Name: Cross-border exchange to advise growers in their choice of using biostimulants to cope with future challenges 

Project partners: Proefcentrum voor de Sierteelt (Oost-Vlaanderen, BE); JUNIA (Nord, FR); NIAB EMR (Kent, UK) 

Project duration: January 2024 – January 2025 

Grant awarded : 20,000 € (Oost-Vlaanderen; Nord); £5,000 (Kent) 

Status: Ongoing 

Description: The Straits’ region is known for its intensive horticulture which demands significant amounts of water and nutrients. Climate change causing long periods of drought and heat waves is forcing growers to use less water. Biostimulants enhance water and nutrient use efficiency of plants and can help plants to be more tolerant against abiotic stress caused by climate change. The partners in this project will exchange new knowledge on biostimulants to better help growers address climate challenges.

This project will see Junia (FR), NIAB (UK) and PCS (BE) exchange new knowledge on biostimulants to better help growers address climate challenges. The project partners will use new knowledge from research and from recent scientific papers to update their existing Bio4safe biostimulant database and organise a cross-border webinar to promote the new knowledge and the database. Communication will be performed in each country with an interactive workshop, articles, a survey and presentations on how growers can tackle future challenges. 

News (Updated July 2024) 

The first start-up meeting took place in January 2024. The partners are currently working on action 2, collecting new knowledge to update the Bio4safe database, which the want to finish by this summer.

The first on-site meeting will take place on the 10th and 11th of July 2024 in the UK. In the Autumn, there will be a second meeting in East Flanders and in Lille, in which the partners will also make arrangements regarding the webinar (action 3).

In terms of communication, the consortium is also on track with announcements on the website and field literature. 

La première réunion sur site aura lieu les 10 et 11 juillet 2024 au Royaume-Uni. À l'automne, une deuxième réunion aura lieu en Flandre orientale et à Lille, au cours de laquelle les partenaires prendront également des dispositions concernant le webinaire (action 3). 

En termes de communication, le consortium est également sur la bonne voie avec des annonces sur le site web et de la littérature de terrain.