Project description
A human urine-based solution for safe biofertilisers
The EU consumes approximately 18 million tonnes of mineral fertilisers annually, posing a risk to our food security. Yet, these fertilisers remain crucial for sustaining the world’s population. Human urine, containing vital nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, is often treated as waste and poses a threat to water sources when disposed of inappropriately. The EU-funded Toopi-Regen project seeks to use human urine to develop safe, efficient, and economically viable microbial biostimulants. This model promotes regenerative agriculture, enhances nutrient utilisation efficiency, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. As a closed-loop solution, it can be implemented locally and is highly replicable. The project aims to implement this model across Europe, fostering a significant shift in the fertiliser market.
Objective
How can we revolutionize our food system while preserving a vital resource?
18 million tons of mineral fertilizers are used every year in the EU. This massive use threatens our food security, health and environment, but remains essential for feeding humankind. Farmers have no viable alternatives. At the same time, human urine - rich in essential nutrients, N, P, K - is not only considered as a waste, but keep threatening our water sources when flushed in drinking water (6,000B L per year in the EU).
At Toopi Organics, we aim to implement a sustainable and profitable agricultural model based on up-cycling human urine. Our unique and patented fermentation process produces microbial biostimulants using urine as a growth medium for microorganisms of agricultural interest as alternative to crop fertilization. Our urine-based products are approved across Europe, safe, easy-to-use, effective (proven in many field trials) and economically viable. They are fully adapted to scale regenerative agriculture by enhancing nutrients use efficiency, increasing soil microbiome biodiversity and avoiding the huge fertilisers greenhouse gas emissions. Our closed-loop solution is implemented at a local scale and is highly replicable: urine collection (in urban areas) and urine transformation in fermentation facilities are localized close to farmers needs.
With the EIC support, we will deploy our model in Europe and promote a significant paradigm shift in the fertilisation market. The global biostimulants market is worth 3.4B (CAGR of 11%). It remains a niche market - with products dedicated mainly to value added crops and not really affordable for field crop growers. Our ambition is to become a leader of the biostimulant market category dedicated to substitute a significant proportion of mineral fertilisers (global market worth 230B by 2030), while increasing farmers profit margin.
Together, we will make a true closed-loop regenerative farming system a reality for Europe
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology
- engineering and technology industrial biotechnology bioprocessing technologies fermentation
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-EIC-ACC-BF - HORIZON EIC Accelerator Blended Finance
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-EIC-2023-ACCELERATOR-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
33190 LOUPIAC-DE-LA-REOLE
France
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
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