ONDO partnering with Plovdiv Agrocultural University in the iCOSHELLs project for restoring soil health across Europe

We are glad to let you know that ONDO will be collaborating with the Agricultural University of Plovdiv on the execution of the iCOSHELLs project. iCOSHELLs is a Horizon Europe research and innovation project supporting the EU Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe,’ which aims to achieve healthy soils by 2030. iCOSHELLs focuses on three key objectives: reducing soil pollution and promoting restoration, improving soil structure and biodiversity, and increasing soil literacy among society.

To achieve these goals, iCOSHELLs leverages six Living Labs located in the Basque Country, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Sweden. These labs bring together diverse local stakeholders to co-design and test practical strategies for soil health improvement.

The Bulgarian Viticultural Soil Health Living Lab (BUV LL) is coordinated by the Agricultural University of Plovdiv and includes 10 vineyard growers from the region, as well as the university vineyard fields. Plovdiv region benefits from a distinct microclimate and BUV LL will be addressing decreasing soil organic matter content, poor soil structure and soil biodiversity. All vineyard growers taking part in the project feature specific soil conditions and methods of growing vines, and will be required to have test and control plots assigned in their fields. 

In this project, ONDO’s role would be to continuously monitor, aggregate and deliver advanced climate and soil data, in all test and control plots of the BUV LL throughout the entire duration of the project. The monitoring will be fully wireless and achieved via extended ONDO Sense sensor stations, equipped with project-specific sensor configuration, combined with a set of ONDO automation solutions. By having rich real-time climate and soil data, the University’s academic researchers can analyse and evaluate how the different growing methods and practices affect the health of the soil, and draw conclusions on best practices that the wider vineyard farmer community can benefit from.

We are honored to be selected for this project and be able to contribute to the creation of innovative solutions that would help restore soil health across Europe and beyond!