Take a look at our consortium

The University of A Coruña, UDC, is one of the three universities of Galice (Spain). The group of Hydrology at the Civil Engineering School led by Prof. Javier Samper has been involved in R&D Projects of the EURATOM Program of the EC. The group is strong in hydrogeology of rocks of medium and low permeability (the most abundant in DRYAD areas) and development and application of THC(m) models for coupled water flow, heat and multicomponent reactive transport through porous media taking into account the role of microbial processes. UDC has maintained a strong collaboration with other DRYAD partners (UT, LNEG, UCO). UDC will be engaged in WP1 for deployment of the Lorawan network, WP 3 for hydrological modelling of Spanish PDAs and WP7 (Project coordination). 

UDC | Website

UDC | Research 

Social Media

• Universidade da Coruña | Facebook
• Universidade da Coruña | X
• Universidade da Coruña | Instagram 
• Universidade da Coruña | Youtube
• Universidade da Coruña | Linkedin 

Team Involved  

     Francisco Javier Samper Calvete, General Coordinator 

     pdi UDC | Francisco Javier Samper

     Linkedin | Francisco Javier Samper

Javier Samper Calvete holds a B.S. and a M.S. in Civil Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (1975-1981) and a Ph. D. in Hydrology and Water Resources from the University of Arizona (Tucson, 1982-1986). He has teaching experience in Hydraulics and Hydrology in the Civil Engineering Schools of UPM (Madrid, 1986-87), UPC (Barcelona (1987-1993) and UDC (Coruña, since 1993). He got a Full Professorship at the University of A Coruña (UDC) in 1993. Teaching activities include: Hydraulics, Hydrology, and Subsurface Hydrology. He has taught graduate courses, lectures, and seminars in many places in Spain and abroad. He served at several academic positions and professional appointments. He chaired the Spanish Chapter of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (1997-2000). He holds the following honors: 1) Gómez Navarro Award (1981) from Polytechnic University of Madrid for best Civil Engineering undergraduate student on Hydraulics. Spain; 2) Horton Research Award (1984) from American Geophysical Union, USA.; 3) Student Departmental Honor (1985) from the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources of the University of Arizona. USA; 4) Appearance as Expert in the Senate of Spain (1997) at the Commission on Nuclear Waste Disposal; and 5) Guest Professor from Jilin University in Changchun, China (2006).  He has developed extensive research in hydrology and hydrologic engineering with special emphasis in hydrogeology, water resources evaluation, geostatistics, numerical models of groundwater flow, heat transport and contaminant transport with applications to groundwater management and protection. He has developed computational codes for surface and surface hydrology for the following topics: Water balance modeling (VISUAL-BALAN and GIS-BALAN), water flow, solute and reactive transport in aquifers (CORE2D), non-isothermal multiphase water flow, multicomponent reactive transport in clay barriers for waste disposal (INVERSE-FADES-CORE), water flow, and reactive transport and microbial processes in porous and fractured media (BIOCORE2D). Many of these computational models have been developed and applied to model laboratory and in situ experiments in underground research laboratories in Europe (Mont Terri and Grimsel in Switzerland, Aspo in Sweden, Mol in Belgium and Bure in France). The development of these codes has been funded by Competitive European Research Projects funded by the European Research Programs since 1991. He has been the advisor of 11 Master Theses and 20 PhD dissertations. He is author or coauthor of books, scientific monographies and almost 500 conference and journal papers, 70 of them in SCI journals. He has served as reviewer and associate editor for several SCI journals. He has acted as expert for the Spanish Senate, the Spanish Commission of Research, UNESCO (Hydrology Glossary) and IAEA (International Agency for Atomic Energy). 

      Lubczyński Maciej Wacław (Maciek), Senior Hydrologist 

      Lubczyński Maciej | Orcid

      Lubczyński Maciej | Linkedin 

Lubczyński Maciej Wacław (preferred and commonly used name Maciek) has Bsc&Msc in Geology with specialization Hydrogeology from University of Wrocław (Poland) and Bsc&Msc in Civil Engineering with specialization Hydro-engineering from Technical University of Wrocław (Poland). From 1982 till 1993, he worked as Assistant Professor in Hydrogeology Department of the University of Wrocław, where in 1992, he defended PhD thesis on “Regional numerical groundwater flow model of Ziębice Basin“. In 1993, he moved to ITC institute of University of Twente in Enschede (Netherlands), where he worked first as Assistant Professor and then as Associate Professor. Throughout his carrier Dr Lubczynski lectured various water-related subjects, supervised more than 50 Msc students, 9 PhD students and co-supervised many others. His research focuses on tools and methods (such as remote sensing, hydrogeophysics, sap flow measurements of trees etc.) to facilitate input data of applied numerical, distributed models (earlier groundwater models and recently integrated hydrological models), to solve critical societal and environmental problems. Majority of his research and consulting activities has been concentrated on sustainability of groundwater resources in dry lands, i.e. mainly in Kalahari of Southern Africa and in Dehesa and Montado of Iberian Peninsula. That research resulted in many unconventional research developments and novel ideas, published in high impact journals (see ORCID) and presented in international conferences, also as invited keynote speaker. More info about his research, education and consulting activities can be found in his CV in Linkedin. 

      Bruno Pisani Veiga, researcher 

      Linkedin | Bruno Pisani 

Bruno Pisani Veiga is a Civil Engineer (University of the Republic, Uruguay, 1997), a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of A Coruña (2008) and a Civil Engineer from the Spanish Ministry of Education (2010). He has carried out his PhD thesis entitled “Coupling of semi-distributed hydrological models and geographic information systems” under the direction of Professor Javier Samper. Since 2003 he has participated at the University of A Coruña in numerous R&D&I projects that have been financed through grants from the Provincial Council of A Coruña and through contracts under research projects of the European Union and the Interministerial Commission of Science and Technology (CICYT). His main fields of work are those of water resources, water balance models, geographic information systems and the development of applied computer tools. 

      Antonio Paz González, Researcher 

      pdi UDC | Antonio Paz González

Antonio Paz González is a Biologist (B.S. and M.S. from the University of Santiago de Compostela, USC, Spain,1975). He holds a Ph. D. in Soil Science also from the University of Santiago de Compostela (1982). From 1987 to 1994 he was Associate Professor at USC. From 1994 to 2002 Asociate professor at the University of Coruña (UDC) and from 2002 to 2023 Full Professor also at UDC. Now he is Emeritus Professor. Teaching experience in Soil Science, Soil Quality and Geology. He has taught graduate courses, lectures, and seminars in Spain (USC and UDC) and abroad. He was Guest Professor from universities in Brazil and Argentina. Wide research experience supported by national and international funds and grants. His research interest focuses in interdisciplinary subjects involving Soil Science and Hydrology. Main fields of work: soil physics, soil conservation, water erosion, soil fertility, soil organic matter as related to soil quality, biochar characterization and use. Also, he has used advanced mathematical methods (geostatistics and fractal analysis) to analyze soil and environment spatial variability. He was principal researcher of several projects funded by Spanish Authorities and by the European Union. Many of his reseach has been conducted in collaboration with centers abroad, including Agronomic Institute of Campinas IPB), Brazil and “Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), France, etc. He oriented or co-oriented more than 40 Ph. D. thesis. 

      Marcos Lado Liñares, Researcher 

      pdi UDC | Marcos Lado

BSc. In Biology and PhD in Biological Sciences (1999). Hold several posdoc positions at the Volcani Center of Israel, including a Marie Curie fellowship. ‘Parga Pondal’ reincorporation contract at the University of A Coruña, funded by the Xunta de Galicia (2005). Associate Professor at the University of Coruña since 2010. 

He participated in various research projects funded by international (including the EU and the USA), national and regional agencies. International collaborations include projects with European, Ibero-American, Middle Eastern and non-EU easter european partners. Author of 41 articles in JCR journals and numerous conference contributions. Supervisor of 15 PhD theses. Member of the organizing committee of international conferences, and reviewer in high impact journals in the field of soil science. 

His research interests include the effect of soil properties such as organic matter, mineralogy, clay content or exchangeable sodium on soil structure, hydraulic properties and erosion. This includes the improvement of water use efficiency and use of wastewater for irrigation. Other research interests include the application of amendments to improve soil properties, like synthetic polymers, biochar and organic residues. 

More recently, he has been involved in research that combines the use of spectroscopic techniques and machine learning algorithms for the identification of changes in soil properties and their spatial variability, including organic matter composition, dissolved organic matter quality, and C sequestration. 

      Acacia Naves García-Rendueles, Researcher 

      pdi UDC | Acacia Naves

      Linkedin | Acacia Naves

Acacia Naves has a B.S. and a M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of A Coruña in Spain (2006). Afterwards, she enjoyed a national scholarship for the development of a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (2011) at the same University. From 2007 she has been involved in the research team lead by Professor Javier Samper participating in numerous R&D&I projects founded by EU, Spanish government, Galicia regional government, other administrations (i.e.: basin district administrations, municipalities) and construction and enviromental companies. Those projects are related to groundwater flow and reactive transport modelling, monitoring of groundwater quality specially in polluted areas, civil engineering impacts on groundwater and applied hydrogeology. In recent times, she has specialized in field work for the monitoring of hydrological, hydrogeological and water quality variables and water supply and protection of water resources in rural areas. In parallel, she has also participated and led international cooperation projects related to water access and appropriate technologies in developing countries. 

      Luis Montenegro Pérez, Researcher

Educational background:  

B.S. in Chemisty: 1991. University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). M.Sc.:1993. University of A Coruña (Spain). Ph.D.: 1996. University of A Coruña (Spain). Post-doctoral Fellow: 1996-2001. University of A Coruña (Spain).  

Professional experience 

In May 2001 I began my academic relationship with the University of A Coruña (UDC) as Assistant Professor. In 2009 I got a permanent position as Associate Professor in the same university. From 2001 to now I have taught the following courses in the Civil Engineering School: Hydraulics and Hydrology I, Geotechnical Engineering II, Electrical Engineering, Energy Engineering and Nuclear Engineering. 

Research interest 

My research interest since 1996 is focused on numerical models for water flow, reactive solute transport, geochemical and microbial processes in porous and fractured media and their applications to nuclear waste disposal activities, uranium mill tailings, acid mine drainage, pit lakes, pollution in mines, etc. These activities have been developed within the UDC research group AQUATERRA leading by Professor Javier Samper. This group has developed in the last 30 years a series of reactive transport codes with the generic name of CORE (COdes for modeling partly or fully saturated water flow, heat transport and multi-component REactive solute transport under both local chemical equilibrium and kinetic conditions). I have been involved in 11 research projects funded by European Union (Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Framework Programme; and Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Framework Programme), 6 research projects funded by Spanish Government, 12 research projects funded by Regional Government of Galicia (Spain), and 30 contracts with Spanish and international private companies. The results of my research have been published in several international and Spanish scientific journals and conference proceedings. I have produced 32 publications in international journals with available metrics as Impact Factor or SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), 16 international publications without a relative quality index, 28 Spanish publications without a relative quality index, 6 books or chapter of books; and 132 contributions to national and international scientific congress and meetings. 

      Alejandro Manuel Peso Lago, Project Manager

University of Twente (UT), has some 3,300 scientists and other professionals who are working together on cutting-edge research, innovations with real-world relevance, and inspiring education for more than 12,903 (2021) students. UT is a member of the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU). UT researchers have received 33 ERC grants, have been involved in over 220 FP7 projects and 147 Horizon2020 projects. UT is a member of the European Consortium of Innovative Universities. In 2021, UT had an annual turnover of € 401 million.

The Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (UT-ITC) of the University of Twente is a leading institute in the field of geo-information science and Earth Observation. In the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), UT-ITC is placed in the global top 10 for remote sensing five years in a row (2017- 2021). UT-ITC is undertaking applied research and has a proven track record of successfully managing more than 1100 consultancy and research projects in over 70 countries since 1950. UT-ITC is providing education and training through academic programs (master and PhD) as well as through short and tailor-made courses  

Utwente | Website 

ITC | Website

Social Media   

• University of Twente | LinkedIn  
• University of Twente | Facebook  
• University of Twente | TikTok  

Team Involved     

      Christiaan van der Tol , WP2 Coordinator

      GitHub | Christiaan van der Tol       

      Linkedin | Christiaan van der Tol 

Christiaan van der Tol is an associate professor in ‘Ecohydrology and Earth Observation’ at the Water Resources department. His interest is in the relations between water, energy and other resources on Earth.

He obtained his MSc in Hydrology at Wageningen University (2001), and PhD in Earth Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (2007) with the thesis ‘Climatic Constraints on Cabon Assimilation and Transpiration of sub-Mediterranean forests’. He developed the ‘Soil-Canopy Observation of Photosynthesis and Energy fluxes’ (SCOPE) model, and worked on the interpretation of Solar Induced Chlorophyll fluorescence: https://github.com/christiaanvandertol  

      Bas Retsios , ICT Developer   

      Utwente website | Bas Retsios

Bas Retsios is a software engineer specialized in the design and development of scientific geo-software. He obtained his MSc degree in computer science at the University of Twente in 1995, and has gained more than 25 years of experience in the development of Geographic Information Systems and related software modules during his work as an ICT Software Developer at the Faculty ITC of the University of Twente. He specifically focuses on water and climate monitoring and modeling, while exploring innovative techniques for high performance raster image computation and visualization.   

      Diana Chavarro-Rincon , Project Manager  

      Diana Chavarro-Rincon | LinkedIn

Diana Chavarro-Rincón was born in Bogotá, Colombia where she obtained a B.Sc. degree in civil engineering and specialized in water resources management. While in Colombia, she worked as a consultant in projects related to water resources and agricultural development. In 2000 she moved to the Netherlands where she earned an M.Sc. degree in Geo-information Science and Earth Observation from the Faculty ITC of the University of Twente, and a Ph.D. in eco-hydrology from the same university. After joining temporally, the Princeton University as a postdoctoral researcher, she worked for 5 years as an independent consultant in the applications of remote sensing for water and vegetation under the name Ambient Sensing. In 2018, she returned to ITC-University of Twente first at the department of Geo-information Processing, and later at the department of Water Resources where she currently works as a senior project officer.    

      Yijian Zeng, model development 

      Linkedin | Yijian Zeng

      Utwente Website | Yijian Zeng 

Dr. Yijian Zeng is an Associate Professor at the Department of Water Resources (WRS), Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente in Enschede, the Netherlands. 

He is the co-chair of ISMC(International Soil Modeling Consortium), which aims to integrate and advance soil system modeling, data gathering, and observational capabilities to address key global issues and stimulate the development of transdisciplinary and translational research activities. Additionally, he serves as a member of the GLASS Panel (Global Land/Atmosphere System Study) of the GEWEX (The Global Energy and Water Exchanges) Project, which is a part of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and dedicated to understanding Earth’s water cycle and energy fluxes on and below the surface and in the atmosphere. The GLASS panel focuses on the development and evaluation of models, with a particular emphasis on the new generation of land surface models. Currently, he is the co-lead of GEWEX-SoilWat (Soil and Water) Initiative, a joint project between GEWEX and ISMC, which aims to improve the representation of soil and subsurface processes in climate models. The initiative brings together two research communities to identify benchmarking philosophy, critical datasets, challenges and unresolved issues related to this effort. 

The Universidad of Córdoba (UCO) is a non-profit High Education and Research institution established in 1972, considered until today at the forefront of research in Andalusia, with more than 2.000 papers published in Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, as well as Plant & Animal Science. UCO’s research efforts are carried out by 235 research units and more than 2.500 employees, covering different disciplines, ranging from Humanities, Law and Social Sciences to the Health Sciences, as well as Science and Technology. The institution is also involved the “University Research Institute of Fine Chemicals and Nano-chemistry” and in the creation of the Rabanales 21 Science and Technology Park. Furthermore, UCO is equipped with cutting-edge research facilities which are located on Rabanales Campus, including a Genomics and Proteomics Unit equipped with High-throughput de-novo sequencers and Mass Spectrometry LC-MS analysers, among others. UCO offers services in the ICT area and audiovisual technologies, as well as in education and training, providing i.a. multimedia and interactive courses and apps, e-learning platforms; audiovisual materials. The university has considerable experience in coordinating, managing and implementing international projects. Since 2014, UCO has received funding for 45 projects through H2020 and more than 50 projects funded by other European programs. A Knowledge Transfer Office as well as an International Projects’ Office facilitate management, implementation and dissemination of transnational projects achieved by the university as well as knowledge transfer.  

UCO | Website 

UCO | Research

UCO | Reserch Groups 

Social Media 

• Universidad de Córdoba | Facebook
• Universidad de Córdoba | X
• Universidad de Córdoba | LinkedIn
• Universidad de Córdoba | YouTube
• Universidad de Córdoba | Instagram
• Universidad de Córdoba | TikTok

Team Involved  

      Rafael Pimentel, Principal Investigator 

      Orcid | Rafael Pimentel 

      Uco website | Rafael Pimentel 

Civil engineers by training, master in Environmental Hydraulics: Basin Integrated management and PhD in Biogeochemical fluxes dynamics and its applications, Rafael Pimentel has developed his career in the field of the hydrology. His main research lines have been related to the study of the snow dynamics combining in situ and remote sensing information with physically based hydrological modelling in Mediterranean areas. After his international experience in the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, he broadened his research to global hydrological modelling, being one of the researchers involved in the setting up of the World-Wide HYPE. He has participated in many national and international projects mainly related to snow hydrology, climate services and remote sensing and data assimilation for improving hydrological forecasts. 

      Ana Andreu, Coordinator of WP1 

      Orcid | Ana Andreu

      Uco website | Ana Andreu 

      Savannahwatch | Website

I am a postdoc researcher at the Fluvial Dynamics and Hydrology Group from the University of Cordoba, focusing on the impact of microclimate conditions on the hydrology of Andalusian mountainous and dehesa areas. Before, I was a Marie Curie Fellow at Prof. Baldocchi Biometlab (University of California, Berkeley), with IFAPA Research Center (Cordoba, Spain) and Dr. Gonzalez-Dugo department as my core institution, modelling savanna water and carbon fluxes integrating multiple source-scale Earth Observation data. At the end of 2015, I joined the UNU-FLORES institute (Dresden, Germany), where I was contributing to the development of the “Nexus Water-Soil-Waste approach”, being also the European leader of the TIGER project “Remote Sensing of water use and water stress in African savanna ecosystem from local to regional scale: Implications for land productivity”. After my PhD I was a postdoc in the Dept. of Env. Science, Policy and Management at the Univ. of California (Berkeley), also under the supervision of Prof. Dennis D. Baldocchi, where I continued my research on water dynamics over semi-arid ecosystems, evaluating the Tonzi savanna rangeland. I completed my PhD in December 2014, supervised by Dr. González-Dugo and Prof. Polo-Gómez. My main research is conducted on productive Spanish oak savannas (dehesas), and to a lesser degree on other Mediterranean agricultural/natural landscapes. I use multi-scale variable-source data analysis, Earth Observation and micrometeorological techniques to understand the functioning of partially covered systems in which water availability has an essential control, reinforcing ecosystems services with technical recommendations based on precision tools. 

      Maria José Polo, Researcher 

      Uco website | María José Polo

      Orcid | María José Polo 

      Linkedin | María José Polo 

I have been Full Professor in Hydraulic Engineering since 2016 at UCO, where I have been developing research lines on hydrological processes and water quality in Mediterranean basins since 1999, with a scientific approach to process understanding based on advanced frameworks of multi-source data (ground and remote sensing) and physically-based modelling. In 2009, I founded the Research Group Fluvial Dynamics and Hydrology (TEP248-PAIDI) up to a core group of my former PhD students, based on a first set of thesis works dealing with high mountain hydrology in Mediterranean basins, a novel research line at UCO. Ever since, our pioneering work on the dynamics of snowpacks in Sierra Nevada (Spain) and links to the hydrological signature of its head basins has evolved in a series of relevant impact research papers in highly ranked journals, and key international collaborations and projection, being recognized at the moment as one of the reference international groups on Mediterranean mountain hydrology. My track record of publications (87 indexed works, H21, Scopus) evidences my interdisciplinary vision to address science questions and societal challenges, merging hydrology, engineering, and ecology to design advanced process-oriented monitoring networks, modelling, and experimental work, that bridge the gap between scientific standards and user-friendly tools for stakeholders and technicians. Our contribution to understanding the significance of microscale processes in the distribution of snowpack, the relevance of radiative components in the energy balance, and the role of evaposublimation from the snowpack have meant key scientific impacts on quantifying water resources in Mediterranean snow regions, future scenarios of sustainability of mountain storage, regulation, and provision services, and derived collaborations in the field of ecohydrology, including the use of terrestrial cameras to track the evolution of hydrological processes. These research goals have been successfully funded since 2009 by competitive national and international projects, that I have led, and have opened relevant international collaborations, with an intense presence in reference conferences and networking effort since 2013 as my coauthoring of high-impact works led by top international researchers in this field, my active role in different Working Groups of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences, and the inclusion of our experimental research area in Sierra Nevada as one of the reference basins in Mediterranean regions in INARCH, an international excellence network for alpine catchment research, soundly prove. As result of this research expertise, I have been awarded with the Dooge Medal at the International Hydrology Prize 2022 by the IAHS-UNESCO-WMO. 

      Cristina Aguilar, Researcher

      Uco website | Cristina Aguilar 

      Orcid | Cristina Aguilar

I have been associate professor of mechanical engineering at UCO since 2016 and belong to the research group Fluvial Dynamics and Hydrology (TEP248-PAIDI). I focused my research activity to advance knowledge base regarding hydrological processes and water quality modeling in Mediterranean catchments and on the uncertainty assessment in hydrological and environmental processes. In particular, I have dedicated my attention to modeling the hydrometeorological variables involved in the water and energy balance at their representative spatial and temporal scales for their integration in a physically based distributed hydrological modelling tool including uncertainty assessment. To this end I proposed a topographic solar radiation algorithm for the generation of time-series solar radiation maps using limited data and simple methods. My research on water quality modeling has contributed to the study of environmental protection in Mediterranean areas and the development of parametric models and indexes for the spatial characterization of the nonpoint source pollution potential. The use of remote sensing data to characterize and monitor hydrological and land-use parameters also plays an important role in my work. I later included stochastics analysis to properly account for inherent uncertainty in hydrology with operational applications in the computation of environmental flows in semi-arid environments as well as for real time updating of flood forecasting. In this latter topic, I recently got funding (47.419,37 €) in a competitive call leading a project to develop a tool for the stochastic forecast of river flows at different temporal scales for its use in the operational management of run-of-river hydropower facilities. 

      Pablo González-Moreno, Researcher 

      Orcid | Pablo González-Moreno

Researcher at ERSAF Group from the Department of Forest Engineering at University of Córdoba (Spain). Terrestrial ecologist with more than 10 years’ experience in ecological modelling of invasive species and GIS applied for nature resource management. His research focuses on understanding invasive species and pest patterns of agriculture and forest systems in relation to key natural processes. The focus of my research has progressively shifted from understanding macroecological patterns of invasive plants across a broad range of habitats and scales towards a more applied approach linked to risk prediction and management of forest and agriculture pests and diseases using a combination of statistical modelling, and remote sensing approaches. I have published 45 peer-reviewed papers (9 as lead author, 5 as second, 7 as senior), 4 book chapters, and 3 outreach publications accumulating >4000 citations (Google Scholar). Since 2011 I have been involved in 22 scientific projects (12 international and 4 as principal investigator, total funding as PI 802566€ including JDC and RYC fellowships) 

      Francisco J. Ruiz-Gómez , Researcher

      Orcid | Francisco J. Ruiz-Gómez

      Linkedin | Francisco J. Ruiz-Gómez

Lecturer, Forest Engineer, PhD in Biosciences, MSc Molecular, Cellular and Genetic Biotechnology . He boasts more than 10 years of experience in R&D+i (Research & development + innovation). His scientific interests are related to plant biotechnology, eco-physiology and sustainability of Mediterranean forest ecosystems, mainly focused on forest pathology and global change influence over ecosystems. He is currently focusing on the scaling up of combined (abiotic-biotic) stress studies on forest environments from experimental field plots to landscape scale.  

      Guillermo Palacios-Rodríguez, Researcher 

      Orcid | Guillermo Palacios 

Researcher at ERSAF Group from the Department of Forest Engineering at University of Córdoba (Spain). PhD in Forest Science and Technology and Forest Engineering by the University of Cordoba, with 23 years of professional experience in R&D+i, knowledge transfer and international forest technology. Extensive experience in applied research projects, international cooperation and development, and data science and modelling, linked to Forest Digitalization and Remote Sensing (UAV, Satellite, SAR, LiDAR) to assess and manage natural resources and processes. His professional career was developed in national and international institutions, working in Spain, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Mexico, Mozambique, Angola, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador. More than 17 years of experience in research projects (>50, >10M€ funding), development and transfer of innovation in the forest sector, and more than 40 international publications in peer-reviewed journals. Furthermore, he has been the promoter of two technological based spin-offs from the University of Cordoba. He has extensive experience in coordinating European proposals, being the UCO coordinator in 6 of them. 

      Antonio J. Molina, Researcher 

      Orcid | Antonio J. Molina

Forest Engineer, PhD in Terrestrial Ecology. Researcher at ERSAF Group from the Department of Forest Engineering at University of Córdoba (Spain). 

He has more than 10 years of experience in R&D+i (Research & development + innovation). His scientific interests are related to eco-physiology and ecohydrology of Mediterranean forest ecosystems, mainly focused on forest management influence on forest processes at the stand scale. He is currently focusing on the scaling up of combined (abiotic-biotic) stress studies on forest environments from experimental field plots to landscape scale. 

The National Laboratory of Energy and Geology (LNEG) is a State Laboratory of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Action that makes RD&D oriented to the needs of society and enterprises, investing in sustainable research, along with the international best practices. LNEG’s mission is to promote technological innovation science and technology oriented for economic development contributing to increase competitiveness of economic agents in the context of sustainable progress of the Portuguese economy. In accordance with the Portuguese Government’s strategies and policies for economic and social development, LNEG takes up the role of an interface between results generated by R&D programs and their technological transfer and integration into the energy and geology productive sector. 

LNEG´s participation in a broad range of international projects confers it the role of a key partner for internationalization, as well as of a source of specialized information over a number of R&D fields. LNEG is an Effective Member of EuroGeoSurveys (European Association of Geological Surveys) and implemented many projects worldwide, such as geological mapping and research studies in Angola, Mozambique and East Timor. 

LNEG | Website

Social Media 

• LNEG | X

• LNEG | Facebook

• LNEG | Linkedin

• LNEG | Youtube 

• LNEG | Instagram 

Team Involved     

      Alain Pascal Francés, WP3 coordinator

      Alain Pascal | Website 

     Alain Pascal | Linkedin 

Hydrogeology – Modeling, monitoring network
Geographic Information System (GIS) – Thematic cartography, spatial databases. 

Ph.D. in Hydrogeology (2015), University of Twente Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation ITC: Enschede, Overijssel, NL Integration of hydrogeophysics and remote sensing with coupled hydrological models 

• 2014 – Present LNEG – National Laboratory of Energy and Geology. PLANAGEO project (Geological Cartography of Angola) GIS supervisor / Hydrogeologist. Design and implementation of digital geological mapping system Hydrogeological mapping (production: 18x250K and 7x100k geological maps, 4x500k and 1M hydrogeological maps). 

• 2012 – 2014 LNEG – National Laboratory of Energy and Geology. Hydrogeologist. Remote sensing analysis, near-surface geophysics (FDEM, TDEM, CVES), automatic data acquisition monitoring networks Hydrogeological conceptual model, spatio-temporal modeling of recharge and subsurface fluxes, groundwater numerical model. 

• 1999 – 2006 LNEG – National Laboratory of Energy and Geology. Hydrogeologist/GIS specialist. GIS and Database development applied to hydrogeology. 
• 1998 – 1999 Faculty of Sciences of Lisbon University. Hydrogeologist. Basin Management Action Plans of “Ribeiras do Algarve” and Guadiana River watersheds. 

      Judite Fernandes, participation in WP1 (monitoring data acquisition) and WP3 (modeling) 

      Judite Fernandes | LinkedIn

Hydrogeology and hydrochemistry, Hydrogeological mapping and GIS, Geostatistics, Hydrogeophysics 

Bachelor of Science Honours (BSc hons) in Economic and Applied Geology, 1992, University of Lisbon, Portugal. 

Advanced formation on Geographic Information Systems, 1993-1994, Instituto de Formação e Quadros / INTERGRAPH, Portugal. 

• May 1996 to present: National Laboratory of Energy and Geology. Hydrogeologist. 
• 1994 – 1995: Lisbon University, Water Institute of Portugal. Groundwater researcher  

      Elsa Cristina Ramalho,  participation in WP1 (geophysical data acquisition)

      Elsa Cristina Ramalho |Linkedin 

Geoenergy: deep and shallow geothermal 

Geophysics: surface (geoelectrical and electromagnetics) and geophysical logging 

Ph.D. in Geosciences (2013), University of Aveiro, Portugal  

• 1994-Present LNEG – National Laboratory of Energy and Geology, Lisboa, Portugal. Research and coordination of projects in surface and depth geophysics applied to mineral resources, groundwater and environment, through the use of electrical, electromagnetic, radiometric and diagraphic methods. Superficial and deep geothermal research. Scientific Dissemination. 

• 1993-1994 – Geotécnica da Ria, Ltd.  

• 1992-1993 – Cooperation with the Basin Analysis Group (BAG) – Instituto Pedro Nunes, Coimbra. 

Fondazione CMCC is a non-profit research institution. Its mission is to investigate and model our climate system and its interactions with society to provide reliable, rigorous, and timely scientific results, which will in turn stimulate sustainable growth, protect the environment, and develop science-driven adaptation and mitigation policies in a changing climate. CMCC collaborates with experienced scientists, economists, and technicians, which work together to provide full analyses of climate impacts on various systems such as agriculture, ecosystems, coasts, water and other natural resources, health, and economics. CMCC also supports policymakers in setting and assessing costs, mitigation, and adaptation policies. CMCC research activities are distributed among nine research divisions that share different knowledge and skills in the field of climate science. CMCC carries on research methods over several fields of climatology, hydrology, ecology, forestry, crop science, social sciences, with modelling analyses at different scales. Modelling interactions between climate, vegetation (crop productivity and ecosystem services) and human needs, for natural resource management and sustainable development, allow evaluation of mitigation and adaptation practices for agricultural/forestry ecosystem and their elaboration for land user and policy makers.

CMCC | Website

Social Media 

• Fondazione Cmcc | Linkedin
• Fondazione Cmcc | X
• Fondazione Cmcc | Instagram 

Team Involved 

      Antonio Trabucco, CMCC Principal Investigator 

      CMCC People | Antonio Trabucco

Antonio Trabucco holds a Msc degree in forest hydrology from Padua University and PhD in Bioscience engineering from the Catholic University of Leuven, on Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry activities for Climate Change Mitigation. His thematic qualifications cover relationships between vegetation/ecosystems and climate, from regional to global scale, ecosystem services and their alteration due to climate and other global drivers linked to land use, policy and socio-economic development scenarios. Through several research and managing positions hold in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe over the last 20 years, he has consolidated collaborations and expertise on several and diverse environmental aspects. he is currently involved at CMCC with large data coupling and modelling of multi-sectorial NEXUS dynamics and feedbacks between food and water security, climate change, land use processes and productivity, land restoration and degradation, mitigation, and other ecosystem functions. 

      Matteo Funaro, Project Manager  

      People CMCC | Matteo Funaro 

Matteo Funaro is currently division manager of the “IAFES Impacts on Agriculture, Forests and Ecosystem Services” Division in Sassari. He is acting as project manager in research and development projects. He works across social and environmental sciences. His expertise lies in the fields of Integrating water and agricultural management and participatory process in the development projects. He taught EU project design at the Bachelor’s degree Security and international cooperation at the University of Sassari and He designed and submitted several proposal for EU calls with a good success rate. His experience include also field social research in Ghana and Burkina Faso, and project management on the ground in Algeria, Tunisia, and Sudan. He holds a M.Sc. in Policy science and International Economy at La Sapienza University of Rome and a Ph.D in Methodology of Social Research at the University of Sassari. 

      Elisa Delpiazzo, Participation in WP5 (Cost/benefit analysis and macroeconomic assessment) 

      CMCC People | Elisa Delpiazzo

Elisa Delpiazzo holds a Ph.D. in Economic policy with a major in Quantitative Methods for Economic Policies from Catholic University in Milan (2011). She gets a master’s degree in Economics, Politics, and International Institutions from the University of Pavia (2006). Previously, she obtained a bachelor degree in International Relations (major in International Economics and Finance) from the University of Genova (2004).
Currently she is a Junior Scientist at CMCC in the ECIP division. Her research activity currently focuses on the evaluation of climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation policies using Computable General Equilibrium models, the economic evaluation of climate services, and cost/benefit analysis of adaptation measures and nature-based solutions.  

      Francesco Bosello, Co-coordination of WP5 (Cost/benefit analysis and macroeconomic assessment). 

      Universitá Venezia | Francesco Bosello 

Graduated at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, he received a Master degree in economics from the University College of London (UK) and a Doctoral degree in economics from the University of Venice. He is presently associate  professor of economics at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, and senior scientist at the Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change (CMCC) where he coordinates the Economic Analysis of Climate Impacts and Policy division. He is deputy director of the European Institute for Economics and the Environment a joint initiative between CMCC and the US Resources for the Future. Previously he has been associate professor at the University of Milan, and affiliate scientist at the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei Milan. He is currently undertaking research activities in the area of climate change impact assessment and the design of optimal mitigation and adaptation strategies developing integrated assessment modelling tools and applied general equilibrium economic models.  His other research interests are more broadly related to international environmental agreements and the economics of the environment and of sustainability. 

      Ramon Key, Participation in WP5 (Cost/benefit analysis and macroeconomic assessment)

      CMCC People | Ramon Key 

He is currently a senior researcher (CGE modeler) at the Euro-Mediterranean Center for Climate Change (CMCC@Ca’Foscari). He was the Coordinator and Professor of the International Center for Energy and the Environment at the IESA School of Management 2016 – 2021. He is an economist who graduated from Universidad Central de Venezuela with a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Colorado Boulder. He entered the oil industry with the company Lagoven in 1990. He worked at Petróleos de Venezuela until 2014, where he was manager of economic analysis at the Corporate Planning Office. Before joining IESA, he was a Senior Economist at IDEA International in Panama, conducting fiscal risk analysis and budgeting for results in Latin American countries. 

IST-ID, Associação do Instituto Superior Técnico para a Investigação e Desenvolvimento, is a private not-for-profit institution, which primarily aims at carrying out Science and Technology activities, fostering knowledge transfer and promoting the involvement of national and foreign researchers, both at national and international levels, in RD&I projects in their areas of expertise. IST-ID conducts research, development, and innovation activities in key areas that address societal challenges. These are strongly interdisciplinary areas in nature crossing different engineering fields, science and technology, and architecture. The RD&I activities include both fundamental aspects and strong applied projects.

Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) is one of the founding members of IST-ID and, through partnership agreements, provides most of the facilities where IST-ID activities are carried out. IST is the largest and most prestigious engineering, science, and technology school in Portugal. Since its creation in 1911, IST’s mission has contributed to the development of society by providing top-quality higher education at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, developing Research, Development, and Innovation activities, and providing top-quality teaching in line with the highest international standards. Its mission is defined by three key attributes of a modern university: creating knowledge, training skilled professionals, and transferring technology to society.

IST ID | Website 

Social media

• IST ID | Instagram
• IST ID | Facebook
• IST ID | Linkedin 
• IST ID | Youtube 
• IST ID | X 

Team involved 

Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA) is one of the faculties of the Universidade de Lisboa (University of Lisbon). The core mission of ISA is Higher Education, Research & Development, and Technology Transfer in the scientific fields of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Engineering, Food Science and Engineering, Animal Production Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Biology, and Landscape Architecture. ISA is involved in 170 R&D projects, financed by EU and national funds. The Forest Research Centre (CEF) develops research and outreach activities on issues dealing with forests, agro-forestry systems, semi-natural areas, and forest-based industrial chains. CEF shares the EU Forest2030 vision of forests and biodiversity strategy and semi-natural areas as vital, productive and multifunctional ecosystems, contributing to sustainable development and human well-being, in a healthy environment. CEF has over 40 years of experience in sharing and co-producing research with major public and private stakeholders, including central administration agencies responsible for forestry, land management, and nature conservation, municipalities, forest producers’ associations, and forest industries in the cork, pulp and paper, and timber supply chains.  

 ISA | Website 

Social Media

• Instituto Superior de Agronomía | Facebook
• Instituto Superior de Agronomía | Instagram 
• Instituto Superior de Agronomía | X
• Instituto Superior de Agronomía | Linkedin 
• Instituto Superior de Agronomía | Youtube

Team Involved  

      Sílvia Carvalho, Principal Investigator from ISA 

      Orcid | Sílvia Carvalho 

Sílvia Carvalho holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of Coimbra (2015) and has nearly a decade of research experience at the University of Lisbon, focusing on climate change. She is currently a researcher at the School of Agriculture (ISA) of the University of Lisbon, where she also taught courses in climatology, land use, and water management. Considering her expertise, she has participated in several national and European projects, in multiple areas of climate change impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation, working at global scales (e.g., Europe, Africa, South America), regional scales (e.g., municipalities) and local scales (e.g., farmlands). Within these projects, she has developed a broad partnership with universities, research organizations, private partners, as well as public authorities.

      Sofia Cerasoli, WP1 and WP3 

      Sofia Cerasoli | Research Gate

      Sofia Cerasoli | Linkedin 

Sofia Cerasoli is an Assistant Professor at the Instituto Superior de Agronomia, University of Lisbon, and member of the Centre for Forest Research Studies (CEF) and the associated laboratory TERRA, with experience in the ecology and ecophysiology of Mediterranean forests and agroforestry systems. She holds a degree in Agricultural Sciences and a PhD in Forestry and Natural Resources Engineering. She has published 25 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Has 3 chapters of books.  Supervised and co-supervised PhD and Masters students. She has participated as principal investigator in 4 projects and as researcher in 4 national and 3 EU projects. Main research interests include the analysis of carbon and water trade-offs in Mediterranean oak woodlands and remote sensing for modelling productivity and monitoring biophysical traits of vegetation. 

      Maria  da Conceição Caldeira, WP1 and WP4 

      Research Gate | Maria da Conceiçao Caldeira

Maria C Caldeira is Associated Professor at the Department of Natural Resources, Environment and Landscape Forest Research Centre, School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon and Researcher at the Forest Research Centre (CEF) and Associated Laboratory TERRA Sustainable Land Use and Ecosystem Services, University of Lisbon. She is coordinator of the Forest Ecology Research Group of CEF and co-coordinator of the Natural Capital and Sustainable Ecosystem Services Research line of TERRA. Her background is in Forestry, she has a MSc in Forest Production and a PhD on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning. Her research focuses on plant species interactions and their critical role in ecosystem resilience and functioning, especially in response to disturbances like extreme droughts. She is particularly interested in how trees and ecosystems adapt to recurrent droughts, especially when influenced by other biotic and abiotic factors. She has authored over 70 scientific papers in ISI journals, achieving an h-index of 33 and with 4409 citations according to Scopus. Her work has been published in high impact factor journals, including Science, Nature Ecology & Evolution, and Global Change Biology. She has led over seven scientific projects and contributed to more than 20 international projects.    

      Susete Marques, Researcher 

      U Lisboa | Susete Marques 

      Linkedin | Susete Marques

Susete is a researcher at the Forest Research Centre (CEF) and lecturer at ISA-UL. She works in the areas of fire risk and damage models, forest management planning, multiple criteria optimization and trade-off analysis. Principal investigator in ISA in 2 national research projects and actively participates in 9 national and international projects (e.g., FCT FP7, Cost, Marie Curie, H2020). Since 2021 she is part of the MEDfOR scientific course committee at ISA. Co-author of 35 international peer/reviewed publications and 6 book chapters. Has 20 years of experience in forestry-related research and has supervised 2 PhD students and 11 MSc students. 

      Teresa Ferreira, Consultant for WP3

      Scopus | Teresa Ferreira 

Teresa Ferreira is Full Professor at the Department of Natural Resources, Environment and Landscape at the University of Lisbon. She is currently the President of the institutional Science Council and the Coordinator of the Associated Laboratory TERRA Sustainable Land Use and Ecosystem Services, https://labterra.pt/en/. She has a biologist background, a post-graduation on Freshwater Ecology, and a PhD and Habilitation in Forest Engineering and Natural Resources Management. She works on freshwater ecology and management, with special interest on ecological quality, fish community ecology, fish habitat requirements and riparian ecology. She is responsible for the MSc in Management and Conservation of Natural Resources and the international PhD on River Restoration and Management. Teresa developed research activities in 69 national and European competitive projects (9 european), and was involved in an identical number of applied studies (ecohydraulics, ecological monitoring, river restoration, water management). She published 229 peer-reviewed papers (h-index 52) and presented over 500 oral communications and key-notes. 

      José G. Borges, Consultant for WP5 

      Research Gate | José G Borges 

      Linkedin | José G Borges 

Ph.D. in Forest Sciences (U. Minnesota), associate professor at the School of Agriculture (ISA), ULisboa. Coordinator of IUFRO Unit 4.04.04 Sustainable forest management scheduling and of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree MEDFOR. Has 25+ years of higher education, research and outreach experience in forest management planning methods and decision support systems. Responsible for forest and natural resources management courses in ISA with participation in several international courses. Acted as PI or as coordinator of the participation of ISA in national and international projects targeting the development of forest management planning methods, of tools to analyse trade-offs between ecosystem services and of business models to attract payments for these services. Co-authored over 100 international peer-reviewed publications. 

      Erika S. Santos, WP4 

      Orcid | Erika S. Santos

      Research Gate | Erika S. Santos 

Erika Santos is Assistant Professor at the Instituto Superior de Agronomia – Universidade de Lisboa (ULisboa) and Researcher at LEAF – Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food Research Center and Associate Laboratory TERRA (ULisboa). With a degree in Biology, she has a European PhD in Environmental Engineering and a post-PhD in Agricultural and Food Biotechnology both from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) together with the Universities of Lisbon and Aveiro. She has academic experience developed in Portugal, Spain and different countries in Latin America, where she has also worked as an external consultant for different companies related to geochemistry and soil science. She is the coordinator of the Soil Science Laboratory at the Instituto Superior de Agronomia, which is part of the FAO Global Soil Laboratory Network. She also collaborates with FAO as a scientific expert in the field of soil contamination. She has participated as coordinator (8) and researcher (12) in several R&D projects (co-)financed by national funds (e.g. POSEUR, PRR), international funds (e.g. FAO), European funds (e.g. Interreg SUDOE, MED) and companies. She has published four international book chapters, >40 peer-reviewed articles in international journals, 16 peer-reviewed articles in national journals and 2 books (h-index 20) and has given over >100 conference presentations. She has participated as editor/invited editor of books and international indexed journals such as Environments, Frontiers in Environmental Science, Plants, Spanish Journal of Soil Science and Environmental Geochemistry and Health. She has supervised o1 post-PhD, 13 MSc thesis and 25 BSc internships, with ongoing supervision of 1 PhD, 2 MSc and 1 BSc students. Her research focuses on the assessment of soil quality at a physical-chemical and biological level, response of soil-microorganism-plant system to biotic/abiotic conditions and recovery of degraded soils, especially with nature based technologies.  

      Diego Arán,  WP4 

      Orcid | Diego Arán

      Research Gate | Diego Arán 

Diego Arán is Assistant Researcher at the Instituto Superior de Agronomia – Universidade de Lisboa (ULisboa) and a member of LEAF – Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food Research Center and Associate Laboratory TERRA (ULisboa). He is biologist with an MSc in Environment and Natural Resources and International PhD in Soil Science from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). In addition to his research career, he founded the Inproyen Business Group, with a presence in Spain and Latin America, environmental consulting companies specialising in soil and geochemical characterisation, environmental remediation and sustainability. He has also worked as a scientific expert for the FAO. He has coordinated >30 environmental assessment and remediation projects in different countries of Latin America, Spain and Portugal, financed by national and international funds and companies. He has also participated as co-principal investigator in 2 competitive projects and as researcher in 24 projects (14 competitive/10 non-competitive). He is author/co-author of 1 book, 3 international book chapters, 16 peer-reviewed articles in international journals and >65 communications for scientific communication and knowledge transfer (h-index 9). He has supervised 5 MSc and 2 BSc theses and is currently supervising 1 PhD, 2 MSc and 1 BSc students. He has participated as invited editor in the international indexed journal Environments. His research focuses on (hidro)geochemical and edaphic assessment, improvement of soil quality and waters in degraded areas and design and implementation of productive and sustainable systems in adverse environmental conditions such as areas with water stress, erosion or polymetallic contamination risks. 

      Miguel Nuno Bugalho, WP4 

      Miguel Nuno Bugalho | Website

Miguel Nuno Bugalho is Associate Professor of Forest and Wildlife Ecology and Conservation in the Department of Natural Resources and Environment at the School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon (ISA). He is also the Scientific Coordinator of the Centre for Applied Ecology “Prof. Baeta Neves” (CEABN) at ISA. He has a PhD in Zoology from the University of Aberdeen and the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute (presently James Hutton Institute), UK, holds an MSc in Ecology from the University of Aberdeen, UK, and a first degree in Forestry, Natural Resource Management, from the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal. He has had Post-doctoral experience at CSIRO, Australia and the Nicholas School of Environment, Duke University, USA. His research interests rely on the field of animal ecology and in particularly on the foraging ecology of large mammalian herbivores. He is interested in knowing how different herbivores, namely wild and domesticated ruminants, use plant resources and how plants and ecosystems, namely forest and grassland ecosystems, respond to these animals. This may provide opportunities for using herbivores as habitat management tools and mediate biodiversity and ecosystem services trade-offs. Miguel Bugalho is also interested in the sustainable management of forests and in knowing how conservation tools such as forest certification may contribute to the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. He has authored 82 scientific papers in ISI journals, and has an h-index of 27. His work has been published in high impact factor journals including Nature Ecology & Evolution, Nature Communications, Global Change Biology or Frontiers in Ecology and Environment. He is Associate Editor of Forest Ecology and Management and of Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. He has supervised 6 post-doctoral researchers, with 2 post-doctoral supervisions ongoing, 7 PhD students, with 6 PhD supervisions ongoing, and 16 MSc students, with 2 MSc student supervisions ongoing. He has been scientific consultant for the Mediterranean program of WWF for over 10 years and presently sits in the advisory board of ANP/WWF Portugal.  

Founded over 450 years ago, the University of Sassari is the oldest university in Sardinia. With its 10 departments and over 650 professors from universities across Italy, the University of Sassari offers both in-person and distance learning opportunities in the humanities and sciences. 

The Department of Agricultural Sciences, established in 1946 as part of the University of Sassari, provides high-quality undergraduate and postgraduate education and research in Agricultural Sciences and, with more than 30 years of experience in international R&D and technical cooperation projects, is actively involved in numerous research initiatives at various scales. 

In the DRYAD project, the Department will contribute with specific expertise in measuring protocols, developing adaptive governance arrangements, and integrating as well as co-designing Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) in landscape planning and management using a multi-stakeholder approach. The implementation of the research by UNISS will be supported by the Research Unit named Sustainable Management of Soil and Landscape (SMSL), which brings together scientists specializing in soil health-related disciplines, including pedology, agronomy, hydrology, microbiology, and biodiversity. 

The UNISS project team will also leverage the extensive laboratory infrastructure (GAUSS) managed by the university. 

UNISS | Website 

UNISS | Dipartimento di Agraria Website 

Social Media  

• UNISS | Facebook
• UNISS | Instagram
• UNISS | X 

Team Involved

      Costantino Sirca, Scientific responsible for the UNISS team, and responsible for the DR4 “Tirso”  

Master’s Degree in Agricultural Sciences and PhD in Agrometeorology and Ecophysiology at the University of Sassari, Italy. Main research fields and interest are related to forestry and tree crop systems, impacts of climate change in natural and agricultural systems ecophysiology, monitoring and modelling mass and energy fluxes with micrometeorological techniques (Eddy covariance), assessing danger, behaviour and risk related to wildfires.

      Claudio Zucca, Soil scientist, lead monitoring of the NBS’ impacts on the soils 

      Claudio Zucca | Facebook

      Claudio Zucca | Linkedin

      Claudio Zucca | X

Ass. Prof., Pedology, with over twenty years of experience on sustainable soil management, land evaluation, land degradation and desertification research. He has a long record of international projects and publications on indicators for interdisciplinary assessment of soil and land conditions documenting strong interdisciplinary competencies ranging from field assessment to geomatics. Currently member of the Italian Society of Soil Science, of the DesertNet International Advisory Committe, of the UNCCD international Roster of Experts, former member of the Edit. Board of the Soil Atlas of Asia and of the Advisory Committee of World Atlas of Desertification. Co-author of the FAO-SOLAW 2021 Thematic Paper on soil health in the NENA region. 

      Jose Maria Costa Saura, Wildfire researcher 

Jose Maria Costa Saura obtained a BSC/MSC in Forest Engineering at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Spain). He also has a Master degree in Biodiversity (Unversidad de Valencia, Spain) and a PhD in Agrometeorology and Ecophysiology from the Università di Sassari (Italy). His research interests cover trait–based approaches applied in forest ecology and the different components of fire risk (from fire weather to fire spreae modelling and machine learning). 

      Hassan Awada, Researcher 

      Hassan Awada | Linkedin

      Hassan Awada | Orcid

      Hassan Awada |Research Gate

Hassan is an agricultural engineer with an MSc in Agricultural Engineering, an MSc in Land and Water Management, and a PhD in Civil, Environmental, and Materials Engineering (specializing in Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering) from the University of Palermo, Italy. He is currently a researcher at the University of Sassari, Department of Agriculture, with expertise in Satellite Remote Sensing, Agrometeorology, and Hydrology. He is actively involved in several EU- and Mediterranean-funded projects, including PRIMA (SALAM-MED and NATMed projects) and Horizon EU (EWA-BELT and MONALISA projects), as well as the Italian National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC) project. Hassan has authored or co-authored 14 peer-reviewed articles and contributed to various scientific communications and knowledge transfer activities. He has supervised 3 MSc and 1 BSc theses and currently mentors 1 PhD student. His research focuses on soil hydrology and methods and algorithms for extracting quantitative data from satellite-based remote sensing images. 

      Bruno Scanu, Researcher 

      Bruno | Orcid 

      Bruno | Research Gate

Bruno Scanu, is a plant pathologist and mycologist with specific skills in ecology, evolution, taxonomy, phylogeny and pathogenicity of oomycetes. He has a particular research interest in new and unusual Phytophthora species, their spread and impacts in natural and forest ecosystems, plantation forestry, as well as in management and control strategies of diseases they cause in Mediterranean ecosystems. He is currently Deputy Coordinator of the IUFRO Working Party 7.02.09: Phytophthora in Forests and Natural Ecosystems. Scientific literature is available at: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=36197159200 

      Donatella Spano, Researcher 

Full Professor and Scientific Coordinator for the University of Sassari of the Ph.D. program in Sustainability and Climate Change at the University Institute of Higher Studies of Pavia (IUSS-Pavia) and of the Research Doctorate in Agrometeorology and Ecophysiology of Agricultural and Forestry Ecosystems of the University of Sassari. She graduated in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Sassari and followed a three-year post-graduate program in Agrometeorology. Member of the Strategic Council and the Board of Directors of the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), where she was elected as vice president. Member of the Board of Directors of SISEF – Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology and of the Board of Directors of the Botanical Garden of the University of Sassari. Member of the scientific committee of the PNRR National Biodiversity Future Center and Co-Leader of Spoke on ecosystem function, service, and solutions. She was the Founder and President of the Italian Society for Climate Sciences. She served as Pro-Rector for Research and Technology Transfer (2011-2014) at the University of Sassari. She was appointed Regional Minister of Sardinia for the Protection of the Environment (2014-2019) and the Italian Conference of Regions Environment Commission coordinator. She has collaborated with the European Conference of Regions on Climate and Energy issues and as an agriculture and forestry expert for the European Topic Center on Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change (ETC / CCA). She was a member of the National Civil Protection Commission – Risk Forecasting and Prevention – Fire Section. It is actively involved in several EU, national, and regional projects and research aimed at assessing the impact and adaptation to climate change, identifying sustainable management strategies for agricultural and forestry systems, creating an integrated system for the quantification of the carbon cycle and the evaluation of mitigation strategies for food production, as well as the development of methodologies and support systems for sustainable management of water resources in agriculture and the assessment of fire risk in extreme weather conditions. She is a member of the Georgofili Academy and the Forestry Sciences Academy. 

      Mauro Lo Cascio, He will coordinate the fieldwork and the scientific study at the Italian case study site, monitoring the                effects of nature-based solutions. He will also be involved in the project result dissemination 

      Mauro Lo Cascio | Linkedin

He began his research on ecosystem responses to human impacts and drought during his Master’s studies at the University of Genova (2010) and continued to specialize at the University of Lisbon (2011–2014). For his Ph.D. at the University of Sassari (2014–2017), he explored the effects of nitrogen deposition and climate change on Mediterranean ecosystems. His thesis in agrometeorology and eco-physiology earned him a European Doctorate Label, acknowledging the international scope of his research. 

His current work is rooted in eco-physiology, focusing on water stress monitoring in Mediterranean tree crops using plant-based sensors and micrometeorological techniques, including eddy covariance and surface renewal. He also studies CO2 and energy fluxes in agricultural and natural ecosystems. In collaboration with the CMCC-Euro Mediterranean Center on Climate Change Foundation, he investigates tree biodiversity and the impacts of climate change on Mediterranean species, contributing to advancements in sustainable agriculture and ecosystem management. 

The Andalusian Institute of Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training (IFAPA) is a public research institute of the Andalusian regional government focused on agriculture, livestock, fisheries, food, and sustainable development. Its main activities involve research, experimentation, technological development, specialized training, and knowledge transfer in those areas. Its work, including participation in national and international research projects, a portal of training and transfer activities, and a web platform for knowledge transfer (Servifapa), are oriented to meet the demands of the rural and marine sectors. 

IFAPA | Website

Social Media 

• IFAPA | Facebook 
• IFAPA | X
• IFAPA | Youtube 
• IFAPA | Instagram 

Team Involved  

      Anastasio J. Villanueva, Coordination of WP5 (socioeconomic analysis) 

      UCO | Anastasio J. Villanueva 

      Orcid | Anastasio J. Villanueva 

      Research Gate | Anastasio J. Villanueva 

Senior researcher in agricultural and environmental economics and policy in the Dpt. of Agri-food Economics in the IFAPA (from 2019 on), in Granada (Spain). Most of his research concerns interdisciplinary analyses involving economic, social and environmental sciences, with a particular focus made on the economic valuation of non-market services associated with agri-food production, including both supply- and demand-side assessments. He has collaborated in numerous EU, national and regional research projects, which have been recognized at an international level, producing abundant scientific publications in renown journals (incl. ERAE, JAE, CJAE, EE, LUP, JEM, AgSys, among others), where he also has regular review activity. 

      Mª Pat. González-Dugo, Contribution to different WPs, and to the management of the Andalusian PDA 

      Google Scholar | Mª Pat. González-Dugo 

      Linkedin | Mª Pat. González-Dugo    

She holds a PhD. in Agricultural Engineering and is a research scientist at the  Dpt. of Agriculture and Rural Development at IFAPA. Her research focuses on understanding the spatial and temporal linkages between vegetation dynamics, productivity, and water availability, utilizing a combination of field observations, remote sensing, and models. Her work primarily focuses on agriculture and natural ecosystems in semiarid regions, with the broader goal of supporting management decisions under changing climate conditions and a specialized focus on applying remote sensing to complex savanna ecosystems. 

      Sergio Colombo, WP5 

      Google Scholar | Sergio Colombo 

      Linkedin | Sergio Colombo 

Sergio Colombo is senior researcher at the Agricultural Economics Department of IFAPA, Junta de Andalusia. His main research areas are environmental economics and policy, the econometrics of externalities control, modelling the production costs and the economics of rural development. Sergio’s recent research has focused on the use of stated preference methods for environmental valuation; on evaluating the efficiency of different policy instruments to achieve environmental targets; on modeling ecological-economic inter-linkages in olive grove. He has extensively published in the national and international literature, having authored more than 80 peer reviewed papers (52 in WOS). His research achieved a significant impact in the research community having being cited 1590 time according to SCI, My h-index is 24.

      Olexandr Nekhay, WP5 

      Orcid | Olexandr Nekhay 

      Linkedin | Olexandr Nekhay 

Senior researcher in agricultural and environmental economics and policy in the Dpt. of Agri-food Economics in the IFAPA (from 2023 on), in Córdoba (Spain). From 2013 to 2023 he worked as an Associate Professor at Loyola Andalucía University (Dpt. of Economics). Degree in Agricultural Business Management and Administration from the Dniepropetrovsk State Agrarian University (Ukraine) (2000), PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Cordoba (2008). Awarded with the Unicaja prize for agricultural research (2009). Subsequently, he has worked as a researcher for the European Commission (JRC-IPTS) during the years 2010-2012 working with general and partial equilibrium models focused on Agricultural Outlook simulations and free trade agreement between Ukraine and the EU. He has also worked as a researcher in the EU Seventh Framework Programme project ‘Community Based management of natural resources and environmental challenges in Latin America’ during the years 2012-2013. Researcher in topics related to the Common Agricultural Policy, international trade of agricultural products and agricultural economics, partial and general equilibrium models. He has multiple publications in JCR journals of international prestige, and has participated in several national and international scientific research projects related to agricultural economics, management of natural resources, international trade of agricultural products, economic forecasts of the economy at macro level. He was Technical Director of the periodic report Loyola Economic Outlook (economic forecasts recognized as one of the participants of the prestigious FUNCAS panel) from 2015 to the end of 2022. He got a recognition of two six-year research fellowships, the last one in 2021. 

The University of Extremadura (UEX) is the main public higher education institution in Extremadura (Spain). The UEx has more than 24,000 undergraduate and graduate students and another 8,000 students taking doctoral courses, its own degrees or continuing education. The personnel involved in this proposal are part of several EU funded projects such as AGFORWARD, AGROMIX, DIGITAF, RE-LIVESTOCK, RESIST and RE-LIVE. The UEX team focuses on the study of innovative practices to optimize production and resilience of extensive farms under water limited conditions and unpredicted heat events. The research group includes experts on AFS, plant production, soil water and nutrient dynamics, soil microbiology, carbon sequestration and other ES, GIS, RS imagery, new technologies applied to livestock monitoring and management, automatization, and data networks.

UEx | Website

Social Media 

• UEx | Instagram
• UEx | X

Team Involved

      Víctor Rolo, Principal Investigator 

      Orcid | Víctor Rolo 

Víctor is an associate professor of the Forestry Research Group at the University of Extremadura. His research focuses on characterizing the key processes that determine the functioning, productivity and persistence of managed wood-pastures and forests, to achieve a better understanding of ecological processes and improve the sustainability of these systems in a changing environment. He held postdoctoral positions at the Department of Forestry, Mendel University (Czech Republic; 2012-2014) and at the University of Pretoria (South Africa; 2014-2017). These positions allowed him to develop solid modelling and remote sensing skills. He has been involved in 12 research projects (five as PI), at regional, national, and international level. He has authored more than 60 papers, five book chapters and several outreach articles.  

      Gerardo Moreno, Team Member 

Gerardo is professor of Agrochemistry, Soil Science and Ecosystem Services at the Forestry School of the University of Extremadura (UEX), and researcher of the INDEHESA Unit (Institute of Research for Dehesa and Silvopastoralism). He is a specialist in agroforestry sciences, with a long experience in management for climate change mitigation and adaptation, focusing mainly on understanding the contribution of trees to the productivity, functioning and provision of ecosystem services of Iberian Dehesas. He has also a long experience working in European projects, outstanding projects as AGFORWARD (EU FP7; 2015-2018), BIOGEA (EU-H2020; 2017-2019), DIGITAF (HORIZON-CL6-2021-CLIMATE-01-08) and RELIVESTOCK (HORIZON-CL6-2021-CLIMATE-01-06) and in the INTERREG V-A/POCTEP PRODEHESA-MONTADO. He is author of 157 papers published in journal internationally recognized (SCI) in the area of Agriculture and Biological Sciences. 

      María Jesús Montero Parejo, Team Member 

      Orcid | María Jesús Montero

María Jesús is an Associate professor of surveying and GIS at the Forestry School of the University of Extremadura (UEX). Seh is a researcher of the INDEHESA Unit (Institute of Research for Dehesa and Silvopastoralism) and takes also part in the research group INNOVA of the UEx. She has postgraduate training and experience in Geographic Information Systems and Land Use Planning. She has been involved in 17 projects, contracts, or grants of research (one as PI), at regional, national, and international level. She has published 22 scientific publications. 

      Laura Fragoso Campón, Team Member

      Orcid | Laura Fragoso

Laura Fragoso is an Assistant Professor at the Polytechnic School of the University of Extremadura (UEX), member of the KRAKEN research group and is also a researcher at the InDEHESA Research Institute. She is a MSc Civil Engineering and teaches in the Hydraulic Engineering area of the Construction Department focusing on water resources management and fluvial engineering. The lines of her research have focused on the use of remote sensing in the study of the hydrological response of the territory and the evaluation of droughts. She has published 12 scientific publications and has been involved in several projects, contracts, or grants of research at regional (2), national (1) and international level (2). 

      Elia Quirós Rosado, Team Member 

      Unex | Elia Quirós

      Linkedin | Elia Quirós 

Elia Quirós is Associate Professor at the Polytechnic School of the University of Extremadura (UEx), member of the KRAKEN research group and is also a researcher at the InDEHESA Research Institute. She holds a PhD in Cartographic Engineering and teaches in the Department of Graphic Expression focusing on Remote Sensing and GIS. Her research has focused on the use of remote sensing in the study of the hydrological response of the territory and the evaluation of droughts. She is the author of 54 scientific publications, including 33 indexed articles. Among them, 8 relevant articles (publications in Q3/Q4 journals in JCR) and other 15 very relevant articles (publications in Q1/Q2 journals in JCR) stand out. In addition, she is the author of 4 books and 7 chapters. She is currently Principal Researcher at UEx in the European project RAT_EOS_PC on early warning networks for the detection (by Remote Sensing) of hazard risks derived from climate change in the border regions between Spain and Portugal. 

      Juan Carlos Giménez Fernández, Team member 

      Orcid | Juan Carlos Giménez

      Linkedin| Juan Carlos Giménez 

Dr. Juan Carlos Giménez Fernández holds a PhD in Forestry Engineering and a master’s degree in general and applied Hydrology. With 25 years of experience in academia and research, his expertise encompasses forest management, hydrology, and forest fire prevention. He has been involved in over 30 collaborative agreements and contracts with both public and private entities. Notably, he has coordinated projects securing over 1.3 million euros in funding. Dr. Giménez Fernández currently leads research initiatives focused on enhancing forest ecosystem services, optimizing water use within forest ecosystems, and improving landscape resilience to large-scale forest fires. In recent years, he has overseen the development of innovative technological tools, such as the “Sistema Extremeño de Análisis Territorial” (SEXTANTE). 

      Fernando J. Pulido, Team member 

      Mosaico | Fernando J. Pulido 

Dr. F. Pulido is Full Professor at the University of Extremadura and Vice-director of the Institute for Silvopastoral Reasearch INDEHESA. He is a specialist in forest ecology and management, as well as social innovation and governance of forest-dominated regions. He has coordinated projects from the programs Horizon Europe, LIFE, Interreg, Operational Groups AGRI, as well as several national calls. He is currently the coordinator of the initiative MOSAICO for fire prevention through multiple landscape management practices and have authored or co-authored 70 international articles and book chapters. He has also contributed to national and international policy reports on habitat conservation and fire prevention. 

The Agricultural University of Athens (AUA) is the third oldest university in Greece, after the University of Athens and the National Technical University of Athens (Metsovio). AUA offers high-level undergraduate and postgraduate Education and Research in Agricultural Science, and its vision is to achieve Educational and Research Excellence so as to occupy a dynamic position in the international academic environment.  The Department of Forestry and Natural Environment Management (FNEM) is located in the city of Karpenissi, prefecture of Evritania. FNEM participates in EU projects such as FP7, AGFORWARD (2014-2018), HE ECO2ADAPT (2022-2027), HE AF4EU (2023-2025), HE SUSSOIL (2024-2028) and HE DRYAD (2024-2028), to build a strong expertise in agroforestry, forest soils, forest ecology, dendrochronology, Mediterranean ecology and climate-resilient nature-based solutions. AUA FNEM researchers contribute to various tasks of these projects related to forest ecology, remote sensing, AF management practices and dendrochronology. In DRYAD the team will contribute by a DDR site. Through participation in several large EU projects on AF, AUA-FNEM has an extended network of stakeholders and will contribute to the dissemination and exploitation of results. With access to permanent experimental plots with several real-time monitoring infrastructures, AUA will also contribute by data recording.

University | Website

Department | Website 

Laboratory | Website

Social Media 

• Agricultural University of Athens | Facebook 
• Agricultural University of Athens | Linkedin 
• Agricultural University of Athens | Youtube

Team Involved  

      Anastasia Pantera, Team coordinator, DD

      AUA | Anastasia Pantera

ANASTASIA PANTERA is professor at the Department of Forestry and Natural Environment Management, Agricultural University of Athens in Karpenissi, Greece. She has a Doctoral diploma on Agroforestry from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and a M.Sc. diploma from Purdue University, USA on Forest Ecology and Biology. She has organised many stakeholders groups meetings throughout Greece on agroforestry. She has coordinated and/or participated in research projects on agroforestry (mostly silvopastoral), forest ecology, ecology and vegetation, environmental education, long-distance learning and MSc programs. She has taught courses on agroforestry, forest soils, forest ecology, and forest vegetation. She has over 130 publications in scientific journal, conference proceedings and books. She acts as scientific editor in two international scientific journals and many as reviewer. Since 1993 she is a member in the Honorary Scientific  (Honorary Society) American Company “Xi Sigma Pi”

      Andreas Papadopoulos, Team member, hydrology data 

      AUA | Andreas Papadopoulos 

Graduated from the Department of Forestry and Natural Environment of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1983, PhD in Ecology – dendroclimatology” from the University of Aix-Marseille III, France, in 1992 and holds a postgraduate degree (D.E.A.), specializing in Mediterranean Continental Ecosystems from the same University. His research interests include forest ecology, dendrochronology- dendroclimatology and agroforestry. He has served as President of the Department of Forestry and Natural Environment Management – TEI of Central Greece and the General Department of Agricultural University of Athens, Vice president of TEI Lamias and President of the Technological Research Centre of Central Greece. He has carried out, as coordinator and as a team member, a significant number of researches and studies and has published a significant number of scientific papers in international and Greek research journals and conference proceedings. He has a high citation indecx. He participates in EU and national research and educational programmes and is a member of scientific and advisory committees, acts as reviewer and as evaluator of research programme proposals. 

      Dimitris Zianis, team member, biomass expert 

      AUA | Dimitris Zianis 

Dr. Dimitris ZIANIS graduated from the Forestry Department of the Technological Education Institute of Kavala in 1997. He obtained his MSc degree in the University of Aberdeen (1999) and completed his PhD studies (2003) in Forest Ecology and Biometry in the Institute of Ecology and Resource Management (IERM, University of Edinburgh). 

He has participated in several research projects funded by national and European programmes (COST E21, FP6, FP7, INTERREG) and worked as a research fellow in the Finnish Forest Research Institute (METLA), the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (MAICh), the Greek Forest Research Institute (FRI), TEI of Kavala, and TEI of Larissa. He was employed as a forester (permanent position) in the Greek Forest Service in 2009 and in April 2016 he became a member of Laboratory staff in TEI of Thessaly. In 2021 he was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Forestry and Management of Natural Environment in the Agricultural University of Athens. 

He is the first author in 11 articles published in scientific journals, a co-author in two scientific papers and wrote two chapters for books related to Ecology. In total he has more than 1050 citations. His research interests focus on forest inventory and estimating net ecosystem productivity of forest resources using the following three approaches: Analysis of trees and stands based on fractal geometry; Spatial modeling of abiotic factors that affect forest productivity; Mechanical implications of tree growth and development. He is a reviewer for Forest Ecology and Management, Annals of Botany, Silva Fennica, Trees, European Journal of Forest Research, Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research and PLoS. 

      Palaiologos Plaiologou, team member fire management expert 

      AUA | Palaiologos Plaiologou 

      Weebly | Palaiologos Plaiologou

      Linkedin | Palaiologos Plaiologou

Dr. Palaiologos Palaiologou is a Geographer with a Ph.D. in Geography of Natural Disasters from the Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, Greece, working on wildfire effects and behaviour research. He holds a B.Sc. diploma in Geography and a M.Sc. in “Geography and Applied Geo-Informatics”, both from the University of the Aegean, Department of Geography. His research interests include post-wildfire effects assessment, landscape vegetation management and wildfire risk reduction, climate change and wildfires, coupled human and natural systems in fire-prone landscapes, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for forestry applications and WebGIS. He has been involved as research assistant in a number of national and EU-funded research projects on forest fires and natural disasters, in particular dealing with integration of new technologies into wildfire suppression efforts; his main project tasks included fire behaviour modelling (with FARSITE, BehavePlus and FlamMap), applied forestry, field data collection (pre-fire and post-fire), GIS analysis, remote sensing, thematic cartography, fire mitigation procedures and strategies, geographical databases development and management; along with considerable working experience on Remote Automatic Weather Station data processing, software operation and hardware maintenance. During his Ph.D., he was an Assistant Instructor on undergraduate and graduate courses of the Department of Geography, University of the Aegean from 2008 until 2014. During 2016-2018, he lived in the USA, working as a visiting scholar for the International Visitor Program of the US Forest Service, invited by Dr. Alan A. Ager, in collaboration with Portland State University and Oregon State University. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor at the Agricultural University of Athens, Department of Forestry and Natural Environment Management, in the field of Forest Protection.

      Stergios Tampekis, team member, GIS expert 

      AUA | Stergios Tampekis 

      Linkedin | Stergios Tampekis 

Dr. Stergios Tampekis, is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Forestry and Natural Environment Management, Agricultural University of Athens specializing in the field of forest operations engineering planning and management. I am particularly interested in interpreting, assessing and optimizing how humans affect the environment in forest operations planning and management, leveraging transitions towards Nature Based Solutions. With over a decade of experience, his professional journey includes roles such as Forest Operations Engineer in the Region of Epirus and the Eastern Attica Forest Research Station, focusing on forest road planning, wildfire management, and socio-ecological resilience. Dr. Tampekis holds a Ph.D. in Forestry and Natural Environment from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, earned with summa cum laude honors, alongside a Master’s and Diploma in the same field. Proficient in GIS, Python, and CAD, he has published extensively, with over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles and numerous conference proceedings. His work is recognized internationally, with distinctions such as THALES and PENED research fellowships and awards for academic excellence. Fluent in English and Greek, he continues to contribute significantly to advancing sustainable forestry practices and environmental management.    

FEUGA has a dedicated department of European Programmes, consisting of a team with more than 10 years of experience in EU projects. This department promotes the participation of research groups from the Galician universities and from industry in European and international research & innovation initiatives and actions through tailor-made advice. 

FEUGA | Website 

Social Media 

• FEUGA | X
• FEUGA | Facebook
• FEUGA | Linkedin
• FEUGA | Youtube 

Team Involved  

      Tamara Rodríguez Silva, WP6 Leader 

      Tamara Rodríguez Silva | LinkedIn 

Degree in Journalism from the University San Pablo CEU (Madrid, Spain), PGCert. in Audiovisual Communication, and PGCert. in Patents, Trademarks, Copyright and Competition both from University of Santiago de Compostela (USC, Spain). 

MSc. in Business Communication from University of La Coruña (UDC, Spain) and MSc. in Corporate Sustainability and Social Responsibility from National Distance Education University and University Jaume I Castellón (UNED and UJI, Spain). Certified by GRI on G4 reporting Guidelines. 

She is an expert on communication, innovation and sustainability with more than 10 years of experience in consultancy on entrepreneurship, culture, European funds at public and private entities with emphasis on SMEs development. 

Before joining FEUGA in September 2019, Tamara worked at several media and more recently at ACIS (Galician Agency for Knowledge and Health Innovation) and GAIN (Galician Agency for Innovation). ANIS (Spanish association health journalists) member. 

      Noelia Vilar Vidal, exploitation Manager   

Technology transfer manager (Innovation & Valorization) in the Innovation HUB of FEUGA, PhD in Physical Chemistry & nanotechnology. Degree in Chemistry (Physical and Organic chemistry), Msc. Advanced Chemistry (nanomaterials) from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC). More than 10 years of experience in several entities carrying out R&D activities, INL (International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory), CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) and SGG (Saint-Gobain Glass) among others, performing technical execution and management of R&D and innovation projects in public and private sectors in transversal fields to nano/material sciences covering diverse areas of development ranging from catalysis, biotechnology or building materials among others. 

Experience as IPR Manager in ongoing European Projects and related setting up start-up/SME businesses ideas, market entry and grown strategies support. 

Previously she has worked as R&D technology transfer project leader in the private sector being responsible of the management, IP strategy, benchmarking analysis and project definition of innovative R&D projects & products. Participation (technical development/ IP management) in more than 20 R&D international projects, 9 publications in peer-reviewed journals (ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0911-1677) and assistance to more than 20 scientific congress. 

      Joao Francisco Domingues de Azevedo, Innovation & EU Programmes Manager at FEUGA. 

B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and wood technology; Msc. (Eng) in Logistics of Biomass; Phd in Renewable Energy and Sustainability; Post doc in Circular Economy with specialization on large scale Industrial Symbiosis process implementation. Joao has an extensive research background in the field of renewable energies and applied circularity and a wide experience working in European and national R&D projects preparation and management. 

ICATALIST is a climate change adaptation and sustainability research consultancy founded in 2013. At Icatalist we believe in taking action that makes a real impact and we are ready to tackle challenges and achieve a more sustainable and resilient future in the long term. We respond to social and environmental needs through innovation and scientific knowledge; promoting solutions for collective well-being. We work for nature conservation, environmental protection, adaptation to climate change and a more just society. 

We have more than 10 years of experience in the sector and a specialised multidisciplinary team. Our team consists of people who contribute with very diverse profiles, knowledge and experience in fields such as ecology, geography, geology, technology, education, biology, psychology and environmental engineering, architecture and public policy. 

ICATALIST | Website 

Social Media 

• ICATALIST | Instagram
• ICATALIST | Linkedin 
• ICATALIST | X
• ICATALIST | Youtube 

Team Involved  

      Yara Shennan – Farpón. Project leader

      Yara Shennan-Farpón | Website

      Sara Shennan-Farpón | LinkedIn

Specialist in natural resource management and governance, participatory processes, conservation and restoration of ecosystem services, and environmental policy. He is interested in the consideration of human and socio-economic dimensions in environmental policy and management. 

      Cristina Cabrera Arjona, Researcher 

      Cristina Cabrera | Website

      Cristina Cabrera | LinkedIn

She has experience and interest in sustainability, climate change, biodiversity and science communication. She has carried out projects about different environmental topics highlighting her skills in cooperation, organization and transversality. She has experience and interest in sustainability, climate change, biodiversity and scientific communication. 

The Alentejo Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR-A) is a public institute included in the state’s indirect administration, which integrates the various public policies that pursue strategies to promote the integrated development of the territory. It is responsible for the development of Alentejo region (NUT II), for the development and strategic planning, environment and nature conservation, agriculture, fisheries, as well support for local authorities and their associations. As a regional entity responsible for some of the policies with direct impact in soil preservation, has been involved in several in some european projects related with soil preservation, soil erosion control and climate changes impact in soils and preservation of the agroforestry systems that represent the main traditional landscape in the Alentejo region. 

CCDRA | Website 

Social media: 

• CCDRA | Facebook
• CCDRA | Instagram
• CCDRA | Linkedin
• CCDRA | YouTube
• CCDRA | X

Team involved:

      Rosa Onofre, Team coordinator 

She is the Head of the Land-use Planning Unit at CCDRA. She has a degree in Economics from the University of Évora and she is currently attending the Master in Tourism and Development of Destinations and Products at the University of Évora. Since 2018, she coordinates the Forum of the Circular Economy of Alentejo (FECA), with the aim of contributing to a more circular and sustainable region. Currently coordinate some projects related to agrifood, mineral resources and land-use planning, Mission to Climat change. 

Manuel Júlio C. Mateus, Team member

BSc in Biophysics Engineering, has worked supporting municipalities developing capabilities in Geographic Information Systems, cartography and landscape planning. Since joined CCDR Alentejo, has worked mainly with subjects related to soil loss control, soil preservation, Querscus sp. death and diseases and the relation with agricultural practices and soil degradation. 

 Manuel Júlio | Linkedin

UNAC is a federation of forestry associations (ACHAR, AFLOBEI, AFLOSOR, APFC, ANSUB and Suberévera) that represents forestry producers with a strong focus in Mediterranean species, localized in Central and South of Portugal. UNAC acts in those forestry producers representation, spreading the news related with this type of forest, and participates also in R&D projects related with Mediterranean forestry. 

UNAC | Website

Social media 

• UNAC | Instagram
• UNAC | Linkedin
• UNAC | Youtube 
• UNAC | Facebook 

Team involved

      António Reis Pereira, UNAC team leader 

      António Reis | Linkedin

António Reis Pereira is presently the secretary general of UNAC, a federation of forestry associations focused on the promotion and R&D of Mediterranean forestry. In parallel, he is also a visiting professor at IPAM – Marketing Business School and a collaborating researcher of intelligent communication networks at INESC-INOV-Lab. António holds a Ph.D. in Engineering and Management from Instituto Superior Técnico, with a focus on the deployment of autonomous vehicles in urban areas. He also possesses an MBA from Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, an Erasmus program from Facultá di Agrária / Universitá degli Studi di Perugia, and a degree in Agronomic Engineering from Instituto Superior de Agronomia. As a commentator in national newspapers, António has recently focused more on Mobility-as-a-Service and autonomous solutions. He has published several papers in international scientific journals and has been an active speaker at industry conferences. 

Forestas is the Regional Forestry Agency for Land and Environmental Development of Sardinia. The Agency  manages over 200.000 hectares of forest land in Sardinia and was established by L.R. n.8 of 27/04/2016 (art.35); it’s a technical-operational structure of the Sardinia Region with legal personality under public law, has regulatory power and enjoys statutory, patrimonial, accounting and financial autonomy.

Forestas aim is to achieve the improvement, modernisation, and greater efficiency of forestry policies. In particular, Forestas addresses the need for innovation and valorisation, including economic and social valorisation, of the natural heritage and the goods produced in Sardinia. Forestas mission focuses on the management of forests and silvo-pastoral systems, biodiversity conservation, fire prevention and suppression, (bio)economic valorisation through the enhancement of the productive, recreational and cultural values of forests, as well support to research and innovation. The stands managed by Forestas consist largely of Mediterranean tree and shrub vegetation, such as Holm oak, Cork oak and Downy oak woodlands, in an overlap of coppice and high forest management, stands of artificial origin of conifers or broadleaf trees, and vegetation formations that are sometimes degraded to bare ground or shrubland in need of reforestation and reafforestation.

AG – FORESTAS | Website 

Social Media

• AG -FORESTAS | Instagram
• AG -FORESTAS | Facebook 
• AG -FORESTAS | YouTube 

Team involved 

Sara Maltoni, Project manager 

Sara Maltoni is Head of the Research and Cooperation office at the Regional Agency for Forests and the Environment of Sardinia (FoReSTAS), the regional government agency managing around 220.000 ha of forest land (https://www.sardegnaforeste.it/).  After an MSc in Environmental Science and Technology at Imperial College (University of London) and a PhD in Monitoring and Management of Mediterranean forest ecosystems (University of Sassari) she gained research experience at the National Research Council for several years, prior to entering the State Forest agency as a public officer in 2007. Her field of expertise mainly refers to research and cooperation projects in forestry, agroforestry and multi-resource environmental management in the Mediterranean.

      Paolo Casula, Technical responsible

Degree in Biology at the University of Cagliari, then specialized in ecology with one year visiting student at University of Massachusetts, Amherst and PhD at Imperial College London on agroecology. I’m now working on biodiversity monitoring, conservation projects of endangered species, and forest management. I’m interested in ecology and applied ecology, renewable resource management, sustainable fishing/agriculture/forestry, biodiversity conservation, organic farming, biological pest control, monitoring methods and statistical modelling.

      Alessandro Porrà, Responsible for communication

Degree in Political Science and Phd in History, Cultural Heritage and International Studies at the University of Cagliari. Takes care of activities pertaining to the communication of EU funded projects, produces drafted content and reports on project activities. Takes care of the dissemination and dissemination of results through publication in the Agency’s media organs and the project website.

FEDEHESA is a Spanish organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the dehesa ecosystem, a traditional agroforestry system unique to the Iberian Peninsula. The dehesa is characterized by a harmonious combination of pastureland and scattered oak trees, supporting diverse flora and fauna. FEDEHESA collaborates with landowners, farmers, and governmental bodies to implement sustainable land management practices that balance agricultural productivity with environmental conservation. Through educational programs, research initiatives, and policy advocacy, FEDEHESA aims to raise awareness about the ecological and cultural significance of the dehesa. The organization also supports traditional livestock farming and the production of high-quality, region-specific products, contributing to the local economy and preserving cultural heritage. By fostering sustainable development and responsible stewardship, FEDEHESA plays a crucial role in ensuring the long-term viability of the dehesa ecosystem for future generations. 

FEDEHESA | Website

Social Media

• FEDEHESA | Linkedin
• FEDEHESA | Facebook
• FEDEHESA | Instagram

Team involved 

      Maria Pia Sanchez Fernandez, Team leader 

      María Pia | Linkedin

María Pía Sánchez Fernández lives in Badajoz and holds a Law degree from the University of Salamanca. She is the founding President of the Spanish Dehesa Federation and manages her own certified organic Merino sheep farm. Combining her experience as a livestock farmer and her leadership role in the Federation, María Pía has been dedicated to promoting sustainable practices in the dehesa ecosystem since the Federation’s establishment.

      José Ramón Montoya Gutiérrez de Ravé, Team Member

     José Ramón Montoya | Linkedin 

José Ramón Montoya Gutiérrez de Ravé is an agricultural manager and engineer specializing in sustainable practices. As a European Projects Technician at FEDEHESA, he bridges research and field applications, focusing on carbon sequestration, livestock optimization, and climate change mitigation through initiatives like DRYAD. 

The Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) is an international non-profit organization, providing trusted solutions to help safeguard the world’s forests and tackle today’s deforestation, climate, and biodiversity challenges. 

Our mission is to promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests. Since its foundation in 1993, FSC has grown to become the world’s most respected and widespread forest certification system. 

FSC has a unique governance structure where members contribute directly to our standards and to the future of responsible forestry. The association brings together various stakeholders (private enterprises, NGOs, indigenous groups, educational institutions) sharing a common desire to improve the state of the world’s forests. 

FSC’s pioneering certification system, the world’s most trusted sustainable forest management solution, now covers more than 160 million hectares of forest, enables businesses and consumers to choose wood, paper and other forest products supporting responsible forestry. 

FSC Italy, representing the Organisation in the country, was founded in 2001 in harmony with the objectives of FSC International. 

FSC | Website 

Social media

• FSC | Facebook
• FSC | Instagram
• FSC | Linkedin
• FSC | YouTube 
• FSC | X

Team involved 

      Giulia Fanchin

      Giulia Fanchin | Linkedin

Giulia Fanchin is an environmental scientist specialized in sustainability and agroforestry. As an Ecosystem Services Technical Advisor at the Italian national office representing the international NGO Forest Stewardship Council, she promotes sustainable forest management, spreading the FSC certification scheme.

The main aim of the AlberItalia Foundation is to address and mitigate human-induced climate change using nature-based solutions and pursuing civic, solidarity and socially useful purposes. The Foundation’s activities are articulated through plantation projects, sustainable forest management, development of local supply chains, research, transfer and dissemination. We are convinced that in order to obtain the benefits that trees can provide us, there is one fundamental requirement we must refer to: that each tree is planted in the right place. Only in this way will we contribute to creating places where we can live better and at the same time help mitigate the climate crisis. We will support all those who want to plant trees with scientific and technical guidance, so that new forests, plantations and individual trees grow vigorously. We will endeavour to develop innovative projects that can be replicated by others and to foster collaborations and synergies with those who are interested in contributing to the same cause as us, which is, after all, everyone’s cause.

Alberitalia | Website 

Social Media

• Alberitalia | Facebook
• Alberitalia | Youtube
• Alberitalia | Linkedin 

Team Involved  

      Sergio Gallo, Replication Region in Tuscany and stakeholder engagement 

      Sergio Gallo | Linkedin  

Sergio Gallo is the General Manager of the AlberItalia ETS Foundation. A forestry doctor, he has worked in forestry, urban forestry, communication, and biodiversity conservation and development. He is also an expert in project and team management. 

      Solaria Anzilotti, Replication Region in Tuscany and stakeholder engagement

      Solaria Anzilotti | Linkedin 

Solaria, a forestry doctor with a master’s in Planning and Management of Forest Territory, Landscape, and Environment, focuses on integrating forestry, agroforestry, and regenerative agriculture to enhance ecosystems and support social well-being across urban and rural landscapes. Passionate about connecting nature and society, she is dedicated to sustainable projects that benefit both people and the environment. 

      Benedetta Cangialeoni, administrative employee   

      Benedetta Cangialeoni | Linkedin 

Benedetta Cangialeoni is the figure who takes care of the administrative part within the Foundation. Her studies in economics and her experience in a professional firm allow her to manage correspondence, electronic invoicing, payments and the administrative and accounting practices of the Foundation. 

Created in 2000, Agroof is a worker cooperative, specializing in agroforestry development. Agroof develops activities linking research to the field: research development, training, implementation of projects, audiovisual production. AGROOF was a partner of the SAFE, AgForward and Mixed European Projects.  

Agroof is participating in various research development projects, at different scale and has developed participatory methodology, especially in the different projects Agroof is coordinating (Arbratatouille, Agrobranche, Agroforestruie, Rame…). The finality of Agroof is to create link between all its activities: all the research projects include training, farmer’s projects, webtools, etc. In the coordination, Agroof gives a strong importance to the multi-actor approach. Agroof develop perennial links with farmers groups or association, included with a focus on economics and agroforestry adoption.  

From 2024, Agroof owns his own Experimental Site (Terres de Roumassouze) where different scientifical and technical activities are carried out on the field. 

Agroof is now a team of 12 persons involved these different projects. 

AGROOF | Website 

Social Media

• AGROOF | Facebook
• AGROOF | Linkedin
• AGROOF | Instagram
• AGROOF | Youtube 
• AGROOF | Vimeo 

Team involved:

      Fabien Liagre, will coordinate the Agroof Team in the project and will leader the activities on the RR2 Pays de Cévennes. He              will be in direct contact with the breeders associations (Baron des Cévennes). 

Fabien Liagre is the founder of Agroof Society. After a first experience in INRA and CIRAD (7 years), Fabien founded Agroof first in Spain (1996), then in France (2000). He coordinated various projects and based Agroof on a tripartite relationship (Research/Training/Project) and actively participated in the agroforestry development in France (co-founder of the 2 national agroforestry association in 2007), and is always implicated in regulation evolution at national and European scale. He is now coordinating the national project on Pigs and Agroforestry (AgroforesTruie founded by Ministry of Agriculture) and participates to two European projects (MIXED and AgroforAdapt).  

• Burgess PJ, den Herder M, Dupraz C, Garnett K, Giannit-sopoulos M, Graves AR, Hermansen JE, Kanzler M, Liagre F, Mirck J, Moreno G, Mosquera-Losada MR, Palma JHN, Pantera A, Plieninger T (2018) AGFORWARD project final report, 28 Feb 2018. Cranfield University: AGFORWARD. (PDF) Advances in European agroforestry: results from the AGFORWARD project. Available from: MIXED (page 71 of 93) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325672413_Advances_in_European_agroforestry_results_from_the_AGFORWARD_project. 

• Liagre F, Dupraz C, (2008). Agroforesterie, des arbres et des cultures. Guide pratique de l’agroforesterie qui associe arbres et cultures sur une même parcelle. Editions France Agricole, 417 p. 

• Hamon X, Dupraz C, Liagre F (2009). Agroforestry: a tool for carbon sequestration in agriculture. Report as part of Agroforestry CASDAR 09/11. 17p 

• Dupraz C, Liagre F, Querné A, Andrianarisoa S, Talbot G. (2011). Agroforestry can it reduce diffuse pollution from agricultural nitrogen? Report sought agreement No. 2009-0009. 118 pp. 
• Liagre F, Girardin N (2009). Agroforestry, producing differently. DVD documentary of 65 mn in HDV, AGROOF Productions.

      Camille Beral, will animate the activities on the microclimatic incidences in agroforestry and coordinates the scientific study            on the experimental site of Roumassouze. 

Camille Beral joined the Agroof Team in 2012 and is now in charge of the Research Activities. She is coordinating or co-animating two main projects linked with the actions of MIXED: Arbratatouille (Market Gardening in Agroforestry, founded by the Foundation of France) and RAME (Breeding Systems and Agroforestry in Mediteranean area). She also coordinated the national project about the Assessment of trees impacts in Breeding Systems (Parasol Project, founded by the ADEME Agency).  

• Cardinael R., Chevallier T., Cambou A., Béral C., Durand C., Barthès, B.G., Kouakoua, E., Dupraz, C., Chenu, C., 2017. Increased soil organic carbon stocks under agroforestry: A survey of six different sites in France. Agriculture, Ecosys-tems & Environment 236:243-255. 

• Cardinael, R., Hoeffner K., Chenu C., Chevallier T., Béral C., Ollivier M., Cluzeau D. Spatial dependence of soil organic carbon, abundance, biomass and diversity of earthworms in 15 temperate agroforestry systems. 

• Ginane C., Bernard M., Deiss V., Andueza Urra D., Novak S., Béral C., Emile J-C., 2018. Fodder trees as an alternative resource to feed ruminants: voluntary intake and in vivo digestibility of white mulberry (Morus alba) and common ash (Fraxinus excelsior) leaves in sheep. ISHN Abstract. 

• Hoeffner K., Cardinael R., Chenu C., Chevallier T., Béral C., Ollivier M., Cluzeau D. Spatial dependence of soil organic carbon, abundance, biomass and diversity of earthworms in 15 temperate agroforestry systems. International Symposium on Earthworm Ecology (ISEE). Shanghai (Chine) 
• Béral C., Andueza D., Moreau J.-C., 2018. Production fourragère herbacée en agroforesterie : résultats. Séminaire de fin du projet Arbele, 5 juin 2018, Bergerie Nationale, Rambouillet, 4p.

      Ambroise Martin-Chave, will coordinate the microclimate study on the whole RR2 and will be in charge of the data collection          and analysis. 

Ambroise holds a PhD in Biology in agroforestry context. In Agroof, he’s animating all the activities around biological control in complex and mixed system, in particular in agroforestry landscape. He coordinates the national project Arboreol which study the biophysical impact of the hedges on cropping systems. 

• Martin-Chave, A., Mazzia, C., Beral, C., Capowiez, Y., 2016. How agroforestry microclimates could affect the daily-activity of major predatory arthropods in organic vegetable crops? In: Gosme M. et al (Ed.), 3rd European Agroforestry Conference – Montpellier, 23-25 May 2016. EURAF, pp. 62–65 

• Martin-Chave, A., 2018. Facteurs de régulation naturelle des bio-agresseurs par les cortèges de prédateurs généralistes : effets microclimatiques dans un système maraîcher agroforestier biologique. Thèse Dr. 156. https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01945906 

• Martin-Chave, A., Béral, C., Capowiez, Y., 2018. Agroforestry has an impact on nocturnal predation by ground beetles and Opiliones in a temperate organic alley cropping system. Biol. Control. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocontrol.2018.10.009 

• Martin-Chave, A., Béral, C., Mazzia, C., Capowiez, Y., 2018. Agroforestry impacts the seasonal and diurnal activity of dominant predatory arthropods in organic vegetable crops. Agrofor. Syst. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-018-0309-4 

• Martin-Chave, A., Capowiez, Y., 2016. Agroforestry, microclimate and predation service: first field tries. Vème Journées de travail TEBIS. 

Other people invested in the project:

      Hélène Le Gallic, will be in charge of the training and communication activities in the project.  

      Valentin Laubriet, will be in charge of the monitoring of farm projects involved in Dryad. 

      Numa Faucherre, will be in charge of the monitoring of farm projects involved in Dryad. 

“Fundación del Patrimonio natural de Castilla y León” is a public foundation, depending on Castilla y Leon Government, linked to the regional administrative department for the management of environment. FPNCyL is performing the role of technical office to coordinate the accomplishment of regional government with the EU Mission Adaptation to Climate Change, and with the EU Circular Cities and Regions Initiative. FPNCyL is developing projects for the adaptation to climate change, co-founded by ERDF, at the framework of the Operational Program of the Region.  

FPNCyL | Website 

Social Media 

• Fundación Patrimonio Natural de Castilla y León | Linkedin 

• Fundación Patrimonio Natural de Castilla y León | X
• Fundación Patrimonio Natural de Castilla y León | Youtube

Team Involved  

      Laura Diez, Project co-leading and regional authority of RR1 in Castilla y Leon.     

      Laura Diez | Linkedin                  

She has experience and interest in sustainability, climate change and circular economy. She has carried out projects about different environmental topics, mainly climate change and circular economy, highlighting her skills in coordination and organization. 

The Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development of Andalusia oversees vital sectors such as agriculture, livestock, fisheries, water and rural development. Covering 17% of Spain’s territory and 2% of the EU’s, Andalusia is the country’s leading agri-food exporter, generating over €14 billion annually with products such as olive oil, fruit, vegetables and livestock, prioritising quality, safety and sustainability.

The ministry is promoting digital transformation and the circular bioeconomy within the agrifood value chain. In 2023, it introduced the Circular Economy Law, a landmark measure to promote the sustainable use of resources and combat climate change. It also coordinates the Andalusian Circular Bioeconomy Strategy, which focuses on resources, logistics, processing and markets, complemented by cross-cutting programmes in R&D+i, education, funding and collaboration.

Active in European projects such as ROBIN and ICT-Biochain and other cooperation projects, the Ministry promotes innovation and cross-sectoral collaboration. It also leads the S3P Agrifood initiative on traceability and big data to modernise and digitise the European agrifood chain.

CAPADR | Website 

Social media

• CAPADR | X
• CAPADR | Facebook
• CAPADR | Instragram 

Team involved 

      Mar Cátedra Cerón, Associated partner

Technical Advisor of the General Secretariat for Agriculture, Livestock and Food. Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development of the Regional Government of Andalusia.

She is responsible for the Andalusian Strategy of Circular Bioeconomy and Technical Coordinator of the Traceability & BigData Partnership in the agri-food value chain of the Sub-platforms of the Smart Specialisation Strategies of the European Commission. She holds a PhD in Agricultural Engineering from the Universities of Cordoba and Seville. She has been a lecturer at the Technical School of Agricultural Engineering of the University of Seville and currently participates as a guest lecturer in the Master’s Degree in Circular Bioeconomy and Sustainability at the Universities of Cordoba and Almeria. In her professional career she has combined institutional and academic work with various positions of responsibility since her incorporation as a civil servant of the Andalusian Regional Government, both within the IFAPA-Institute for Research and Training in Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Ecological Production, and later in the Central Services of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development.

In the field of the Circular Bioeconomy, he has promoted and participated in projects funded by the European Union, through the framework programmes for innovation and research, related to the digitisation of the agri-food sector and the circular bioeconomy, including, among others, the European ROBIN project on the implementation of circular bioeconomies at regional level with a territorial approach, INTERCOONECTA (Cooperation Programme with Ibero-America and AECID), on Circular Bioeconomy as a key element of innovation for the development of the new rurality, or POWER4BIO on the empowerment of regional stakeholders to take advantage of the full potential of the European bioeconomy. She has also participated as an expert in working groups, platforms and research projects, such as ZEROW on systemic innovative solutions against food loss and waste in the supply chain, SCALE_UP on the identification and development of innovative business models based on bioeconomy and with the creation of the Andalusian Bioeconomy Platform focused on the olive value chain, ATRESBIO on promoting value chains for bio-based products derived from olive biomass, horticulture and algae in Andalusia, BIOTRANSFORM on the assessment and development of policies to accelerate the linear transition to bio-based circular systems or PAGOSER, on payments for ecosystem services based on results.

      María Ángeles Blázquez Morales, Associated partner

A graduate in Agricultural Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, she is currently a Technical Advisor in the General Secretariat for Agriculture, Livestock and Food of the Regional Government of Andalusia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development (CAPADR).

Throughout her career in public administration, she has held various positions within CAPADR and previously worked in the Territorial Agricultural Delegation of Cádiz. Her roles have included intervention and market regulation technician, negotiator in the agribusiness service, agricultural production service technician, section head in the phytosanitary service and direct aid service technician.

Since 2017, she has been working as a Technical Advisor in the General Secretariat for Agriculture, Livestock, and Food, where she prepares reports on agricultural production and its impact on the natural environment, addressing aspects such as water, soil and climate change. Her work includes coordinating the monitoring of plans and strategies with different CAPADR management centres and different departments of the Andalusian Regional Government. She is also involved in the coordination of internal audits for the Ministry’s National Plan for the Official Control of the Food Chain and the processing of subsidies managed by the Secretariat.

COVAP, the Los Pedroches Valley Livestock Cooperative, has built an innovative agri-food model in its more than 65 years of history, integrating agriculture and livestock farming with a social and quality vision. With more than 2,000 members, COVAP stands out for its commitment to the economic and social development of its environment, promoting high quality products from the very beginning. What began as a union of producers has become a solid agri-food industry that successfully faces the new challenges of this sector. 

COVAP’s values, based on entrepreneurship, integrity, commitment and collaboration, guide its actions towards sustainability. Since 2000, the cooperative has increased its exports of dairy products, sheep and beef, and Iberian products, expanding to more than 40 countries and establishing subsidiaries in the United States and the United Kingdom. Internationalisation allows COVAP to diversify markets and continue to build on the value of its territory. 

COVAP | Website 

Social Media 

• COVAP | Linkedin 
• COVAP | Facebook 
• COVAP | X
• COVAP | Youtube

Team Involved  

      José Manuel Muñoz Fernández, Collaborator 

      José Manuel Muñoz | Linkedin

José Manuel holds a degree in Agri-Food Engineering and a Master in Digital Transformation of the Agri-Food Sector, both from the University of Cordoba. Throughout his work experience he has been able to work in different AgTech companies, focusing his work on issues of vital importance for the agri-food sector such as innovation, digitisation, efficiency and sustainability. Currently, he belongs to the innovation department of COVAP, where he is responsible for the area of agriculture, from here, due to its transversal nature, he participates openly in different projects of the company, demonstrating the skills and competences acquired during these last years.