Current Projects

Some examples of the publicly funded projects our researchers are currently working on are summarised below.

AGRARSENSE – Smart, digitalised components and systems for data-based agriculture and forestry

Start Date: 02 January 2023 – End Date: 31 December 2025

Project Summary:

AGRARSENSE is a large 3-year KDT Joint Undertaking consortium project aiming to develop microelectronics, photonics, electronic packaging for agricultural use and forestry. The project will also develop related ICT and data management to realise large scale field demonstrators for real industrial needs.

Food security has become an increasing concern due to a mixed bag of factors that include climate change, fragile supply chains and agricultural activity. In fact, the increase in agricultural production to nourish a growing global population has highlighted the need for innovative solutions. The EU-funded AGRARSENSE project will combine the efforts of large enterprises, SMEs and research and technology organisations (total consortium of 57 partners, including 4 affiliates). To do this, they will develop several technologies like automated agricultural tools and improved sensor technology that will help improve efficiency and protect value chains.

Aquamonitrix’s contribution:

Aquamonitrix will be involved in the deployment of in-situ and real-time nutrient analysers in aquaculture and aquaponic facilities as part of Use Case 7 (UC7). With the collaboration of partners within the project, Aquamonitrix will integrate pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), phosphate and ammonium sensors to the Aquamonitrix in-situ and real-time nutrient analyser.

For more details, please go to the AGRARSENSE project webpage and the Aquamonitrix website.

PestNu – Field -testing and demonstration of digital and space based technologies with agro-ecological and organic practices in systemic innovation

Start Date: 01 October 2020 – End Date: 30 September 2024

Project Summary:

PestNu is funded under Horizon 2020 Innovation Actions (Grant Agreement 101037128) and targets the field -testing and demonstration of digital and space based technologies (DST) and agro-ecological and organic practices (AOP) under a systemic approach to reduce the pesticides and fertilisers use, and loss of nutrients. The consortium, led by the research centre CERTH/ITI, is made up by 20 companies and research institutes from Austria, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and UK.

The consortium brings novel DST that include AI robotic traps for real time pest monitoring; Autonomous mobile robots for pesticide monitoring and 3D spot spraying; Earth Observation missions with robust Agroradar AI algorithms to map soil/plant nutrients and pest plant inputs; and in-situ and real-time nutrient analysers. The AOP include on-site production of biofertilisers from agricultural waste-waters; a novel foliar biopesticide formulated by circular bioeconomy operations; and advanced nutritional programs for organic farming. These solutions will be demonstrated and tested in aquaponic and hydroponic greenhouse and open-field vegetable cultivation in Greece and Spain. All these systemic approaches will be performed under a strong collaboration among all the Farm to Fork stakeholders and European Commission services.

TelLab’s contribution:

TelLab will lead the deployment and scale up of in-situ and real-time nutrient analysers with low cost, low power pumping solutions and with robust web-based portals to enable nutrient sensor networks.

For more details, please go to the PestNu project webpage and the Aquamonitrix website.

ARC Linkage – Portable and field-deployable analytical platforms for water monitoring

Start Date: 2022 – End Date: 2025

Project Summary:

This project sets out to tackle one of the costliest and most challenging environmental problems, namely, nutrient pollution in water systems. At present, nutrient pollutant monitoring is predominantly carried out using an antiquated manual approach with numerous shortcomings, inadequate to achieve truly effective water quality management. The in-situ analyser developed and deployed within this project will provide continuous real-time observations and will allow users to remotely monitor water quality; alerting them to pollutant levels, enabling immediate action to be taken to prevent environmental damage. The system is low-cost, facilitating mass adoption, yet delivers an analytical performance comparable to leading laboratory analysers.

This project is funded by the Australian Research Council through the Linkage Projects program and is administered by the University of Tasmania (Australian Centre for Research on Separation Science) in collaboration with TelLab, the Northern Tasmanian Natural Resource Management Association Inc., and The Tasmanian Fruit & Vegetable Export Facilitation Group.

TelLab’s contribution:

TelLab will participate in the laboratory-based development of robust and selective ion chromatographic capability, solutions for simultaneous detection of anionic and cationic species, remote power solutions for long-term deployment, and wireless telemetry solutions. TelLab will also host two PhD students for a 6-month industry placement.