Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Nurspray Biostimulants - Protecting agriculture against climate stress with breakthrough sustainable crop treatment

Project description

Innovative foliar spray to help crops manage the effect of climate change

Climate change is exposing crops to extreme conditions, such as drought, erratic rains, and extreme heat waves. These extremes conditions are abiotic stress factors that can have a major impact on plant growth and yield. Improving crop resistance is key. The EU-funded NURSPRAY project will bring to the market an innovative biostimulant foliar spray formulation to help plants activate their defence mechanisms in order to tolerate and recover better from abiotic stress. The spray formulation is based on one biobased signal molecule that can trigger specific plants’ response to stress conditions. The product’s efficacy was proven in more than one hundred field trials over the past two years. Large-scale trials have already started in Africa and Latin America. Nurspray technology was invented and patented by a Belgium company, Fyteko.

Objective

Fyteko's Nurspray is a biostimulant that makes crops resilient to climate stress. Nurspray activates a plant's tolerance mechanism to drought, heat and salinity, boosting recovery and crop yield. It is non-toxic and compatible with agricultural methods. Field trials have shown yield increases of 12% to 53% over a broad range of crops and locations.
Problem: Heat, drought and salinity are undermining global agricultural output by 50%, worth $100B p.a. Current agrochemicals are insufficient: there is no abiotic stress treatment product.
Solution: Nurspray is the world’s first single-molecule biostimulant with a scientifically proven effect. It competes with other biostimulants which are mix/extracts/microorganisms with limited effect.
Timing: The EU’s revised Directive on Fertilising Products (2019) will allow biostimulants to obtain CE marking in 2022.
Progress: Fyteko has invented and patented Nurspray, produced demonstration batches at scale, proven effectiveness in 170+ tests, and won numerous awards. Trial contracts to treat fields in Latin American and Africa are already signed.
Sales: End-users are farmers, reached through distributors, agrochemical partners and seed companies.
Market: Agrochemicals are worth €5B annually. Biostimulants will disrupt this, as farmers are seeking non-chemical solutions for crop stress management.
Project: Fyteko will improve its formulations; upscale its production process; conduct field trials in eight EU countries (data generation); secure CE Marking; and prepare for European market launch in 2022-2023.

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.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

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.

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.

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.

SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

FYTEKO
Net EU contribution

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.

€ 1 933 268,75
Address
ALLEE DE LA RECHERCHE 4
1070 Anderlecht
Belgium

See on map

SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Région de Bruxelles-Capitale/Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest Région de Bruxelles-Capitale/ Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest Arr. de Bruxelles-Capitale/Arr. Brussel-Hoofdstad
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

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.

€ 2 761 812,50
My booklet 0 0