Holoseu

21/08/2026

A belated but heartfelt thank you to the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest (USAMV Bucharest) for hosting the HOLOSEU Mid-Term Meeting on 3–4 June 2026.

Project partners greatly appreciated the warm hospitality, productive discussions, and opportunity to explore some of USAMV’s laboratories and experimental fieldwork. Special thanks to Roxana Ciceoi, Ana Cornelia Butcaru, Cristian Moise, and their USAMV colleagues for the thoughtful organisation, time spent introducing us to their research, and generous sharing of expertise.

🌹 One memorable highlight was USAMV’s edible-rose research. Its experimental plantation has supported studies of organic cultivation, soil microbial activity, flower microbiota, nutraceutical properties, and environmentally friendly disease management. In one study involving three climbing rose cultivars, the degree of attack from black spot and powdery mildew remained below 1% under the organic protection programme—an encouraging result under the tested conditions.

Read the study:
https://horticulturejournal.usamv.ro/pdf/2022/issue_2/Art13.pdf

🐑 We were also fascinated to see sheep wool being used as soil cover in cultivation. When no higher-value use is available, this nitrogen-rich agricultural by-product may serve as mulch, a growing-medium component or a slowly decomposing source of nutrients. It is a simple and tangible example of turning a difficult-to-use material into a resource within the circular bioeconomy.

USAMV researchers discuss sheep wool and other sustainable growing materials in this review:
https://horticulturejournal.usamv.ro/pdf/2024/issue_2/Art49.pdf

These examples reflect USAMV’s broader contribution to sustainable agriculture. Its research encompasses agroecology, soil health, biodiversity, circular use of agricultural materials, precision agriculture and climate resilience. Through initiatives such as HOLOSEU, AllEcoSys and the new AgroCliN Centre of Excellence, USAMV is working to connect experimental research and technological innovation with practical solutions for farmers in Romania and across Europe.

Thank you to our Romanian colleagues for hosting us, sharing their expertise, and giving us such an inspiring view of sustainability research in practice.

The Romanian contribution to HOLOSEU is supported by UEFISCDI.

21/08/2026

Fraunhofer ISI and the project partners have now analysed and summarised the stakeholder insights gathered during the Day 2 Foresight Workshop in Bucharest on 4 June 2026.

The photos show some of the active discussions during the workshop.

Read the deliverable report:
https://zenodo.org/records/21717977

Held at the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest in connection with the international “Agriculture for Life, Life for Agriculture” conference, the workshop brought together farmers, researchers, agronomists, policymakers, environmental experts, and technology developers to help shape the future development of MODASYS.

Using a World Café format, participants discussed four themes:

📱 User needs and practical functionality�
🌿 Biodiversity indicators and the scientific rationale of the tool�
🌍 Lessons from ClimateFarmDemo and existing carbon-assessment tools�
🤖 The future role of AI and automation in agricultural decision support

Several clear priorities emerged:

• Farmers need a hybrid mobile and desktop solution, offline access and simpler data entry. Document scanning, voice input, automatic data transfer, autosave and practical in-app guidance could significantly reduce the administrative burden.

• Biodiversity assessment should use a small, transparent and scientifically robust set of indicators that farmers can realistically provide. Suggested areas included soil organic matter, crop and non-crop species, natural predators and landscape diversity.

• MODASYS should support before-and-after comparisons and scenario modelling, allowing users to assess the environmental and economic effects of different farming and mitigation measures.

• Compatibility with existing carbon tools and data-import functions will be essential to avoid repeated data entry and make MODASYS useful for certification, carbon-credit and policy-reporting needs.

• AI should support, not replace, farmers and specialist advisors. Trust will depend on scientifically grounded data, transparent recommendations, data protection and continued human control over decisions.

The findings confirm that scientific capability alone is not enough: usability, trust, flexibility and relevance to everyday farm management will determine whether digital tools are adopted in practice. These stakeholder insights will now inform the next stages of MODASYS development.

Thank you to USAMV Bucharest and Fraunhofer ISI for organising and facilitating the workshop, and to all participants for their constructive and forward-looking contributions.

This work was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity (BMLEH), through the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE), and by Romania’s Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI).

21/08/2026

and the of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest presented the Open Farm Map Database at Observatory’s Remote Sensing Seminar on 28 May 2026. ��

Watch the recording: https://bbb.ut.ee/playback/presentation/2.3/7824206ee7210c47f3a2b92657cfc38981ad0668-1779964920938

The database harmonises agricultural and geospatial datasets from Finland, Germany, Ireland, Romania, Poland, Estonia and Türkiye. It brings together field boundaries, crops, land use, soil properties, weather and climate data, ecological zones and solar-radiation information in one PostgreSQL/PostGIS environment.

The aim is to reduce the time farmers, researchers and software developers spend locating, downloading and processing fragmented datasets. Through open OGC services, including WMS and WMTS, maps and location-specific information can be connected directly to decision-support tools such as MODASYS.

The presentation also demonstrated the Farm Map interface and explained how GeoServer, cloud-optimised raster data, and server-side map rendering enable fast and scalable access to both vector and raster datasets.

Next, the database will be extended with pilot-farm data from Poland and Romania.

Thank you to Tartu Observatory for hosting the seminar and to our Romanian partners for the collaboration.��

The work is supported by - ja metsätalousministeriö/Jord- och skogsbruksministeriet/Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry & Executivă pentru Finanțarea Învățământului Superior, a Cercetării, Dezvoltării și Inovării �

BigBlueButton recording playback

20/07/2026

The MODASYS team had a productive discussion with researchers from New Zealand at University College Dublin. We explored the current capabilities of the MODASYS application and discussed future improvements to support research and sustainable agriculture. Looking forward to the exciting developments ahead!

26/06/2026

Dr. Ibrahim Khalil, Coordinator of the HOLOSEU Project, attended and delivered a talk entitled “Toward AI-Driven Precision Soil Health: Leveraging to Map the Future of Climate-Smart Agriculture” at the EUSO Stakeholder Forum: AI and Healthy Soils webinar held on 25 June 2026, chaired by Dr. Panos Panagos of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission.

The event fostered insightful discussions on the transformative role of Artificial Intelligence in soil health assessment, monitoring, and decision support, highlighting its potential to advance climate-smart, resilient, and sustainable agricultural systems.

19/06/2026

We are pleased to share that Dr. Khalil, Coordinator of the HOLOSEU Project, contributed to the Climate Ireland Adaptation Network (CIAN) Working Group 4 Report on Resilience Indicator Development.
The report brings together insights from CIAN members on indicator hierarchy, human and environmental indicators, capacity and resource needs, and private-sector adaptation indicators. These discussions support the integration of resilience measurement into policies, plans, and strategies to strengthen climate adaptation in Ireland.
Read: https://tinyurl.com/mu2sj49d

18/06/2026

We are pleased to share that Dr. Khalil, Coordinator of the HOLOSEU Project, contributed to the Climate Ireland Adaptation Network (CIAN) Working Group 3 Report on Resilient Decision-Making.

The report captures valuable discussions and insights from CIAN members across six key areas: resilient decision-making frameworks, adaptation options at different scales, risk registers and assessments, information needs, extreme-event planning, and private-sector adaptation planning.

This collaborative effort marks an important step towards strengthening climate resilience and enhancing adaptation capacity across Ireland.

Read or download: https://tinyurl.com/2f8y6aw7

17/06/2026

Dr. Anna Walkiewicz, a consortium member of the HOLOSEU Project, participated in the 23rd World Congress of Soil Science, held on 7-12 June 2026 in Nanjing, China. In this congress, scientists from all over the world presented their research under the theme of “Soil and the Shared Future for Humanity”.

Dr. Walkiewicz showcased the results obtained from field measurements of soil greenhouse gas fluxes. She contributed two presentations: an oral presentation “Methanotrophic activity as a driver of soil carbon cycling in agricultural soils” and a poster presentation “The impact of trees on soil microbial biomass and CO₂ emissions from fertilized soil”.

11/06/2026

Join the EUSO Stakeholders Forum 2026 (Part II) on 25 June, focused on “How can AI help us to achieve healthy soils?”

Dr. Ibrahim Khalil, Coordinator, HOLOSEU Project, will present on “Toward AI-Driven Precision Soil Health: Leveraging MODASYS for Climate-Smart Agriculture” at 14:30–14:45 CET.

Register: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/EUSOStakeholdersForumAI