Water scarcity and food production are some of the greatest challenges of our times. Fresh water resources in many countries are vulnerable due to their biogeographical and climatic characteristics. Moreover higher water consumption and higher human impacts in the downstream water bodies is leading to a higher eutrophication with increased incidence and intensity of cyanobacteria blooms and their toxins. The scarcity of clean water resources leads to the compulsory use of water containing cyanobacteria and their toxins in agriculture. This project aims through Research and Innovation Staff Exchange to map agricultural risk areas of cyanotoxin occurrence in consortium member countries, to access the fate of cyanotoxins in crops as also bioaccumulation in crops and food contamination related to the use of eutrophic waters in irrigation. Environment-friendly, low-cost techniques of water treatment will also be developed, and methods to detect and assess toxicity of cyanotoxins improved. This project seeks to integrate the activities already developed by the partners, and develop new multidisciplinary activities which could lead to the maximization of the research and foster the creation of knowledge in the domains of water toxicology, food safety and eco-technologies of water treatment. The main innovation aspect of this project rely on the multidisciplinary approach to the subject under study, which is expected to contribute to the elucidation of the minimum quality requirements applied to the irrigation waters. The integration of countries with different weather regimes and agricultural practices in one single project will constitute a unique approach to this subject and to consolidate the transnational collaborations. The expected results will be delivered as guidelines for water management and treatment and will contribute to the implementation of a more sustainable and safe agriculture in Europe and worldwide.

The growing presence of hazardous compounds in the environment such as persistent organic pollutants compromises the health of ecosystems and humans worldwide. The spontaneous ecological recovery of contaminated sites is possible due to the action of biological agents, including plants and microorganisms. The exploitation of the capability of the latter to transform toxic contaminants into harmless end-products can lead to cheap and sustainable bioremediation alternatives. However, the significant knowledge gap on the molecular mechanisms and microbial species responsible for an efficient detoxification of specific pollutants in determined environmental conditions is a burden slowing down the development of efficient microbial assisted bioremediation technologies. BIOREM is an integrated action conformed by experts in microbial systems biology, artificial intelligence tools and environmental sciences that will work together to gain knowledge in the identification of responsible microbial metabolic routes within natural and synthetic consortia for the degradation of target contaminants. The project through inter-sectorial and multidisciplinary training and collaboration will investigate the synergetic effect of different and combined bioremediation strategies, such as bioaugmentation, bioestimulation and microbial-assisted phytoremediation, stablishing links between effective pollutants removal and the responsible microbial pathways. Predictive models for TPHs and PAH remediation will be developed using High-Perfomance Computing (HPC) and Artificial Intelligence to enhance the efficiency of bioremediation strategies by enabling the analysis of vast amounts of environmental data. The integration of the project information (key microbial players and environmental conditions) into mathematical models will allow the establishment of tailored and efficient removal strategies based on the chemical composition and natural microbiome presence in polluted sites.