The project TomaBioTec started in January with the aim of developing and validating innovative solutions that contribute to a more sustainable and efficient production of tomatoes in the industry, in line with the current challenges of the agri-food sector, by integrating biotechnology and digital technologies.
The initiative aims to evaluate, under real field conditions, the effectiveness and efficiency of a biosolution with bioprotective and/or biostimulant properties, developed by InnovPlantProtect (InPP), This could help improve the quality and productivity of industrial tomato crops.
The rehearsals take place at Alentejo and Spanish Extremadura and combine traditional agronomic methods with advanced technologies, such as drones, multispectral sensors and artificial intelligence models. This approach allows detailed monitoring of the health of the crop, the presence of pests and diseases and the impact of the bioproduct throughout the production cycle.
The project “TomaBioTec: New biological and digital solutions for tomato crop protection and fertilization” is led by the InPP, in collaboration with the Centro Tecnológico Nacional Agroalimentario Extremadura (CTAEX) and Cordeiro Group, and was selected as one of the winners of the 7th edition of the Promove Program, The prize was awarded by the “la Caixa” Foundation, in partnership with Banco BPI and the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), in the category of innovative pilot projects.
This project reinforces the commitment to biological and digital solutions as drivers of more sustainable, competitive agriculture based on scientific evidence, with a direct impact on producers and industry.
InnovPlantProtect (InPP) was present at the XVI National Maize Congress, which also included the 2nd Meeting of Cereal Crops, organized by ANPROMIS, in collaboration with ANPOC and AOP. The event took place on February 11 and 12 at CNEMA in Santarém, bringing together national and international experts to discuss the sector's main challenges.
António Saraiva, Executive Director of InPP, took part in the panel “Cereal Production: What technical challenges are we facing?”, where he highlighted the decisive role of research in responding to the emerging challenges of cereal production, in a context of growing demographic, environmental and economic pressure.
“I'm proud that today, after seven years, we have 28 researchers working full-time on this topic, 12 of whom have PhDs, with experience in crops such as rice, which has been central to our work,” he said, emphasizing the multifunctional and international nature of InPP's teams.
He also pointed out that the work being done extends beyond rice to include maize, through ongoing projects and new operational groups focused on emerging crop problems. Among the initiatives in the spotlight is an application to Horizon Europe focused on developing improved and more resilient varieties.
For António Saraiva, anticipation is the key to success: “These challenges can't wait too long to be discussed or resolved. The sooner we anticipate the issues, the easier, more effective and more economical the solutions will be.”
In a debate that also marked the 40th anniversary of Portugal's integration into Europe and the role of the Common Agricultural Policy in the cohesion of the European Union, one message was clear across the board: “Climate change is the biggest threat we have.”
InPP thus reaffirms its commitment to innovation, science and the development of sustainable solutions for the future of cereal crops.
There are days when science begins long before you enter the laboratory or the field. It starts at dawn, when the alarm clock goes off too early. When you mentally review the day's list: an experiment that can't be missed, a trip to the field that depends on the weather, an unfinished report, a meeting scheduled at the wrong time. In between, someone to wake up, someone to drop off, someone to call. And yet science moves forward.
At InnovPlantProtect, there are now 15 women who give a face to the science and innovation developed here. Women who represent commitment, demand, resilience, overcoming, quality, talent, excellence and creativity. But they are only part of a greater whole. There are many more - and each one brings with it a story that doesn't fit into a CV, a patent application or an article.
Today, February 11th, marks the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, a UNESCO initiative that underlines the importance of the female role in the production of scientific and technological knowledge and the need to continue promoting equal access to careers in science and innovation. Portugal has encouraging figures: women represent almost 50% researchers in the country. It's a relevant figure, reflecting decades of progress. But the figures don't show what happens between them.
Because science, for many women, is made up of fragile balances.
There are women with intense family lives, others with more solitary journeys, still others who build support networks outside traditional models, with effort and creativity. There are difficult choices and decisions, unexpected circumstances, forced breaks, changes of pace, different phases of life. All legitimate. Many are invisible when you only look at the end result of a project, an article or a biosolution developed. - but they all influence the paths of science.
One day, one of our researchers - let's just call her that - told us that she had finished a field trial close to sunset. The phone rang while she was putting away her materials. It was the school. A delay. Nothing extraordinary. It was business as usual. She came home exhausted, with dirt still on her boots, opened her computer after dinner and went back to her data, because the experiment couldn't wait. “It wasn't a heroic day,” she said. “It was just a normal day.”
And perhaps that is what is most remarkable.
In the field of crop protection, the work is demanding, technical and often unpredictable. It takes place in the laboratory and in the field, between strict protocols and decisions made under real conditions. It requires persistence, adaptability, attention to detail and an integrated view of problems. Characteristics that so many women bring with them - not by nature, but by experience, by path, by everything they have learned to manage at the same time.
Each personal story profoundly shapes the way we do science. The doubts, the challenges, the forced breaks, the changes of pace, the new beginnings. None of this is left at the laboratory door. It all silently enters into the way we observe, question and build knowledge.
To celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science is to recognise this reality as a whole. It is to honour the women who continue to do science despite the challenges — and often because of them. And it is to remember that innovation is also born from lives fully lived, shaped by imperfection, effort and courage.
Today we celebrate them. Not just for what they produce, but for all that they are. In science, in the field, in the laboratory - and in the life that happens in between.
The International Day of Women and Girls in Science, celebrated annually on February 11, is an initiative created in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly to recognize the relevant role played by women and girls in the production of scientific and technological knowledge.
“Exploring careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM): her voice in science” was the theme chosen for this year, with the aim of raising awareness among civil society of the importance of breaking down the barriers imposed by inequality between men and women in access to education and careers in science and innovation, as shared in the official information on UNESCO's website.
In recent decades there has been an increase in the participation of women in science research activities, opening up and exploring new paths that have also benefited the younger generations by arousing their interest and greater attendance at higher education.
Portugal is a good example, as Portuguese women scientists represent almost 50% of the total number of researchers in our country, with remarkable work that has been fundamental to the progress that national science and technology have made in recent decades.
Since its creation, the InPP has valued and supported scientific and technological development through multiple projects in a wide variety of areas, where female leadership has had a positive track record, contributing to the expansion of the collaborative laboratory, the creation of valuable partnerships and the transfer of knowledge to the business environment.
This expansion has led to a consequent increase in scientific advances which, together with the latest technologies, improve the competitiveness of the economy and add value to the area of biotechnology and plant health, for preventing and combating pests and diseases in agricultural crops.
To mark this date, we are highlighting the 24 women who are innovating in Portugal in the biotechnology and crop protection sector, and who represent the science and innovation being developed at InPP. These are some of the women who embody the words commitment, demand, resilience, overcoming, quality, talent, excellence and creativity. But there are many more and today, as every day, we celebrate them.
InPP's innovation manager, Paulo Madeira, took part in the Meeting with rice farmers and technicians in Portugal, promoted by the Operational and Technological Center for Rice (COTArroz), which took place on February 5 at COTArroz's premises in Salvaterra de Magos.
The aim of this meeting was to provide information on the use of herbicides and solutions, such as biostimulants for rice cultivation, to help mitigate the impact of pyriculariosis, one of the diseases that most affects this cereal worldwide and also in Portugal.
Moments of sharing knowledge and experiences like these not only contribute to the evolution of the sector, but also give us hope for the future of cereal growing!
Special thanks to COTArroz for the invitation to take part in the event. We look forward to your visit to Elvas, to get to know the work of our CoLAB and to explore possibilities for collaboration.
InnovPlantProtect (InPP) celebrated its 6th anniversary this Friday, January 24, 2025, at the Auditorium of the National Institute for Agricultural and Veterinary Research (INIAV) - Elvas Pole, in Elvas, with 120 guests in attendance.
The commemorative session was attended by the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, José Manuel Fernandes, who was accompanied by the Secretary of State for Agriculture, João Moura, the vice-president of the Alentejo Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR Alentejo) who holds the agriculture portfolio, Roberto Grilo, and the President of INIAV, IP, Nuno Canada. Also present at the commemoration was the councillor from Elvas Municipal Council (CM), representing José Rondão Almeida, the mayor of Elvas.
The welcome session was led by António Saraiva, InPP's executive director, who began by thanking all the guests present, and especially INIAV, the Municipality of Elvas and the associates for all their support. The executive director, who took up his post in December last year, congratulated the entire InPP team, to a standing ovation from all the guests present at the celebration: “Today is our day. We're six years old!”.
After two months as CEO, António Saraiva considers CoLAB to be a “true case study”, with “training skills, professional experience and a dedicated 100% human resources team that has attracted and retained talent from the north to the south of the country and also from Madeira, but also from abroad”. InPP already has an international team of 46 employees of 10 nationalities.
The InPP “has been a very attractive option for highly qualified work for young people in the region and the Alentejo, (...) working for the benefit of the competitiveness of Agriculture”, he stressed. “We are contributing to the modernization of agriculture so that it can respond to the needs of its professionals and the expectations of society.”.
António Saraiva, executive director of the InPP, during the welcoming session for participants in the 6th Anniversary of the InPP
The InnovPlantProtect brand is already a recognized reference throughout the country, particularly in the agricultural sector and, according to António Saraiva, “the importance of InPP goes far beyond the Alentejo region”, recalling the concept behind its creation: to develop an R&D laboratory capable of responding to the lack of phytosanitary solutions that agricultural producers have been experiencing, with a focus on crops from the Mediterranean region.
For six years, CoLAB has been developing bioinspired products, such as bioprotectants and biostimulants, as well as laboratory and digital services “provided to all those who come to us. We are helping to meet the needs of the countryside and companies in the agricultural sector,” he emphasized. InPP currently has more than a hundred partners and clients, in projects and collaborations, and in the provision of technical and scientific assistance services.
The seven national and international patent applications already produced by CoLAB to protect crops against various diseases that affect them at regional and national level were also highlighted in the executive director's speech. “We hope to have three more patent applications by the end of this year. It's a lengthy and very intense process, but we're going to do it,” he said.
Another of the points addressed by the CoLAB leader was the visit by the president of the National Innovation Agency (ANI), António Grilo, on January 20th. The president of ANI “left a positive note of InPP's excellent work, materialized mainly in the results obtained with the registration of patents, but was unable to say anything about the funding model after 2025”.
The executive director ended his speech by alerting the minister to the need for CoLABs to be informed “in good time” about the funding available after 2025 “so that we can project our future activity, and so that the team can focus on what is essential and not lose its focus”.
After the welcome session, there was a session entitled “What innovation is produced at InPP?”, in which two department directors, Cristina Azevedo and Ricardo Ramiro, introduced their teams and gave examples of biopesticides that are effective against the diseases fire blight and pyriculariosis in rice, a broad-spectrum biofungicide against gray rot in tomatoes, as well as the use of drones and artificial intelligence to monitor pests in the main agricultural crops.
One of the latest innovations is the iCountPests app, which not only reduces the time invested in monitoring and creating a pest history, but also contributes to better management of the pests present in the farmer's field, democratizing access to technology.
From left to right: Cristina Azevedo, director of the New Biopesticides Department; Ricardo Ramiro, director of the Data Management and Risk Analysis Department; João Moura, Secretary of State for Agriculture; and José Manuel Fernandes, Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, during the session “What innovation is produced at the InPP?”
The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, José Manuel Fernandes, was in charge of the closing session. To the words heard during the speech by the executive director of InPP, “entrepreneurship and passion”, the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries chose the word “ambition” to kick off the closing session. “We have to have the ambition to make things happen, to take risks, to not be afraid, to move forward,” he added.
The minister highlighted the word ambition when referring to the seven patents that are currently underway and also stressed the “absolutely essential” role of applied research in creating real impact in the agricultural sector and local communities, giving the example of the fire blight disease that affects pear and apple trees, “a challenge that we have to overcome” and for which the InPP team has already filed the first international patent application.
During his speech, José Manuel Fernandes not only didn't forget the “other pests and diseases”, he also said that “climate change, as we all know, is here and we have to make a collaborative effort, seeking to share what is being done in European terms.”
The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries congratulated the InPP team “not only for all their work, but for allowing me to be here with you” and was pleased that it was made up largely of young people, when in the agricultural sector at national level the average age is one of the highest in the European Union, at 64, and “what we are trying to do is generational renewal. I'm very pleased when I only see young people, and young people whose faces show joy, which means that this glow you see is a sign of hope, of confidence, and with a multicultural team, that can only add to it.”
“You can count on us, on our support, but we are also counting on you to change what is an urgent need, which is to change the perception of agriculture: an agriculture that is increasingly modern, an agriculture that needs to be rejuvenated, where the farmer's income needs to be improved and an agriculture that is essential for our food security, and for our strategic autonomy,” he concluded.
José Manuel Fernandes, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, during the closing session of the 6th Anniversary of the InPP
The InnovPlantProtect team with the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, José Manuel Fernandes, during the session commemorating the 6th anniversary of the InPP.
The session continued with a drink for the guests, during which InPP was congratulated with a birthday cake.
The balance of the commemorative event was positive, having been able to attract the Elven community, representatives of various companies and agricultural producers, and the academic community.
After six years, InPP promotes the transfer of knowledge, reinforces its position as a CoLAB capable of fostering the development of new technologies, products and services with a strong technological and innovation component, and strengthens its commitment to promoting solutions that make a difference in tackling the various challenges of agricultural crop protection.
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