Uxafores

This year UXAFORES has once again received financial assistance in the competitive reference research group modality within the Regional Government of Galicia’s call for applications to the programme for consolidating and structuring competitive research units. The grant is for the period 2022-25 and provides basal financing that covers needs not covered by other projects, such as maintaining this website. This is the fifth grant of its kind that UXAFORES has obtained (previously as UXFS) since these grants first became available in 2006.

 

Two new projects directed by UXAFORES researchers have been approved in the latest resolution of the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) for Projects aimed at Knowledge Generation in the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2021-2023.

“Environmental problems related to use of ionophore antibiotics in animal production: Diagnosis, sorption-desorption, effects on microorganisms, and control by bioadsorbents” directed by Esperanza Álvarez and Avelino Núñez. Ionophore antibiotics are widely used in veterinary medicine by the poultry and rabbit production sectors to treat coccidiosis, a parasitic disease that causes important economic losses around the world. These drugs are very toxic for humans and could be incorporated into the soil through manure or slurry used as fertilizer, and thus pass to crops, water and the food chain. With this project the researchers aim 1) to determine the levels of ionophore antibiotics in slurry, soils, crops and water in different Galician livestock areas; 2) to study the dynamics of these drugs in the soil (degradation, transport, adsorption-desorption process) as well as their effects on soil microbial communities; 3) to investigate control measures that prevent the drugs passing though the water and trophic chain, including the use of by-products that could act as bio adsorbents.

“Valorization of agri-food waste to produce organic fertilizers to overcome the environmental and socioeconomic challenges associated with the dairy sector in Northern Spain (AgrOres)”, directed by Agustín Merino García, seeks to address the environmental and economic challenges in the Spanish agri-food sector such as waste management, dependence on mineral fertilizers, over-exploitation of land and loss of competitiveness due to energy costs. In the Atlantic area, the project focuses on reducing the environmental impacts associated with the application of large amounts of cattle slurry to grassland and to improve intensively managed arable soils, which are mainly used for growing corn and cereals.

 

Three projects directed by different companies and in which UXAFORES researchers are participating have been approved within the Call for Grants for projects conducted by the EIP-Agri Operational Group, funded by the Regional Government of Galicia and cofunded by EAFRD: “Increasing mycological production in Galician pine forests COGOMELOS+” (UXAFORES participants Roque Rodríguez, Juan G. Álvarez, Esperanza Álvarez, Ana Isabel Barreiro, María L. Fernández, María J. Fernández, Avelino Núñez and Alberto Rojo); “Development of elicitors of defense in country chestnut (GO DELICAS)”(UXAFORES participant María Josefa Lombardero) and “BIOMAIS CO2” (UXAFORES participant Ulises Diéguez).

 

The LIFE+ project entitled “LIFE Wood For Future- Recovery of Granada-Vega poplar groves to boost biodiversity and long-term carbon capture through structural bioproducts” coordinated by the University of Granada with the participation of PEMADE began last year. Further information and results obtained to date can be consulted in the project website.