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05/04/2021

The VISCA project, key to the EU’s new climate adaptation strategy

The VISCA project, with the participation of IRTA, has been selected by the European Commission as one of the 11 key projects in the new climate adaptation strategy of the European Union (EU). Specifically on “sustainable and resilient production of wine, pasta and oil”. You can see the publication here: Key contributor to the new EU climate adaptation strategy.

The EU’s new strategy, with the stated objective of “Building a climate-resilient Europe”, lays the foundations for more ambitious action on climate change. This new strategy aims to make adaptation smarter, more systemic and faster. It is a cornerstone of the European Green Deal and complements the proposed Climate Law and the Climate Pact, but also other initiatives such as the Biodiversity Strategy, the Renovation Wave, the Farm to Fork Strategy, the upcoming Forest Strategy and the Renewed Sustainable Finance Strategy.

For a more resilient viticulture

The issue addressed by the VISCA project is clear: climate change is already here, and it is affecting (and will affect), among many other things, vineyards and wine production. Horizon magazine already addressed this issue in March, with a reference to the VISCA project:

The VISCA project, co-funded by the H2020 programme, was developed between 2017 and 2020. It created a “decision support system” (VISCA DSS) that integrates climate, agricultural and vineyard management services to help the agricultural sector become more resilient to climate change. VISCA DSS proved its usefulness through demonstrations with European wine producers in three experimental fields (Codorniu in Spain, Mastroberardino in Italy and Symington in Portugal), where new agronomic adaptation techniques, forced cultivation techniques and shoot trimming were tested.

How does VISCA DSS work?

VISCA (Vineyards Integrated Smart Climate Application) is an R&D project co-funded by the Horizon 2020 programme with a total budget of 3.20 million euros, developed between 2017 and 2020. The project consortium was led by Meteosim and had 11 members from different areas of industry and research, including IRTA. You can find more information about the VISCA project on its website: visca.eu.

The VISCA project team