RESEARCH

In recent years, a rapid growth has been experienced in the global distribution of vertical farms, especially in North America, Asia and Northern Europe. Indeed, mainly thanks to their elevate performances in resource use(e.g., water saving) or their reduced costs for cooling as compared with greenhouses, their application in warmer climates (e.g., Mediterranean), is gaining interest among researchers and practitioners. However, theiruptake and validation, as well as the optimisation of technologies to the Mediterranean context, is proceeding slowly, with a limited role of Italian technology providers or actual applications in the global market. Also, to datethe sector is experiencing a limited diversification among produced crops, and the large majority of existing vertical farms limit their production to few crops categories (mainly vegetables and aromatic species), for whichcultivation in vertical farming environments is particularly simple. 

The project Sustainable Vertical Farming (VFarm) aims to implement a virtual process for enabling the environment for the rapid growth of vertical farming inItaly. Such aim will be targeted by interdisciplinary research that combines strategies for crop diversification (encompassing optimisation of vegetable crops and herbs cultivation protocols, but also targeting microgreens,edible flowers, spices, berries, mushrooms and aquaponic products), altogether with applied research on technologies for vertical farming (including growing systems, pest control strategies, LED lighting and climatecontrol management). Experimental data will be used to feed sustainability indicators (through life cycle thinking approaches, encompassing environmental, economic and social impacts), and will enable to designtypologies (e.g. container-type and warehouse-type vertical farms) and strategic tools (e.g. a sensor-based Decision Support System) specifically adapted to the Italian context. A strong link between research andinnovation is foreseen, thanks to the establishment of strong bounds between academy and private enterprises for a rapid uptake of the developed technologies. Accordingly, VFarm will promote the Italian scientific excellence, cooperation between research, business and the civil society, the creation of policy guidelines for a sustainable society, promotion of gender equality in science, and the recruitment of young researchers, in linewith EU strategies and toward the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.