Projects - dr. M (Mirta) Alessandrini PhD
TOLERATE EU Project (Horizon Europe; 2023-2027)
The project aims to improve plant drought tolerance via soil bio-augmentation with rhizosphere soil bacteria engineered to produce drought-beneficial traits. The consortium will express ancient genes from past geological times that have already experienced climate change and extreme heat and drought events. In parallel, it will also explore their biotechnological potential for bioproducts with novel or enhanced functionalities. Specifically, starting from a unique collection of paleo-environmental samples (frozen Arctic soils and sediments) and their corresponding ancient DNA (aDNA) metagenomes, that stretch back up to a million years, the consortium will retrieve information on how rhizosphere biodiversity and functionality responded to climate changes and extreme events. The legal assessment will involve conducting regulatory evaluations of the procedures to ensure the proper authorization and safe use of the engineered soil bacteria.
SMARTCHAIN (H2020 project; 2018-2021)
The project promotes innovation in the short food supply chains (SFSCs), fosters rural development with a multi-actor approach, and provides pioneering solutions to concrete problems. My role is to contribute to providing legal and policy recommendations to overcome regulatory barriers and positively influence sustainable food production and consumption. Recommendations concern the SFSCs legal definition, the concept of “intermediary”, the cooperation among primary producers, the environmental impact of SFSCs, the flexibility within the Food Hygiene Regulation and the training of small farmers.