PROJECTS
Find detailed information about the projects in which E3G researchers are involved here.
Principal investigator: Michail-Gerasimos Koutsiaras (Agricultural University of Athens)
Funding source: European Union Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement 101181300.
Activities carried out:
E3G members in the project: José Paulo Sousa
2025 » 2029
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Principal investigator: Silvia Winter (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna - Boku)
Source of funding: EFSA - European Food Safety Authority
Activities carried out: developing scenarios for assessing the environmental risks of pesticides to non-target terrestrial organisms, using information on the landscape through data collection and production.
E3G project members: JJosé Paulo Sousa, Eduardo Nascimento, Camila Campelo, António Silva, Artur Sarmento, Maria Bento, Marina Araújo, Leonor Fernandes.
2024 » 2028
Principal investigator:
Source of funding: EFSA - European Food Safety Authority
Activities carried out: Establishing a framework partnership agreement (FPA) to collect and generate data that will enable progress to be made in integrating species ecology and landscape characteristics; acquiring knowledge about environmental exposure to pesticides; identifying new strategies and tools for assessing the potential effects of pesticides. The main focus is terrestrial ecotoxicology.
E3G project members: José Paulo Sousa, Fernanda de Santo, Pedro Martins da Silva
2024 » 2028
Responsible organization: Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of Seville. Spanish National Research Council (IRNAS- CSIC).
Source of funding: Biodiversa+ BiodivMon call, co-funded by the European Commission
Activities carried out: Europe-wide study in grassland triplets with different intensities of land use (from protected and unprotected natural grasslands to maize and wheat fields). Sampling in cereal fields will support the monitoring that the Global Crop Microbiome Initiative started at these sites 3-5 years ago. We will also combine the modelling and mapping of biodiversity and soil function in climate and land use change scenarios with a manipulative study using microcosms subjected to multiple stressors of global change.
E3G members on the project: José Paulo Sousa, Pedro Martins da Silva, Filipa Reis
2024 » 2027
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Responsible organization: University of Coimbra
Source of funding: European Union under Grant Agreement No. 101083589.
Activities carried out: leading WP4 (Improvement of crop and cover crop competitive ability against weeds) and WP8 (Project Management and coordination). UC will support the Portuguese Living Labs in Idanha-a-Nova region, which will be established by its Portuguese partner Living Seeds Sementes Vivas.
E3G members on the project: José Paulo Sousa, Rui S. Oliveira, Ricardo Leitão, Filipa Reis
2023 » 2027
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Principal investigator: Nico van den Brink (Wageningen University)
Source of funding: European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, under grant agreement: 101135213.
Activities carried out: Understanding terrestrial exposure pathways and patterns and the associated potential toxicological and ecological impacts of chemical pollution (excluding industrial contamination) on terrestrial biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services. SYBERAC's vision is to provide the underlying science, methods and tools that can support a transition from terrestrial chemical risk assessment to a systems-based ERA (sb-ERA) designed to protect genetic and functional diversity and ecosystem services. At the centre of SYBERAC is a collaborative knowledge-building process that integrates the experience and expertise of relevant actors to improve understanding of the impact of chemicals on terrestrial ecosystems.
E3G members on the project: José Paulo Sousa (PI at E3G), Márcia Bessa, António Silva
2024 » 2027
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Principal Investigator: Dirk de Graaf (Ghent University)
Source of funding: European Union, Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government's Horizon Europe funding guarantee (grant number 10068544).
Activities carried out: Improving the B-GOOD dynamic resource model; filling knowledge gaps on pollen choice by pollinator species; citizen participation in data collection.
E3G members in the project: José Paulo Sousa (PI at E3G), Nuno Capela, Soraia Santos, António Alves da Silva.
2023 » 2027
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Principal investigator: Rachel Creamer (Wageningen University)
Source of funding: European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, under grant agreement: 101091010.
Activities carried out: co-development, within 24 European Living Labs, of a multi-user, multi-scale monitoring framework that is transparent, harmonised and cost-effective. Supported by the best scientific knowledge and technologies, this framework provides a clear index of soil health for benchmarking, using indicators that are relevant to the assessment objective, applicable to the land use and logistically feasible.
E3G members on the project: Luís Cunha (PI at E3G), José Paulo Sousa, Filipa Reis, Luísa Fraga, Ricardo Leitão
2023 » 2027
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Researcher responsible:
Source of funding: EFSA - European Food Safety Authority
Activities carried out: To establish a quantitative relationship between the direct effects of plant protection products on NTA and pollinators other than managed bees and the ecological consequences of these effects; to investigate the inter-species sensitivity to PPC of the main driver taxa/species; to characterise the exposure of the taxa/species identified as the main factors of change.
E3G members in the project: José Paulo Sousa (PI at E3G), Mykola Rasco, Antonio Cubbels
2023 » 2026
Responsible institution: French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety
Source of funding: European Union under Horizon Europe and participating countries.
Activities carried out: developing the next generation of chemical risk assessment to protect human health and the environment; supporting the European Union's Chemicals Sustainability Strategy and the "zero pollution" ambition of the European Green Deal with new data, knowledge, methods and tools, competences and networks.
E3G project members: José Paulo Sousa (PI at E3G)
2022 » 2029
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Principal Investigator: Hermínio José Cipriano de Sousa (University of Coimbra)
Source of funding: Recovery and Resilience Programme (PRR), Portugal, Portuguese Republic; European Union NextGenerationEU (02-C05-i01.01-2022. PC644948561-00000052)
Activities carried out: preparing the agro-industrial sector (food and forestry) for future technological and environmental challenges, minimising the environmental impact (soil, water and atmospheric) and promoting the sustainability of the sector, with a focus on the circularity of the value chain.
E3G members on the project: Tiago Natal da Luz (PI at E3G), José Paulo Sousa
2021 » 2026
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Principal investigator: José Paulo Sousa (University of Coimbra)
Source of funding: FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology
Activities carried out: development of new techniques for detecting wasp nests and for evaluating compounds for eliminating nests.
E3G project members: Nuno Capela, Artur Sarmento, Paula Souto
Researcher responsible: Christopher John Topping (Aarhus University)
Source of funding: EFSA - European Food Safety Authority
Activities carried out: creation of a plan to improve the techniques used to analyse the environmental risk of pollinating insects and to implement a systems-based risk analysis (ERA).
E3G project members: José Paulo Sousa (PI at E3G), Nuno Capela
2022 » 2023
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Principal Investigator: Francesco Pennacchio (Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II")
Source of funding: Horizon 2020 (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
Activities carried out: assessing sustainable crop production needs and EcoStack outcomes, based on functional biodiversity, using an interactive forum of stakeholder groups and interested parties, to achieve sustainable productivity gains; assessing and optimising the role of key off-crop habitats that provide ecosystem services for crop production; design and test on-crop interventions that support the generation of ecosystem services within the crop and that can be transferred to the next crop in the rotation; develop, design and implement integrated systems to optimise the provision of ecosystem services and the use of phytosanitary tools, with a particular focus on the ecological, economic and social sustainability of integrated systems.
E3G project members: José Paulo Sousa (PI at E3G), António Alves da Silva, Mykola Rasko
2018 - 2024
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Principal investigator: Dirk de Graf (Ghent University)
Source of funding: European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under grant agreement No. 817622
Activities carried out: implementation of new technologies in beekeeping. Eight apiaries were set up in different EU countries to assess the development and health of colonies over several years, with the participation of beekeepers. These apiaries tested new methods of monitoring viruses, diseases and pesticides, as well as various sensors installed in the colonies to correlate with their condition. The surrounding landscape was characterised to assess the availability of resources on a spatial and temporal scale to measure the landscape's potential for beekeeping.
E3G members on the project: José Paulo Sousa (PI at E3G), Nuno Capela, António Aguilar, António Alves da Silva
2019 » 2023
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Principal investigator: Helena Freitas (University of Coimbra)
Funding source: Regional Operational Programme for the Centre 2020, Portugal 2020 and the European Union, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-000020)
Activities carried out: biophysical characterisation of the territory and its socio-economic and demographic dynamics; characterisation of natural endogenous genetic resources in landscape windows; assessment and monitoring of ecosystem services relevant to selected natural endogenous genetic resources; sustainable valorisation of selected natural endogenous genetic resources; characterisation of the innovation potential of natural endogenous genetic resources; dissemination of knowledge and dissemination of results.
E3G members in the project: José Paulo Sousa, Luís Cunha, Eduardo Nascimento.
2019 » 2023
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Principal investigator: Joana Alves (Universidade de Coimbra)
Source of funding: European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) through the PDR2020 programme
Activities carried out: identify the potential of forest ecosystems to provide goods and services; assess how management practices influence the multifunctionality and sustainability of forests; identify best practices to promote the enhancement and sustainable use of forest natural resources.
E3G members on the project: José Paulo Sousa
2019 » 2022
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Principal Organisation: Forestis - Associação Florestal de Portugal
Source of funding: PDR 2020 - Rural Development Programme 2014-2020
Activities carried out: to support forest owners and managers by developing actions and transferring knowledge on preventing and combating the eucalyptus weevil. It also aims to seek alternatives to chemical control of the weevil and assess the potential negative impacts of this control on non-target insects.
E3G members on the project: José Paulo Sousa (PI at E3G), Nuno Capela.
2018 » 2022
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Principal investigator: Susana Santos (EXMCEUTICALS PORTUGAL, LDA)
Source of funding: P2020 Projetos de I&DT Empresas em Copromoção: COVID-19 (I&D Empresas e Infraestruturas de Ensaio e Otimização) (projeto nº 53456)
Activities carried out: create biocidal disinfectants incorporating terpenes and/or terpenoids from cannabis and wild plants. The disinfectants will have virucidal action against SARS-CoV-2 and will be used i) to disinfect surfaces and goods, ii) for hand hygiene and disinfection, and iii) as an additional coating barrier on social and surgical masks.
E3G members on the project: José Paulo Sousa.
2020 » 2021
Principal investigator: Yoko L. Dupont (Aarhus University)
Source of funding: EFSA - European Food Safety Authority
Activities carried out: collecting data from bee colonies and the surrounding landscape for the development and validation of the ApisRam model. To this end, several research apiaries were set up in Portugal and Denmark, where the development and health of the colonies was assessed over 2 years. In addition, environmental variables (climate and landscape) were collected to create dynamic landscapes.
E3G members in the project: José Paulo Sousa (PI at E3G), Nuno Capela, Artur Sarmento, António Alves da Silva
2017 » 2021
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Principal investigator: Evan Marks (University of Burgos)
Source of funding: INTERREG-SUDOE European Programme
Activities carried out: installation of green infrastructures to strengthen the abundance and biodiversity of pollinators and the pollination ecosystem service in oilseed crops in the European SUDOE region, which includes southern France, Spain and Portugal.
E3G members on the project: José Paulo Sousa (PI at E3G), Nuno Capela, Artur Sarmento, António Alves da Silva.
2016 » 2019