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MAGIC

MArginal lands for Growing Industrial Crops: turning a burden into an opportunity
Logo del progetto magic
Classification: 
international research
Programme: 
Horizon 2020
Call: 
H2020- Call RUR-2016-2017 - Marginal lands for Growing Industrial Crops: Turning a burden into an opportunity
Main ERC field: 
Life Sciences
Unict role: 
Partner
Duration (months): 
48
Start date: 
Saturday, July 1, 2017
End date: 
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
Total cost: 
€ 5.999.987,50
Unict cost: 
€ 268.250,00
Coordinator: 
Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving - CRES (Grecia)
Principal investigator in Unict: 
Salvatore Cosentino
University department involved: 
Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment
Participants: 

University of Bologna (Italia) - Wageningen Research and Wageningen University (Paesi Bassi) - University of Hohenheim (Germania) - INRA (Francia) - Imperial College (Inghilterra) - University of Lisbon (Portogallo) - CIEMAT (Spagna) - CREA (Italia) - Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (Polonia) - Agricultural University of Athens (Grecia) - Institute of Bioenergy Crops and Sugar Beet Academy of Agrarian Sciences (Ucraina) - Latvian State Forest Research Institute (Lettonia) - International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Austria), IFEU (Germania) - Nova-Institute (Germania) - ARKEMA (Francia) - Agri-food Cooperatives (Spagna) - BioWarmia Bioenergy & Bioresources (Polonia) - BTG (Paesi Bassi) - NOVABIOM (Francia) - Vandinter Semo (Paesi Bassi) - BIOS AGROSYSTEMS (Grecia).

Abstract

This 4-year project aims at promoting the sustainable development of resource-efficient and economically profitable industrial crops grown on marginal lands, considering that industrial crops can provide valuable resources for high added value products and bioenergy.

To achieve the project objective, an up-to-date database of existing resource-efficient industrial crops will be developed with information on their agronomic characteristics, input requirements, yield performance and quality traits for end-use applications.

The impact of MAGIC will be maximized by integrating sustainability aspects (covering environment, society and economy) of the value chains.

Success stories of industrial crops in EU regions will be analysed addressing technical, environmental, economic and social issues to produce policy recommendations and best-practice guidelines for their promotion at local/regional level. The project results, database, maps and the DSS tool will be used as dissemination tools to increase farmers’ awareness and establish strong links with EIP AGRI.