Don’t be scared. We are sure that when you have seen the word “Excalibur” in our Brother Projects section, you will have thought that in the CONSOLE project we have gone crazy.
Well, none of that. Excalibur, in addition to being that legendary sword that King Arthur managed to remove from a rock, is also a European project on the dynamics of soil biodiversity and its synergistic effects with prebiotic and probiotic approaches in horticulture.
But … exactly what it is about
In the Excalibur project logo the sword appears rooted in the ground, rather than nailed to a solid rock. And we believe it symbolizes the strength of biodiversity (the sword) in and on the ground.
Its promoters argue that Excalibur will develop a comprehensive soil management strategy to increase the effectiveness of biocontrol and biofertilization practices in agriculture; increasing the force between that sword and that ground, right?
Excalibur goals
To achieve their purposes, they have developed a series of objectives:
- Focus on multi-scale interactions between plants and underground organisms to exploit the potential of bioefectors and multifunctional bioinoculants.
- Optimize the formulation and application methods of these products according to the dynamics of the native biodiversity of the soil.
- Develop a strategy to improve the exploitation of interactions of soil biodiversity with bioefectors and bioinoculants by evaluating their impacts on crops and biodiversity with different agricultural management practices (conventional, organic) and conditions of biotic stress / abiotic.
- Create a multi-criteria model to assess the state of the soil biodiversity of farming systems with the aim of using bioefectors and bioinoculants more efficiently.
- Develop technical tools to monitor the persistence and dispersal of bioinoculants under field conditions for ecotoxicological and agronomic purposes.
- Assess the effects of the new strategy on the economy, environmental quality, and ecosystem functions.
- Disseminate the results among all stakeholders with a dynamic and comprehensive methodology and encourage the adoption of recommended practices derived from the new strategy at the local, regional and international levels.
Who are the Knights of the Round Table?
The Excalibur project is developed by public and private entities in Europe that have developed their strategy in three main activities subdivided into six Work Packages (WP).
There is no doubt that the results of the Excalibur project will be exciting.
Kick-off meeting of the H2020 project EXCALIBUR (On 19-21 June 2019)
