The Institut Català del Suro Foundation is one of the partners of the PRIMA SureNexus project, coordinated by the UNESCO Chair of Sustainability at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia with 17 partners from 8 Mediterranean countries: Spain, Greece, Israel, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia, France and Egypt.

The demonstration project, which will last 36 months, vol create resilient agricultural systems and generate scientific and practical evidence on the transition in the development of the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems approach by optimizing water allocation in different sectors, combining with energy and food security to support regional and local development.

SureNexus will establish small-scale demonstration sites in different parts of the Mediterranean for innovative transformation solutions and evaluate their productivity and value to the local community, driving technology adoption and mindset change. One of the pilots of this Living Lab will tackle the vineyard and will be developed in Catalonia, in the region of Penedès. The Institut Català del Suro Foundation will work there developing a system for the purification and utilization of waste water in a winery using granulated cork by-products as a filtering medium.

The SureNexus proposal has been selected by the scientific evaluation committee and will be funded under the PRIMA European call: "Using knowledge about the management of the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems Nexus in the Mediterranean region: from concepts to the practical solutions".

Apart from the ICSuro Foundation, the project partners are: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – UPC, Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology-IRTA, Center for Agro-Food Economics & Development CREDA, National Technical University of Athens, Tinos Ecolodge, AGENSO, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael – Jewish National Fund, REM TEC, Polytechnic University of Marche, Planet Di Villa Alessandro & C SAS – Planet, Center Technique de Plasturgie et de Caoutchouc-CTPC, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique-INRA, Office National de l Electricité et de l'Eau Potable-ONEE, Société Agricole Innovante dans le Sud – Innovagrisud, Participatory Development Solutions (PDS) – ElMahrousa and UNESCO Water Division.

PHOTO: Unesco Chair of Sustainability https://www.unescosost.org/