Objective
PROBLEM
Plant pathogen diseases in horticultural crops are responsible for 35% of crop losses. Today, farmers lack information about
disease threats, as there is no way to carry out early diagnosis of the potential diseases that already exist in the soil and
surrounding environment. Without this information, the most common practice is to minimise all threats, regardless of
whether they exist, by the blanket, widespread application of “wide spectrum” chemical pesticides. However, these methods
fail to eliminate all the pathogens effectively, increases production costs and it’s environmentally harmful.
SOLUTION
Microgaia is a Spanish SME who has developed a DNA microarray tool that allows rapid and quantitative detection of
200specific plant diseases in a simultaneous way. Microgaia has also developed the associated sampling method and
sampling kits to take samples according particularities of each crop, farm plot and aspects as meteorological data, ensuring
that results are representative.
The use of the entire system, called VegAlert, brings 4 great benefits:
- cost reduction (by saving in pesticides)
- higher yield (reducing losses caused by pathogens)
- preservation of soil quality
- compliance with the EU directive No 2009/128/EC
MARKET
The utilised agricultural area for horticultural crops surpasses 836.000 thousand hectares in EU-28. Each analysis with
VegAlert will be sold at 50 €. On average, 4 samples will be taken for each hectare and per season, this means that the total
market size for VegAlert is 3.3 million of potential analysis per year (165 M€).
The feasibility study showed that EU farmers are worried by pathogens, and willing to pay for this solution, which minimises
their risks of losing production.
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
This new business line is expected to generate important growth for Microgaia. The business plan predict that by 2022, 18
new jobs will be created with an annual turnover of 7.1 M€ and EBITDA of 3.1 M€.
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 agronomy plant protection
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences physical geography cartography geographic information systems
- engineering and technology materials engineering
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering information engineering telecommunications mobile phones
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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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H2020-EU.3.2. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3.2.4. - Sustainable and competitive bio-based industries and supporting the development of a European bioeconomy
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H2020-EU.3.2.1. - Sustainable agriculture and forestry
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H2020-EU.2.3.1. - Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument
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H2020-EU.3.2.2. - Sustainable and competitive agri-food sector for a safe and healthy diet
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Topic(s)
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.
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.
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2
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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) H2020-SMEInst-2016-2017
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
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.
30100 MURCIA
Spain
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.