2.56 million euros were awarded in European calls for proposals for seven projects in which researchers from the University of Vigo are either responsible for their coordination or participate as partners, together with other entities or institutions. Specifically, two of the seven projects receive funding from the H2020 program: SoildiverAgro, the only one coordinated by the University of Vigo and headed by David Fernández from the Soil Science group on the Ourense campus, and Triatlas, in which Vigo participates with around thirty partners and in which Emilio Marañón, from the Biological Oceanography group at the CIM-UVigo, is the principal researcher. The other five projects awarded to the Vigo academic institution (CircularSeas; SIRMA; Nanoculture; Atlantic-POSitiVE and AtlanticCultureScape) receive funding from the Interreg Espazo Atlántico program.
“The achievement of more than two and a half million euros in European projects seems very little to me for a University like Vigo, where we have three research centers (Cinbio, CIM-UVigo and atlanTTic) and three strategic groups (Ecobas, Citaca and INEX), where very cutting-edge research is carried out”, assesses Belén Rubio, Vice-Rector for Research, who expects the figure to triple throughout the year, while acknowledging that the institution’s researchers “need much more help with the technical and administrative part of the projects. In this sense, Rubio assures that the government team is working to fulfill its electoral commitment to create a comprehensive project management office “that helps research staff from a technical and administrative point of view so that they can focus on the scientific part and we can be more successful”, explains the Vice-Rector, who advances that in the next framework program (Horizon Europe) there will be funding of around 100,000 million euros “and we have to be prepared to come with more guarantees of success”. In the last five years, research projects at the University of Vigo have been able to attract more than 16.5 million euros in European calls.
H2020 projects: management and systems of cultivation and human activities in the Atlantic
With a total budget of around seven million euros, the SoildiverAgro project (Soil biodiversity enhancement in European agroecosystems to promote their stability and resilience by external inputs reduction and crop performance increase), coordinated by the University of Vigo and involving 22 partners from seven countries, including Spain, will run from this June until mid-2024. The project, led by researcher David Fernández from the Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry group on the Ourense campus, focuses on the adoption of new management practices and crop systems that improve soil genetics and functional biodiversity to reduce the use of external inputs while increasing crop production and quality, the provision of ecosystem services and agricultural stability and resilience in the EU. The grant granted by the H2020 program to the University of Vigo is 987,875 euros, representing 14% of the total budget.
For its part, Triatla (Tropical and South Atlantic climate-based marine ecosystem predictions for sustainable management) is a project participated by 34 partners, five of whom are Spanish, including the University of Vigo. Emilio Marañón, a researcher at CIM-UVigo, is the principal investigator of the project at the Vigo academic institution, which receives 318,000 euros, 3%, of the total budget, which amounts to 11 million euros. The main objective of Triatla is to enable the sustainable management of human activities in the Atlantic Ocean as a whole, by closing knowledge gaps on the state of the marine ecosystem of the South and tropical Atlantic and developing a framework to predict its future changes, from months to decades.
Interreg projects: control of Vespa Velutina, commercialization of intangible cultural heritage or green economy at sea
A dozen European partners, including five Spanish ones, including the University of Vigo, are participating in the Atlantic-POSitiVE project (Preservation of Atlantic Pollination Services and Control of the Invasive Species Vespa Velutina). With a total budget of 2.3 million euros, the project aims to preserve pollination services through the development of joint methods for the control of Vespa Velutina, an important predator of bees and other pollinators, which after being accidentally introduced into Europe, is currently found in practically all regions of the Atlantic area. Josefina Garrido, a researcher from the Department of Ecology and Animal Biology, is the PI of this project in which the University of Vigo has received 352,571 euros.
For her part, Pilar Muñoz, a lecturer in the Department of Financial Economics and Accounting, is the principal researcher at the University of Vigo in the AtlanticCultureScape project (Intangible Cultural Heritage in the terrestrial and marine environment of the Atlantic area). Along with the Vigo academic institution, 17 Spanish and European partners participate in this project, who have raised around 1.5 million euros to develop this research, of which the University of Vigo will have 203,000 euros. The project will develop experiences that can be commercialized, based on the concept of intangible cultural heritage in the Atlantic arc area. With the aim of improving the quality of life of its inhabitants and people who visit the area, the project will seek to promote sustainable economic growth, taking into account the environment, developing innovative mechanisms and using creative solutions to common problems.
In the case of CircularSeas (Transforming ocean plastic waste into green products for maritime industries), the green economy will be promoted through the development of innovative or green products or components by maritime industries, with a triple approach: the transfer of tools, a combination of 3D printing technology and the use of marine plastic waste and renewable and highly functional biodegradable polymers; business cases that demonstrate the viability of the parts and an open innovation ecosystem for experimentation in half a dozen ports. Julio Garrido from the Department of Systems and Automation Engineering is the principal investigator of the project at the University of Vigo, which participates with seven other partners and receives 191,000 euros, out of the total of nearly one and a half million in subsidy that the research has.
The SIRMA project (Strengthening the management of risks associated with infrastructures in the Atlantic area) is participated by a dozen partners who will work on the development of robust tools to mitigate the risks that affect the performance of infrastructures, due to extreme natural events and corrosion processes derived from the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. To this end, the project, which has a total budget of two million euros, will implement short, medium and long-term measures, increasing the resilience of infrastructures. The IP of the project at the University of Vigo, which was granted nearly 154,000 euros, is Belén Riveiro, a teacher and researcher at the Department of Materials Engineering, Applied Mechanics and Construction.
Deepening the knowledge, assessment and mitigation of the environmental risks of the most used engineered nanoparticles: titanium dioxide (TiO2) and silver (Ag) in market products, is the objective of Nanoculture (Assessment and mitigation of risks of the presence of NANOmaterials in Atlantic aquaculture). The focus of the project, in which the IP of the University of Vigo is Miguel Ángel Correa, professor and researcher at the Department of Physical Chemistry, are the ecosystems related to aquaculture, a sector of high economic relevance in the Atlantic area, for which the effects of nanoparticles in aquaculture products, their bioaccumulation and their impact on human intake will be investigated. For the development of this project, which will last for 36 months, the University of Vigo receives approximately 153,000 euros from the Interreg program.
Source_ DUVI
