Project Team: Mimmo, T., Borruso, L. Tiziani, R.
Duration: 2025 - 2028
Project Partners: Università di Scienze Gastronomiche di Pollenzo (UNISG); Consiglio ricerca in agricoltura ed analisi dell'economia agraria (CREA); ISARA;University of Coimbra (UC); Universität Kassel; Chamber of Agriculture Pays de la Loire; Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas de Extremadura (CICYTEX); ALPA - Land for Life
Funding: “Joint Projects” - Autonomous Province of Bolzano-Bozen
Project Contents:
The scope of this project is to:

• enhance and develop the Agroecological Living Lab approach (ALL) in different EU countries.
• support a network of living labs that will accelerate the transition at landscape level towards agroecology.
  It provides spaces for long-term, site-specific, multi-stakeholder and real-life experimentation, and direction for research activities on agroecology at the EU regional levels.

It will deliver ready-to adopt practices that support farmers in understanding and implementing agroecological practices at the scale needed for positive economic, environmental and social impacts.

This consortium applies a transdisciplinary, systemic approach with a multi-actor perspective. We consider the problems and challenges of agro-food systems in a European perspective and beyond. It is based on existing living labs composed by different actors and focused on practices of diversification in farming and food systems to evaluate the impact of agroecology at territorial level.

Project Team: Borruso, L., Schuler, H., Brusetti, L.
Project Duration: 2025 - 2026
Funding: Infra 2025
Summary: The BIOAGRI-HPC project (Accelerating Bioagriculture: HPC Solutions for Critical Data Processing Challenges)aims to significantly enhance computational resources for bioinformatics research in agricultural, environmental, and agroecological sciences. High-throughput sequencing approaches such as genomics, transcriptomics, metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and metabarcoding have become essential tools for studying plant physiology, soil biodiversity, microbial communities, and insect pests and disease vectors. These methods generate extremely large datasets, often ranging from hundreds of gigabytes to several terabytes, which exceed the processing capabilities of standard computing systems.

BIOAGRI-HPC addresses these challenges by establishing a modern High-Performance Computing (HPC)infrastructure at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, supporting the Competence Centre for Plant Health and the Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences. The infrastructure will rely on next-generation servers equipped with AMD EPYC processors, high-capacity DDR5 memory, and high-speed NVMe storage, delivering up to a threefold increase in computational performance compared to the existing system.

This platform will enable faster, more accurate, and parallel analyses of large-scale omics datasets, substantially improving research efficiency. When not fully utilized by the core research teams, the HPC resources will be accessible to other university research groups, ensuring sustainable use and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration.

Project Team: Borruso, L., Mimmo, T.; Maver, M.; Bouaicha, O.; Boselli, E., Longo, E.; Ventura, M.
Duration: 2023 - 2026
Funding: Autonomous Province of Bolzano-Bozen - Joint Projects IT-A
Project Partners: Institute of Microbiology (University of Innsbruck); EURAC European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano (EURAC)
Summary: Soil is central to the ecosystem function, change, and stability delivering primary ecosystem services needed to sustain human life since more than 95% of our food is directly and indirectly produced on our soils. Yet soils are increasingly under pressure, especially in intensive agricultural systems like fruit production leading to the decrease of soil health in terms of soil quality and biodiversity. One of the most profitable fruit by-products is the wine sector, with annually 259 million hectoliters of wine, for almost 30 billions of global wine market value. Italy is a leading wine-producing country with high exporting levels and South Tyrol is one of the most critical regions for Italian high-quality wine market.

Thus, BioViSo aims to determine key drivers and the keystone species influencing soil biodiversity by applying an innovative agroecological network analysis in vineyards according to their management and geographic location. BioViSo will apply a large-scale approach utilizing Next Generation Biomonitoring combining traditional chemical and biological approaches with DNA metabarcoding approach. This knowledge will represent the prerequisite for the setup of agronomical practices aimed at sustainable agriculture. Soil management and, in particular, soil microbial management will permit to maximize agroecosystem sustainability, i.e., to better exploit natural resources already present in soil and to reduce the use of external inputs.

The project will be divided into 6 work packages over 30 months. The first step will be developing a stratified sampling design considering existing monitoring frameworks and selecting the sites based on the farming system and the geographic location. The selected sites covering the whole vineyard areas of South Tyrol will be then characterized by applying a holistic approach. Indeed, we will characterize: i) chemical soil quality parameters, including the soil content of agrochemicals and their metabolites ii) soil enzymes activities and iii) soil biodiversity, including bacteria, fungi and metazoan. Further, BioViSo will unravel the complex web of biodiversity in terms of alpha and beta diversity and identify the species-species and species-agroecosystem interactions occurring in apple orchards according to the farming system and the altitude applying an ecological network analysis.

An essential step of the project will be disseminating results through the usual channels of academic research. In particular, BioViSo aims to transfer the acquired knowledge to a broader context; the project will foster interaction with the various local, national, and international authorities to improve the management of agricultural practices' management by understanding the complexity of soil quality and biodiversity.

Project Team:  Schuler, H. (coordinator), Corretto, E., Rau, V., Li J., Mimmo, T.,
Duration: 2023 – 2025
Partners: Institute for Applied Remote Sensing (EURAC)
Funding: Autonomous Province of Bolzano-Bozen
Summary:  A series of damaging events, such as the Vaia storm, snow pressure events, as well as the extreme drought in the last summer, have led to South Tyrol's forests being significantly weakened, thus causing the outbreak of the European spruce bark beetle. Especially the long heat period this year has led to the rapid development and proliferation of this secondary pest. This has led to a population outbreak never observed before in the Southern Alps. The high number of beetles results that currently not only damaged and weakened trees, but also healthy trees are attacked and killed, causing enormous economic and ecological damage. The present project aims to investigate important aspects of the biology of this beetle in order to predict population development and to find possible antagonists that can limit its population development, to establish methods to detect infested trees at an early stage and thus minimize population pressure, and in the long term to develop strategies to make South Tyrol's forests fit for climate change and its consequences.

Project Team: Borruso, L., Mimmo, T., Tiziani, Cappello, C.
Duration: 2025-2028
Funding: internal
Project Type: start-up fund
Summary: Soils are non-renewable and complex ecological archives that store molecular, chemical, and biological signatures of past and present environmental conditions. The EARTHCODE project explores this potential by integrating ancient and modern environmental DNA (aDNA and eDNA) with advanced soil chemical profiling to reconstruct long-term ecological dynamics and anthropogenic impacts across different geographical areas. Through high-resolution sequencing and radiocarbon dating, the EARTHCODE will characterise soil biodiversity patterns in relation to physicochemical properties, including agrochemical residues and trace metal accumulation. A dedicated bioinformatic pipeline will support the authentication of aDNA and enable the reconstruction of taxonomic and functional profiles from metagenomic datasets. This interdisciplinary approach will generate new insights into species–environment interactions over timescales, support soil conservation strategies, and provide a framework for assessing ecosystem resilience to human-driven change.

Project Team: Schuler, H., Palmieri Rocha, L.
Duration: 2025 - 2027
Partner:
Funding:  Autonomous Province of Bolzano-Bozen – Seal of Excellence
Summary: Symbiotic relationships between insects and bacteria play a crucial role in shaping the evolution of many insect species. Weevils (Curculionidae) are a large family of beetles with diverse lifestyle which have adapted to different environments.  Most weevils rely on bacterial symbionts to survive in nutrient-poor environments. They play an important role in the nutrient supplementation but in many cases also on the cuticle formation. Endosymbiosis with cuticle-enhancing bacteria has been reported in several weevil species; however, the impact of these symbiotic bacteria on morphological features has rarely been demonstrated.

This project aims to uncover how bacterial endosymbionts, specifically Nardonella, affect the pigmentation patterns of the weevil Metamasius hemipterus, a pest in tropical agriculture. Understanding this relationship could lead to new strategies for managing its spread to new regions. Previous research has shown that removing Nardonella with antibiotics leads to drastic morphological defects in weevils, but the detailed link between symbiont presence and physical traits, such as melanisation, is yet to be fully understood. Using phylogenetic and genomic approaches, we will reconstruct the first detailed phylogeny of M. hemipterus and its Nardonella symbionts. This research will test whether changes in Nardonella abundance correlate with variations in pigmentation patterns and whether this relationship evolved consistently across different M. hemipterus subspecies. Part of this research will be conducted at the US National Museum – Smithsonian Institution, which will provide access to their extensive collections for specimen sampling and imaging.

The findings will not only transform our understanding of insect-bacterial relationships but also contribute to the development of novel pest management strategies, reducing crop damage and enhancing agricultural sustainability.

Project Team: Schuler. H.; Li, Y.; Corretto, E.
Duration: 2025 - 2028
Funding: Autonomous Province of Bolzano-Bozen - Joint Projects D-I
Project Partners: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg; Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena (MPI Jena); Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MfN)
Summary: Psyllids, commonly known as jumping plant lice, have evolved intimate associations with a variety of microorganisms. These symbiotic relationships often contribute to the nutrition, by making nutritionally unbalanced plant sap exploitable, enabling the host to adapt to diverse ecological niches. The acquisition of essential nutrients, particularly amino acids and vitamins, through symbiotic associations is a key aspect of these interactions, influencing psyllid fitness and reproductive success. The co-evolutionary dynamics between psyllids and their symbionts have shaped the genomic structure of both parties, leading to intriguing adaptations and molecular interdependencies. However, the relationships between insects and their bacterial partners are dynamic as symbionts can be frequently acquired, replaced, or lost. In this project we aim to reconstruct the co-evolutionary history of psyllids with their symbionts and aim to identify events of symbiont co-diversifications, losses and replacements across the psyllid tree of life. As several psyllid taxa are gall-inducers, we will also investigate how the evolution of this lifestyle has influenced their symbiont communities. We aim to determine the nutritional and protective properties of symbionts by using a combination of whole genome sequencing, phylogenetic reconstructions, fluorescence microscopy, and metabolomic assays of symbionts from more than hundred psyllid species. The results of this project will provide new insights into the evolutionary dynamics of symbionts of this diverse group of insects and will deepen our understanding of the evolution and dynamics of insect-microbe relationships in general.

Project Team: Schuler. H.; Ragionieri, L.; Corretto, E.
Duration: 2025 - 2028
Funding: Autonomous Province of Bolzano-Bozen - Joint Projects LUX-I
Project Partners: Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology; RLP Agroscience (RLP Agroscience)
Summary: Climate change is considered as one of the biggest challenges in the 21st century. Insects are in the focus of climate change impact studies, due to their role as important pests in agriculture. Especially insects belonging to Psylloidea (also known as “psyllids”) are widely distributed across Europe and well-known for their damage to plants. As other sap-feeders, they can injure plants by transmitting pathogens to several host plants. An increased phytosanitary risk can be expected for several pathogens by affecting the transmission process of the pathogen transmitted by insects. Therefore, greater insights about the responses of insect transmitted pathogens to climatic changes is needed to develop predictive methodologies geared towards sustainable plant protection strategies. The project objectives will focus on Cacopsylla melanoneura. This species is an important vector of phytoplasmas causing Apple Proliferation in Italy. This species, however, plays a limited role in the epidemiology of apple proliferation in Germany. The VectoRise will focus on the regional differences of the insect vector and the phytoplasma strain across the different regions. Moreover, we will investigate how the epidemiology of apple proliferation will change under future climate scenarios. Our new findings will constitute an important prerequisite for improved plant protection strategies in agriculture under global change.

Project Team: Borruso, L., Ricardi di Netro, F.; Rastrogueva, N.
Project duration: 2024 - 2030
Partners: Università della Finlandia Orientale, Universität Hohenheim, American Farm School, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università Di Bologna, Re Soil Foundation, Plantpress, FCiências.ID - Associação Para A Investigação e Desenvolvimento De Ciências, Faculdade De Ciências Da Universidade De Lisboa, Solutopus, Università Stefan Cel Mare Suceava, The James Hutton Institute, Fundación Ibercivis, Quanta Labs, Universidad De Extremadura, Ambienta
Funding: European Union Research & Innovation Programme “Horizon Europe"
Summary: Current agricultural production systems benefit from several decades of scientific and technological innovation, which have contributed to ensuring food security in Europe. This has come though at the cost of a series of environmental, socio-economic and cultural degradations, as illustrated in IPCC (2019) and IPBES (2019) assessments. Indeed, intensification of agricultural systems and land use have had adverse impacts on the environment and the preservation of natural resources. The agricultural sector is responsible for 10.3% of total EU GHG emissions. Furthermore, farmers are increasingly confronted with the consequences of climate change and more frequent extreme climate events and must adapt to their diverse effects. In addition, many farmers do not draw a sufficient income from their farming activity: in 2018, while 5% of farms had a Farm Net Value Added (FNVA) per Annual Work Unit (AWU), a measure of a farmer’s income per year, of more than EUR 70 000, 50 % had a FNVA per AWU below EUR 10 000. At the same time, the environmental impact and carbon footprint of currently prevailing farming practices are more vulnerable to changes and are also increasingly criticised by the public and the media. Recently, the fragility of current production systems has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There is increasing recognition that a major change is needed that would make the European agricultural sector more sustainable, resilient and responsive to societal and policy demands.

 The assumption of the European Partnership “Accelerating Farming Systems Transition: Agroecology Living Labs and Research Infrastructures” (AGROECOLOGY[1]) is that we can address challenges faced by the European agricultural sector through agroecology (AE), which is an approach that builds on natural, biological interactions while using state-of-the-art science and technology, and innovation based on farmers’ knowledge and tested best practices.

This partnership relies on a common vision to “Team-up and unlock the transition to agroecology so that farming systems are resilient, productive and prosperous, place-sensitive, as well as climate, environment-ecosystem, biodiversity and people-friendly by 2050”.

In order to achieve impact on people, policies, planet, productivity and prosperity, we need a change in paradigm in science, policy and practice to support:

i) A thriving agricultural sector, which is economically viable, attractive to young generations and well connected to society.

ii) New as well as improved farming practices, products and services that contribute to positive ecological, climate and environmental impacts of agri-food systems.

iii) The strengthening of social capital, values, networks, skills and awareness on agroecology (AE).

iv) Evidence-based, systems-oriented governance & policy making with governments and institutions and thereby policies that are more open, flexible, participatory, risk sharing and therefore capable of enabling transformative changes.

Project Team: Borruso, L.; Mimmo, T., Tiziani, R.
Duration: 2025 - 2028
Funding: Autonomous Province of Bolzano-Bozen - Joint Projects
Summary: Agroecology is increasingly acknowledged as a holistic solution for addressing challenges in the agri-food system by applying principles from natural ecosystems to manage agroecosystems. It emphasizes biodiversity, resource efficiency, environmental impact mitigation, and knowledge exchange among farmers. Despite the growing interest and successful solutions in this field, a critical question remains about the scalability of agroecology to become the primary approach for a sustainable and resilient agri-food system. The CoolFarmLab project is a pioneering initiative that aims to promote agroecology at the farm level, in line with the goals of the AGROECOLOGY 1 Co-funded Call. The project's goal is to improve farm-level agroecology by encouraging crop diversification, developing agronomic methods for higher resilience and lower chemical inputs, and promoting natural pest and disease control. Its primary goals include creating innovative agricultural systems to aid in agroecological transition, improve soil fertility, increase resilience, reduce chemical inputs, and improve resource efficiency within a circular economy framework. CoolFarmLab seeks to improve biodiversity and resilience in agricultural systems by diversifying species and genotypes at both the field and farm levels, such as site-adapted varieties, crop rotations, and intra-field diversification. The project's strategies will include discovering and validating agroecological practices for soil fertility restoration, leveraging beneficial microorganisms and bio-based inputs, and comparing the multidimensional impacts of agroecological farming systems to conventional practices. Farmers and stakeholders will be taught agroecology concepts as part of a comprehensive training program, which will promote information exchange and capacity building for sustainable farming methods. The project also focuses on aligning with European Green Deal objectives, supporting appropriate agricultural policies, and gathering knowledge on the performance of agroecological systems to inform decision-making and policy development. CoolFarmLab strives to promote socioeconomic prosperity and sustainable agricultural practices by providing farmers with vital agroecology skills and information. To maximize impact, the project will utilize the co-creation method for innovation development, dissemination, and outreach, fostering mutual learning mechanisms among farms, service providers, research institutions, and stakeholders. Living Labs will be activated to facilitate the experimentation of innovative solutions in real contexts, promoting collaboration and sustainable practices within the agricultural sector. CoolFarmLab is dedicated to overcoming barriers to innovation adoption on farms, enhancing social and relational capital, and integrating agroecology and sustainable management principles to address environmental challenges and promote long-term ecosystem health. Through dissemination and communication activities, the project aims to engage stakeholders within the food chain, optimize results, and effectively share outcomes through various platforms and collaborations. In conclusion, CoolFarmLab represents a comprehensive and innovative approach to advancing agroecology, sustainability, and rural livelihoods, with the ultimate goal of contributing to a more sustainable agriculture and food production system.

Research Team: Mimmo, T. (coordinator), Cappello, C. (project manager) Laurent, C., Borruso, L., Tiziani, R., Cesco, S.
Duration: 2023 – 2027
Coordinator: Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (Competence Centre for Plant Health)
Partners: University of Eastern Finland, Universität Hohenheim, American Farm School, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università Di Bologna, Re Soil Foundation, Plantpress, FCiências.ID – Associação Para A Investigação e Desenvolvimento De Ciências, Faculdade De Ciências Da Universidade De Lisboa, Solutopus, University Stefan Cel Mare Suceava, The James Hutton Institute, Fundación Ibercivis, Quanta Labs, Universidad De Extremadura, Ambienta
Funding: European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions,
Topic: HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOIL-01-09 - Citizen science for soil health
Website: https://echosoil.eu/

ECHO - engaging citizens in soil science: the road to healthier soils aims to enhance existing and create new knowledge through amplification of novel scientific research by increasing awareness and literacy of soil health related issues. ECHO will lead and develop coordinated citizen science initiatives across European Member States and Scotland considering different land-uses and stakeholder needs. With its activities, ECHO contributes to the EU Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ to accomplish the transition towards healthy soils by 2030. The project aims to engage citizens in protecting and restoring soils by building their skills and enhancing their knowledge. Citizens will actively contribute to the project’s data collection, promote soil stewardship and foster behavioural change across the EU.

ECHO is based on 3 main principles:

1. to engage citizens motivating them to protect and restore soils;
2. to empower citizens by providing knowledge and an active role in data collection;
3. to enable citizens to directly participate in decision-making on soil issues.

ECHO will achieve this through co-creation with target societal groups as a cornerstone of delivering a step change in increased soil literacy in society across Member States. ECHO will develop tailor-made citizen science initiatives across EU Member States taking into account different land-uses, soil types and biogeographical regions as well as stakeholder needs, overcoming the recognised challenges related to age, culture, background and language (28 initiatives with 16500 sites assessed). Our ambition is to actively involve and engage citizens building the capacities and knowledge to promote soil stewardship across EU and foster social change through trust and improved understanding of soil. ECHO will create ECHOREPO, a long-term open access repository, fed with citizen science data to be exploited not only by scientists but also by the general public and end-users. This will leverage and provide added-value to existing data and other relevant soil monitoring initiatives.
With 16 partners from all over Europe, including 10 leading universities and research centres, 4 SMEs and 2 Foundations, under the coordination of the Free University of Bolzano-Bozen, ECHO will assess 16,500 sites in different climate and biogeographic regions to achieve its ambitious goals.

Project objectives:

1. Engage citizens through increased knowledge, stimulate their interest in soil health related issues and motivate them to protect and restore soils;
2. Empower citizens by inviting them to take an active role in data collection and soil science to generate knowledge on soil health for everyone’s benefit;
3. Enable citizens to take an active role and directly participating in decision-making on soil issues based on acquired knowledge.

Planned activities:

1. Organize tailor-made citizen science inititives across EU member states
2. Develop the CitizenScience Toolbox, a free resource including open access field guidelines, protocols and forums
3.  Desing and implement ECHOREPO, a long-term open access repository with a direct link to the EUSO

Research Team: Mimmo, T., Schuler, H.
Duration: 2024 – 2024
Coordinator: Food and Environment Research Agency
Partners: European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Bujqesia), Osterreichische Agentur Fur Gesundheit Und Ernahrungssicherheit GMBH (AGES), Service Public Federal Sante Publique, Securite De La Chaine Alimentaire Et Environnement (FPS), Eigen Vermogen Van Het Instituut Voor Landbouw- En Visserijonderzoek (EV ILVO), Landbrugsstyrelsen (DAA), Maaeluministeerium (MEM), Agence Nationale de la Securite Sanitaire de l’Alimentation de l’ Environnement et du Travail (ANSES), Agdia-EMEA (AGDIA), National Food Agency (LEPL), Julius Kuhn-Institut Bundesforschungsinstitut fur Kulturpflanzen (JKI), Benaki Phytopathological Institute (BPI), Mediterranean Phytopathological Union (MPU), Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria (CREA), Centro Internazionale di Alti Studi Agronomici Mediterranei (CIHEAM-IAMB), Valstybine augalininkystes tarnyba prie Zemes ukio ministerijos (VATZUM), Nederlandse Voedsel En Warenautoriteit (NVWA), The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited (PFR), Norsk Institutt for Biookonomi (NIBIO), Glowny Inspektorat Ochrony Roslin I Nasiennictwa (GIORIN), Instituto Nacional De Investigaçao Agraria E Veterinaria (INIAV), Ministerstvo Podohospodarstva A Rozvoja Vidieka Slovenskej Republiky (MPRVSR), ABIOPEP SL (ABIOPEP), Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (INIA-CSIC), Statens Jordbruksverk (SJV), Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI), Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (TAGEM), Agency of Plant Protection and Quarantine under the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan (KHA), CAB International (CABI), Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited (HORTINNOV), Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), BIOREBA AG (BIOREBA), Eidgenössische Departement für Wirtschaft, Bildung und Forschung (WBF), International Seed Federation (ISF), Scottish Government (SG), The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), United States Departement of Agriculture (USDA)
Funding: Horizon Europe, HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ERA-01
(Enhancing the European R&I system), HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ERA-01-01

Summary: The success of the Euphresco self-sustained network as a platform for the coordination of European phytosanitary research has set the ground for discussions on the development of initiative(s) to address the needs of other regions of the world and on global phytosanitary research coordination. The aim of the project is to enhance national and regional phytosanitary research coordination beyond what the Euphresco self-sustained network has achieved and to set the foundations for global phytosanitary research coordination. This will be achieved by building on the foundations developed by the Euphresco self-sustained network and explore fit-for-purpose activities.

Project objectives:

1. to develop a strategic research agenda. The document will guide phytosanitary research programming activities of EU countries and support them to address regional and global challenges through synergies with other regions/continents of the world;
2. to organize joint calls on common research priorities to support and enhance international collaboration through the commissioning and implementation of research projects. Monitoring of the research projects will ensure that they remain relevant to the needs of the research funders and policy makers and impactful;
3. to develop and test models for the governance, the structure and the operation of a global network for phytosanitary research coordination. A business plan will be established to guide the development of a global network for phytosanitary research coordination;
4. to engage with relevant plant health research stakeholders and foster knowledge exchange, engagement in the project activities, co-development, dissemination and adoption of outputs.
   Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Project Team: Schuler, H.
Duration: 2024 - 2027
Funding: Autonomous Province of Bolzano-Bozen - INTERREG IT-A 2021-2027
Project Partners: Department of Agronomy, Animals, Food, Natural Resources, and Environment (DAFNAE) (University of Padova); Department of Forest- and Soil Sciences (Universität für Bodenkultur Wien - BOKU); Rigoni di Asiago (Rigoni)
Summary: The vast ecological and economic consequences by the current bark beetles outbreak are of increasing importance in all programme regions in both countries. The two most damaging bark beetles are Ips typographus and Hylobius abietis. They are present in the whole transnational area, so a common solution would benefit not only both countries but the whole alpine area, which is currently threatened by these two pest species. The collaboration between universities and enterprises on both regions will provide a good sharing of know-how and tests in different areas, in order to define solutions that can be adopted in both sides of the alps.

Up to now there is no effective solution for the control of spruce bark beetles and pine weevils, currently the only way to reduce the population is to cut attacked trees and extract the log (or at least the bark) from the site. More effective solutions, that are technically and economically feasible, also with the contribution by private subjects, need to be explored and tested. A solution, based on natural extracts, has been tested in a pilot study showing promising results, so there is need to test and diffuse this solution in order to find the way to stop the tremendous damage caused by the bark beetles.

Project Team: Schuler. H.; Mimmo, T.; Borruso, L.; Unterholzner, S.
Duration: 2026 - 2028
Funding: Autonomous Province of Bolzano-Bozen – Programma FESR-ERDF 2021-2027
Project Partners: Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology; RLP Agroscience (RLP Agroscience)
Summary: ZIMPS aims to optimize and establish the latest Confocal Laser MicroScope technologies for the investigation of stress factors of plants, thereby enabling a better understanding of complex interactions between plants and their environment as well as with pests. The overarching goal of ZIMPS is the development of an innovative laboratory for researching and monitoring molecular processes in plant adaptation to stress, which can be applied to model plants as well as agricultural crops. In the process, new approaches are to be developed that also enable a contribution to solving plant health problems and thus contribute to sustainable agricultural development.

The new laboratory is intended to enable cutting-edge research to gain an understanding of the interactions between plants and their harmful factors at the cellular, subcellular, and molecular levels. An important goal is to generate basic knowledge for stress factors of plants, such as apples and grapevines, in order to develop innovative plant health monitoring options that can be applied in practice and thus create sustainable solutions for agricultural production.

Project Team: Mimmo, T., L., Tiziani,
Duration: 2026-2028
Funding: alpoma
Project Type: Agreement with Research contribution
Project Partners: alpoma Associazione di Organizzazioni di Produttori
Summary: Soils underpin essential ecosystem services and are both major carbon sinks and natural CO₂ sources, yet they are increasingly stressed by climate change. In South Tyrol’s ~18,500 ha of orchards, targeted, site-specific practices—especially cover cropping with legume–grass mixes or diverse intercrops—can increase soil organic matter, improve structure and water retention, support nutrient balance, and provide habitats that boost system resilience. The COFIB project adopts an interdisciplinary approach that, innovatively, explicitly includes subsoil alongside topsoil to capture long-term carbon storage and buffering functions. By systematically sampling and analyzing both horizons, COFIB aims to deliver robust, practice-ready guidance for climate-smart, sustainable fruit-growing in South Tyrol.

Project Team: Schuler, H.
Duration: 2026-2028
Funding: alpoma Association of Producer Organizations
Tipo di progetto: Agreement with Research contribution
Partner: Dept. 33: Laimburg Agriculture and Forestry Research Centre (Autonomous Province of Bolzano-Bozen)
Summary: The woolly apple aphid, Eriosoma lanigerum, is an economically significant pest in apple cultivation. It is characterised by its woolly wax secretions and complex biology; its adaptability and persistence are reflected in the various life cycles it exhibits across different geographical regions. Although this pest is of global interest, surprisingly, numerous factors influencing its biology and distribution remain unknown.

Even if the genome of E. lanigerum has recently been published, there are currently no population genetic studies on this important, globally distributed pest species. Therefore, it is unclear how the pest has spread worldwide, and which genetic populations presently exist in other regions of the world, which may potentially possess further immense harmful potential. Although the importance of bacterial symbionts in aphids has been known for decades, only one study describes the symbiont community of E. lanigerum in Chile. The authors identified not only the primary symbiont Buchnera, but also a second, previously unknown Symbiopectobacterium species, whose role in the biology of the woolly apple aphid is still unclear. The presence of further protective symbionts has never been investigated.

The project therefore aims to study the invasion history of E. lanigerum and its associated symbionts.

Team: Schuler, H.
Duration: 2026-2028
Funding: alpoma Association of Producer Organizations
Project Type: Agreement with Research contribution
Partner: alpoma Association of Producer Organizations
Project Contents: Apple proliferation is one of the most significant diseases affecting apple cultivation in South Tyrol. This disease, caused by phytoplasmas (cell wall-less bacteria), has led to considerable damage and economic losses in the region over the past decades. Phytoplasmas are primarily transmitted by psyllids, which acquire them by feeding on the phloem and can then infect healthy plants by passing on the phytoplasmas during feeding. As infected trees cannot be cured, early detection is essential to remove affected plants—and therefore the source of infection—promptly. The aim of this project is to precisely map phytoplasma-infected insects and plants in orchards, thereby laying the foundation for a project that will investigate a new method of early detection using remote sensing techniques.