics such as socio-economic impact, internationalization, business competitiveness, technological innovation and sustainability.
The activity indicators and the impact of the 7 years of activity are as follows:
More than 260 projects approved
More than 1,300 qualified jobs created
19M€ in tax revenue generated
More than 900 interactions with companies
33 patent applications (10 granted)
680 scientific articles published
The two afternoon panels were attended by companies, partners and management entities, who reflected on the impact generated so far and presented proposals for maximizing CoLAB's long-term contribution to both the economy and Portuguese society.
At a time when the basic funding options for CoLABs are being discussed, this event is of the utmost importance. The area of crop protection, in particular, needs more investment in innovation. Holding this event was important for bringing this urgent and strategically important issue to the debate.
The InPP was also present in the exhibition area, receiving important visitors, including the Minister of Education, Science and Innovation, Fernando Alexandre, the Secretary of State for the Economy, João Rui Ferreira, the Secretary of State for Science and Innovation, Helena Canhão, the President of the FCT, Madalena Alves, the President of the National Innovation Agency, António Grilo, the President of the National Monitoring Committee for the RRP, Pedro Dominguinhos and the Executive Director of Ciência Viva, Ana Noronha.
Casa da História Judaica da Rainha da Fronteira wins a government award for actions and initiatives by local authorities to “save, protect and dignify human lives in Portugal in the face of contemporary threats and atrocities”.
A Elvas City Council won the first municipal award “Aristides de Sousa Mendes and other Portuguese saviors - Holocaust, universal values, humanism and justice”, in the category “Arts, Heritage and other Cultural Domains”, with the application of the House of Jewish History.
The honorary distinction, which is national in scope, was launched by the government in 2021. Among other things, it “aims to distinguish practices, programs, projects, symbols and material and immaterial works, which, inspired by memories and teachings arising from the Holocaust, and/or developed around universal values of humanism and justice, are factors of identification, aggregation and recognition by the respective communities, and valorization by differentiation, of localities and territories”.
The House of Jewish History is located at Rua dos Açougues, nº 4-6, in Elvas, and is open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10am to 6pm.
In addition to the diploma that will be presented to the Municipality of Elvas by the Directorate-General for Local Authorities, The government undertakes to publicize the winning project.
Elvas City Council is a founding member of CoLAB InnovPlantProtect, which is based in the city.
InnovPlantProtect and the Municipality of Sabugal install sensors in the municipality's chestnut groves and launch an educational program to value the chestnut tree as a local natural capital.
The trees will communicate their state of health thanks to TreeTalker sensors. The project “Educate to know, protect and monitor chestnut trees through IoT technology”, which has been approved by the Environmental Fund, is led by InnovPlantProtect (InPP) and managed by the Sabugal Municipal Council (CMS).
The initiative is aimed at the sustainable management of chestnut trees, the enhancement of ecosystem services and protection against diseases, particularly ink disease, for which there is still no concrete solution. The project includes training courses for those currently and potentially responsible for the sustainable management and protection of chestnut trees: CMS and chestnut producers associated with CastCoa - Associação de Produtores de Castanha do Coa; and secondary school students from the Sabugal School Group.
The CMS and InPP team in Sabugal at the beginning of September 2021.
The novelty of the educational program, however, is that digital 4.0 technology, based on the “Internet of Things” (IoT), is being applied to support and add value to traditional teaching methods. The TreeTalker sensors, installed around the trunk, allow the phytosanitary conditions of the trees to be monitored in real time, detecting water consumption (through sap flow), biomass growth (diameter), stem humidity, absorbed solar radiation and the state of health of the leaves through spectral indices (light reflection).
Sabugal City Council has just publicize the project. Don't miss the newly released video, which highlights the importance of the chestnut tree to the livelihoods of local communities and the value of the souto ecosystem, and shows the team at work in the field. It's also a unique opportunity to see InPP researchers in action Manuel Simões, Márcio Almeida e Ilaria Marengo, director of Pest and Disease Monitoring and Diagnosis Department, and coordinator of this project.
Pedro Fevereiro in podcast version, as part of a partnership between CiB - Centro de Informação de Biotecnologia and TSF radio. In total, 5 Notes on Gene Editing were produced.
The executive director of InnovPlantProtect answers the question “Can gene editing increase agricultural production?” in this podcast, produced as part of a CiB / TSF partnership. The initiative resulted in 5 Notes on Gene Editing in food production and health. The recordings were broadcast by TSF during the week of October 4 to 8, 2021.
The challenge for 2050 is how to feed 10 million people without destroying the planet. This requires changes in food production. Pedro Fevereiro explains how gene editing can help in this process.
Listen too the other four podcasts, which feature:
Jorge Canhoto, researcher, head of the Plant Biotechnology Laboratory of the Functional Ecology Center of the University of Coimbra and president of CiB - Biotechnology Information Center
Margarida Oliveira, who leads the Plant Functional Genomics research group of the GPlantS - Plant Genomics under Stress unit at the Institute of Chemical and Biological Technology (ITQB NOVA).
Ana Sofia Coroadinha, professor at ITQB NOVA
Filipe Castro, researcher at the Interdisciplinary Center for Marine and Environmental Research, and professor at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto
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