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 : 

The project successfully updated the Bio4safe biostimulants database, adding 285 new grower-friendly summaries. These have been developed from new research papers published since 2020, and from the results of biostimulant trials by the project partners. 

In autumn 2024, the updated database was unveiled at a webinar attended by over 200 growers and stakeholders from 12 different countries. The webinar also covered how biostimulants work, the results of recent trials, and information on legislation. 

The project partners also arranged three on-site workshops, one hosted by each partner, to be able to share their most recent new knowledge and experience of biostimulants.