nir-vana innovation network

A Spanish biotech start-up founded in 2016 has developed a technological platform able to profile the functions of a whole spectrum of soil microbes, combining DNA sequencing technologies and intelligent computing. This technology is being used worldwide and is the most advanced technology for soil analysis. This technological platform uses the largest database of soil microbes.

Generating data on biological activities happening in the soil is extremely disruptive and while the results are crop specific, the process is currently being applied to a huge number of crops. These data can be used to adapt agricultural management decisions in order to reduce agricultural inputs and their environmental impact.

Biological soil analysis provides insights and innovative metrics that measure soil microbiome (both bacterial and fungal species) to improve agricultural yields and lower the environmental impact of agricultural processes. It provides information about the health status of crop soils as well as metrics on general biodiversity, nutritional shortcomings and crop disease risks through the identification of the whole soil microbiome.

The company is seeking partnerships to participate in projects that aim to perform pilot tests related to testing the effects of agricultural input, monitoring soil health status, benchmarking farming practices, measuring disease risks or any other experiment related to soil health.

Therefore, cooperation with farmers, agronomists, companies manufacturing agricultural inputs and other agents related to agriculture sector is envisaged in terms of commercial agreements and/or license agreements. Furthermore, agreements for research cooperation with the same partner types (e.g. European projects) are desirable.

Advantages & innovations

This is an innovative strategy that can be used directly by farmers to optimise agricultural management decisions in their fields and thus, reduce the excessive use of agricultural inputs and their environmental impact. It also can be used by agricultural manufacturers to obtain very accurate data about the agricultural inputs they produce that are intended for use in the agricultural sector. Combining the biodiversity with the functional bioactivity of soil microbiome allows the microbial network models that can be directly applied into the soil to be improved in order to predict the real needs, namely supplying the correct amounts of nutrients and crop protection products. Others innovations and advantages are: - Full microbiome profiling: identification of all the bacterial and fungal species populating the soil. - Most complete database/reference of microbes and soil microbiome profiles for different crops. - Non-targeted discovery of soil microbes. - Measurement of biological activities in the soil. - Estimation of disease risks. - Ecological properties of the soil.

Stage of development

Already on the market

Partner sought

- Type: academic, researchers, farmers, agronomists, companies manufacturing agricultural inputs and other agents related to the agriculture sector. - Activity & fields of expertise: 1. Carbon farming a. Carbon footprint in agriculture b. Soil carbon sequestration 2. Soil-plant-microbial interactions: a. Plant nutrition b. Plant diseases c. Stressed agriculture management 3. Types of soil and suitable crops 4. Recover and maintain Soil Health 5. Impossible soils a. Aquaponics b. Planting in space c. The economics of soil health 6. Agriculture improvements practices in Latinamerica, Africa, India or Asia. - Role: Partners interested in recovering soil health using the platform are sought. A commercial agreement with technical assistance or a license agreement are envisaged. Research cooperation agreements, for developing new sustainable agriculture practices, are sought for collaborating in European projects.