The Waste4Soil project is funded by the Horizon Europe programme and the Biotechnical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana is involved as a project partner. The project coordinator at the University of Ljubljana BF is Dr. Rok Mihelič, who is also the head of the living laboratory Slovenia – Istria. A total of seven living laboratories will be operated. The Slovenian laboratory will develop two products. Based on the liquid fraction of biogas digestate, microalgae will be cultivated at the Centre for Algae Technologies at the University of Ljubljana, which will be applied to plant seeds to stimulate germination and root growth, and later during growth on agricultural plants to stimulate flowering, vitality and crop quality. The second product will be a solid fertiliser/soil improver made from olive pomace, solid digestate and biochar from olive pits or cereal husks, enriched with nutrients and microalgae from the liquid fraction of the digestate.

An important feature of Living Labs is that the various stakeholders are actively involved in all phases of development in order to express their needs and make suggestions. Among those involved in the project were farmers, agricultural organisations, representatives of the food industry and waste management, fertiliser manufacturers, research and educational institutions, representatives of ministries and municipalities as well as civil society. At the kick-off meeting in February, they had already emphasised that they wanted soil improvement products that were environmentally friendly, affordable and easy to use. At the same time, they showed interest in additional training in the field of soil health, in connecting researchers with farmers and in networking as much as possible on the ground.

A total of 28 partners are involved in the project, including the two Slovenian companies KOTO d.o.o. and ZRS Koper.

Project website: https://waste4soil.eu/

Scientific publication: Resman L., Berden Zrimec M., Žitko V., Lazar B., Reinhard R., Cerar A., Mihelič R. Microalgae production on biogas digestate in Sub-Alpine region of Europe—development of simple management decision support tool. Sustainability. 2023, vol. 15, iss. 24 (16948) https://doi.org/10.3390/su152416948

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