CONTACTS

The University of Bologna, founded in 1088, is the oldest university in Western World. UNIBO is involved in a very large number of projects as H2020 (more than 350, 98 as lead beneficiary), Horizon Europe (86 projects), LIFE (14, 5 as lead beneficiary) and Interreg (25, 5 as lead beneficiary), plus many national projects funded directly or indirectly by the European Union. The funded projects create networks with over 3.000 partners, 1.600 of which are private.
Cooperation between university and Industry plays an important part of the activity, including patent developments.

In DISTAL (Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences), research activity covers various fields of both the agricultural and agro-environmental disciplines (i.e. agronomy, plant physiology, food quality) as well as of agricultural engineering and economics. The DISTAL research group that will work on the IMAGE LIFE project deals with the identification of genotypes and techniques for improving the resilience and sustainability of arable cropping systems, through the enhancement of ecosystem services for crop defence and nutrition, with particular interest in the various forms of agriculture with low environmental impact. 

In DIMEVET (Department of Veterinary Medical Sciences), research activity covers all the aspects related to the animal health and welfare, the feed and food safety and the farm animal management. The DIMEVET research group that will work on the IMAGE LIFE project is expert in the forages and feedstuffs for ruminant, in the dairy cow feeding and nutrition with particular interest on milk quality for Parmigiano cheese Production. DIMEVET is equipped with
modern labs and research farm facility in which 170 dairy cows are housed. The farm is equipped with automatic to control and record the environmental temperature and humidity, animals’ parameters (Heat Time Pro, SCR Engineers Ltd.), live weight and individual milk production. The farm is also equipped with 8 tie stalls for the measurement of individual feed and water intake. Recently, the farm was equipped also with two automatic (robot) milking systems. Laboratory equipped to perform chemical and nutritional analyses on feed, feed raw material, animal tissue samples, faeces, blood, animal products, as well as molecular biology.

The Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium gathers all the 300 producing dairies that process the milk from the farmers of the area of origin. It was set up in 1934 and has the purpose of protecting, defending and promoting the product, safeguarding its typicality and disseminating its knowledge worldwide. Guarantees cheese origin by the “dots” and its quality by the selection mark (oval mark). Primary Production Dept. works to promote dissemination of proper techniques inside the farms, about animal nutrition, animal welfare, drugs usages, sustainability. The consortium will manage the contacts with the farms either collecting required data or communicating results in order to increase its exploitation and replication.

Agrites is a company of the Progeo Group, operating throughout the Emilia Romagna region, which deals with technical-agronomic assistance in the main supply chains of the agri-food sector. Specialized in highly qualified and specific consultancy to guide and assist farmers in all their agricultural production activities, AgriTeS will coordinate agronomic trials on Parmigiano Reggiano farms and will contribute to transfer the technical and agronomic innovation solutions identified by the IMAGE LIFE project.

LCE is an independent consulting firm that supports organizations implementing a more sustainable way of operating providing strategies, data and solutions to improve their environmental, economic and social performances. From the early nineties, LCE main business consists in providing consultancy services in the environmental sustainability field, with particular regard to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC), Social-LCA (S-LCA), Eco-design and environmental communication such as Environmental and Sustainability Product Declarations (EPD and SPD).

Important activities are also implementation of environmental management systems according to ISO 14001, safety management systems according to OHSAS 18001 and ISO 22000 standards. In IMAGE LIFE project LCE will help the consortium define the relevant KPI and measure the environmental impact of the analysed value chains, through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method. The development of a tool for the LCA of dairy farms and cheese factories is also included within the scope of this partnership. LCE will also take care of the dissemination aspects related with the IMAGE LIFE Project.

Progeo is one of the most important Italian agricultural cooperatives and associates individual farmers, their family members and various companies operating in agricultural and livestock production. The company's mission is geared towards the promotion and enhancement of the production chains necessary for quality Italian products.
On behalf of its members, located mostly in the Emilia Romagna and in Lombardia Regions, Progeo harvests cereals, oil and protein crops that it enhances through processing in its own industrial units or direct sale on the market. The processing carried out in-house ensures the production of soft wheat flour for animal feed and feed for livestock breeding. In both these activities, Progeo has a significant market share that places it among the leading companies
in the respective sectors at national level. PROGEO will produce the feeds to be used in the experimental trials and reinforce the technology transfer envisaged in the IMAGE LIFE project.

The INRAE is a top research institute on agriculture, food and environment, employing more than 2,000 researchers, 3,000 engineers and with over 450 partners. It is the first and unique French institution that has received an official acknowledgement from the European Commission for excellence in human resource management for researchers (“HR Excellence in Research”).
The AGAP-Institute Mixed Research Unit is one of the most successful units in the field of mediterannean and tropical plant genetics. It brings together around 350 permanent staff from INRAE, CIRAD and Institut Agro and University of Montpellier. The Agap Institute seeks to combine a wide diversity of skills (genetics, ecophysiology, agronomy, ethnobotany, plant breeding...) and resources (genotyping, phenotyping, bioinformatic platforms) and Centers of Biological Resources to understand the adaptation of cultivated plants to their agrosystems and contribute to the development of varieties fitting the expectation of the XXIst century. Sorghum is one the main species studied in this Unit and the unit hosts a sorghum genetics and breeding program connected to private European seed companies and to West African partners supported by a collection of more than 2000 cultivars.
The Mixed Research Unit SPO brings together 60 permanent staff from INRAE, Institut Agro Montpellier and University of Montpellier, as well as 45-50 non-permanent staff throughout the year. This makes it one of the major international research centers for the oenology sector. Within the unit, an ISO 9001:2015-certified analytical platform PFP (Plateforme d’Analyse des Polyphenols) is dedicated to the analysis of simple and complex polyphenols (high-resolution mass spectrometry, NMR, chemometrics). The platform has been awarded several regional and national (IBiSA, CNOC, IR PROBE) labels. Its mission is to explore the diversity of polyphenols (tannins, native or derived anthocyanins, flavanols, flavonols, phenolic acids, stilbenes...), from plant raw materials to food, for a sustainable diet. 

The INRAE PHACC experimental unit is a field crop experimental unit attached to the INRAE BAP (Plant Biology & Improvement) and SPE (Plant Health & Environment) departments It is recognized for its medium- and high-throughput phenotyping capabilities in a variety of areas: varietal evaluation, water stress, nitrogen stress, disease, cold, etc. 

VetAgro Sup is an Institute of higher education in food science, animal health, agricultural and environmental sciences located in Auvergne and Rhône Alpes Region. The main goal of VetAgro Sup is to train students on all the aspects of the agricultural and veterinary professional activities, including high degree of specialization.
UMRF (research Unit for Cheese) of VetAgro Sup will be involved in this project. The UMRF research activities are structured around two lines of research, from the production of raw milk to the consumer. Its objectives is to better manage cheese technologies by guaranteeing the safety and satisfaction of the consumer and to support operators in the transitions essential to the sustainability of the cheese supply chain, while respecting and promoting the values associated with the terroir.

CIRAD is the French agricultural research and cooperation organization working for the sustainable development of tropical and Mediterranean regions. CIRAD works with its partners to build knowledge and solutions and invent resilient farming systems for a more sustainable, inclusive world. CIRAD works in some fifty countries on every continent, thanks to the expertise of its 1650 staff members, including 1140 scientists, backed by a global network of some 200 partners. CIRAD is currently running 900 different projects, with a significant share targeting the improvement of European agriculture. CIRAD’s dedication to sorghum cropping systems and value chains dates back to its origin as sorghum is a key component of semi-arid agrosystems. CIRAD led or participated to several EU project on sorghum the most recent being Sweetfuel “Sweet Sorghum: An alternative energy crop” (http://www.sweetfuel-project.eu/, FP7, GA N°227422, 2009-2014) and DESRA Abee “West African Breeding networks and Extension Empowerment" (https://capacity4dev.europa.eu/projects/desira/info/abee_en, 2019-2024).

The AGAP Institute focuses its research on the genetic improvement and adaptation of plants, aiming to deepen knowledge on (i) the evolutionary forces structuring plant diversity, (ii) the genetic bases of traits of agronomic interest, (iii) the molecular and physiological processes underlying these traits and to optimize selection strategies to deliver improved products with impacts on the one hand in terms of food security and on the other hand in terms of socio-economic and environmental terms. The AGAP institute hosts several platforms (genotyping, functional genomics, ecophysiological and physiological phenotyping, histological and , Biochemical phenotyping, bioinformatics...).

Within the AGAP Institute, the Genetics and Varietal Innovation (GIV) team develops research targeting varietal development and the dissemination of genetic gain for sorghum and several other species (rice, millet, roots and tubers...). It contributes to the development of more productive varieties better adapted to their environment and integrating the required quality criteria, in partnership with national (SNRA), international (CGIAR) research  organizations and private breeding companies. 
Within IMAGE LIFE project CIRAD will participate to develop activities related to Replication in France (WP6) and to the activities related to agronomic and nutritional characterization of different genotypes of sorghum and resilient crops (WP2), in particular analysing and evaluating the agronomical performances of sorghum genotypes compared to maize.