The Agricultural University of Athens (AUA) is the third oldest university in Greece, established in 1920. It offers high-level Education and Research in Agricultural Science, occupying a dynamic position in the international academic environment. AUA contributions address a wide range of issues of agri-nutrition sector related to food safety and environmental protection, significantly affecting the daily lives of Greek and Europeans citizens: food quality and safety, water resource conservation, organic farming, alternative energy sources, biotechnological applications in agriculture, information and communications technology. AUA has participated in numerous research projects funded by National and European scientific/ research programmes, as well as by public or private organizations or endowments. AUA is participating in VALERECO project via the Department of Crop Science and the Department of Natural Resources Development & Agricultural Engineering.
AUA is the coordinator of VALERECO’s project. Also their background on agricultural sciences and smart-farming will help them lead and participate in various tasks and WP within the project.
More specifically, AUA:
Leads T1.4 – Establishment of the Living Labs, T5.2 – Implementation of a digital legume information hub, WP7 – Project management and coordination, T7.1 – Administrative and Financial Management, T7.2 – Risk Management and Quality Assurance, T7.3 – Data Management, T7.4 – Ethics and gender dimension.
Participates in T1.2 – Identification of benefits from legumes inclusion into cropping systems, T1.3 – Legumes in alignment with the new CAP, T1.5 – Synergies with other projects, T2.4 – Behavioural design strategies to leverage the adoption of legumes by farmers, T3.1 – Set up of on-station participatory trials and establishment of the experimental protocols following 3D diversification strategies, T3.2 – Optimization of legume crops yield, stability and grain quality through agroecological approaches, T3.3 – Cascading effects of legume N2-fixation to soil fertility and biodiversity, T3.4 – Legume contribution to the reduction of disservices from biodiversity aiming at pesticide-free agricultural systems, T3.5 – Assessment of legume varieties for their climate change adaptation capability, T4.1 – Living-Labs for demonstrating innovative uses of legumes, T4.2 – Determination of the technical feasibility of legumes inclusion in crop rotations, T4.4 – Life Cycle Assessments, T5.1 – Decision support system for farmers and communication tool for biodiversity-friendly legume cropping systems, T5.3 – Formulation of policy recommendations at EU, national and regional level, T6.1 – Dissemination, exploitation & communication plan, T6.2 – Boosting stakeholder & ecosystem engagement, T6.3 – Training & capacity building, T6.4 – IPR management & sustainability.