Soil Science Laboratory (SSLab) - UNIVERSITY OF PATRAS
The Soil Science Laboratory (SSLab) is part of the Dept. of Agriculture of the University of Patras (UPATRAS). SSLab is member of the Global Soil Laboratory Network (GLOSOLAN) was officially established within the framework of the Global Soil Stakeholder (GSP) Initiative at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is member of GLOSOLAN under FAO and plays a regional key role in promoting Soil Science, networking with research institutes, farmers associations, NGOs, Policy Makers and is dedicated to promote the implementation of the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection (Soil Thematic Strategy (COM(2006)231), adopted by the Commission with the objective to protect soils across the EU.
The Soil Science Laboratory is leading or has participated in many National or European co-funded projects, thus a concrete experience in project management and transnational cooperation has been established (ETCP GR-IT 2007-2013 IRMA project, FP7 EUROLEGUME, AGROTRACE, SOILSYS, HYDRERO, OPORA, ETCP GR-IT 2014-2020 TAGs, IR2MA project, ERASMUS NEGHTRA project, SMARTGREEN etc.).
Adopting multidisciplinary Soil Science approach with artificial intelligence, computer vision, sensor networks, and robotics, is steering farmers integrate and leverage data to improve and manage their farm under soil sustainable practices. Member of the Laboratory of Soils invented the automatic portable and digital calcium carbonate measuring instrument practicable for soil samples – A device characterized by incorporated temperature – counter balancing means, potential communication and location of the geographical position of the measurement”, Greek Industrial Property Organization (OBI), Patent No. GR1008089 (B) ― 2014-01-21, Int. Cl. G01N33/24; G01N7/18 (valid until 20-10-2032) (WO2014060782 A1).For the management of the various projects –and according to Greek legislation- a special department known as “Research Account” (http://research.upatras.gr) is operating in the framework of UPATRAS. Using this approach, UPATRAS has already implemented numerous EU and nationally funded projects.
