Vinny Project
What is VINNY?
VINNY is a highly innovative 4-year European Comission funded Project dedicated to transforming viticulture into a fully sustainable agriculture. How? By developing eco-friendly nanobiopesticides and nanobiofertilizers from grapevines and organic industrial by-products. The goal is to promote healthier grapes and soils, using sustainable methods and products.
VINNY main objective is to develop vineyards sourced biopesticides (BP) and biofertilisers (BF) for the European vineyards. The novel actives will be further encapsulated into nano - biodegradable matrices, yielding enhanced effectiveness, and slow release.
The viticulture sector
Viticulture is a key agricultural sector in the EU, accounting for 45% of global wine-growing areas, 64% of wine production, and 48% of wine consumption in 2020. It is also the largest agri-food sector in terms of exports.
However, the sector faces a significant challenge, as it heavily relies on chemicals to combat the vulnerability of vineyards to fungal and bacterial diseases. The incidence of these pathogens is increasing, particularly due to climate change, leading to substantial impacts on grape production. This, in turn, heightens the need for chemical fertilizers, which are costly and harmful to both the environment and human health.
Vinny's Main Objectives
grapevine derived actives and industrial side-streams based biofertilisers.
Develop new eco-friendly nanobiopesticides and nanobiofertilisers coupled with nanoencapsulation technologies.
Develop agrotextiles impregnated with nanoBFs.
Test nanoBP and nanoBF efficacy and safety in vitro and in planta.
Validate their performance in 5 different vineyards from 5 different geographical areas.
Ambition
The Project is in line with the Commission Directives, which outlines that agrochemicals use should be decreased towards the objectives of the Farm to Fork strategy, achieving 50% reduction of hazardous chemicals. VINNY's main ambition is thus to replace or, at the very least, reduce conventional agrochemicals by 50% to mitigate their harmful effects on soils, plants, and the environment by using VINNY’s nanoBPs and nanoBFs as alternatives.