Project 
Structure
Work Packages (WPs)
WORK PACKAGE 1 - Project management
The main goal of this work package (WP) is to ensure that the project meets all targets within the contractual timeframe and budget. The specific objectives are:
- To ensure strategic and technical coordination;
- To manage and monitor project resources (personnel, budget, equipment);
- To perform quality control and risk and data management;
- To perform project reporting to the Managing Authority;
- To sustain and facilitate regular communication within the consortium and with the Managing Authority;
- To manage innovation, intellectual property, and ethical issues generated during the project.
Leader: UNINA
Participants: All
Main tasks:
- Strategic and technical coordination
- Daily management and internal reporting
- Reporting to the Managing Authority
- Quality and risk control
- Data management plan
- Innovation management
- Management of intellectual property
WORK PACKAGE 2 - Exploitation, dissemination and communication
The main goal of this work package (WP) is to create awareness, visibility, and understanding of the new approach developed in MedInCircle to address the pressing challenges mentioned above. The specific objectives are:
- To define a robust plan for dissemination and communication to reach a targeted audience;
- To develop and fine-tune the appropriate tools to engage the MedInCircle spectrum of stakeholders;
- To create a network with other EU projects and related initiatives that share the same vision as MedInCircle;
- To analyze future markets, develop a business plan for the proposed technologies, and define the economic feasibility of the investigated processes;
- To closely monitor innovations arising from the project and encourage future research, patenting, and spin-off ideas.
Leader: IPGP
Participants: All
Main tasks:
- Dissemination plan and tools
- Communication strategy
- Stakeholder analysis, interviews, and networking
- Exploitation of the project results
WORK PACKAGE 3 - Development of a moving-bed membrane bioreactor (MBMBR) process treating rural wastewater and agricultural drainage water
The main goal of this work package (WP) is to develop an innovative MBMBR process capable of effectively treating a mixture of domestic wastewater, agricultural drainage water, and saline groundwater. The specific objectives are:
- To compare the performances of the proposed MBMBR to those obtained with a moving-bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) in terms of micropollutant removal and nitrate generation;
- To compare the filtration performances of nanofiltration (NF) or reverse osmosis (RO) for recovering water from agricultural drainage and saline groundwater for irrigation.
Leader: IMU
Participants: IMU and IYTE
Main tasks:
- Reuse of agricultural drainage water for irrigation using nanofiltration and reverse osmosis processes
- Desalination of groundwater for reuse in agricultural irrigation
- MBMBR and MBBR treatment of a mixture of domestic wastewater and NF/RO concentrate of agricultural drainage
- Design of full-scale NF/RO and MBBR and MBMBR processes
WORK PACKAGE 4 - Investigation of high-solid thermophilic anaerobic co-digestion of solid agri-food wastes and dewatered sewage sludge
The objectives of this work package (WP) are:
- To recover and valorize the nutrient content of agri-food wastes and dewatered sewage sludge of rural origin through their anaerobic conversion into high-quality semi-solid organic fertilizer;
- To investigate the organic feedstock composition and high-solid thermophilic anaerobic digestion (HSTAD) operational conditions that optimize the nutrient balance and fertilizing potential of the produced high-solid digestates, as well as biomethane production;
- To profile the produced organic fertilizer from a chemical and microbiological perspective to ensure crop safety and productivity.
Leader: IYTE
Participants: IYTE, UNINA, and NRC
Main tasks:
- Selection of suitable organic substrates and mixtures to produce nutrient-rich digestates via HSTAD
- Characterization and screening of selected HSTAD digestates in terms of nutrient potential, safety, and biological stability
- Enhancing the energetic valorization of the selected feedstocks in semi-continuous HSTAD digesters
- Production of osmoprotectant plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR)
WORK PACKAGE 5 - Treatment and valorisation of agri-food industry wastewater and side streams to produce slow-release fertilizing microbial biomass
The objectives of this work package (WP) are to:
- Screen and characterize the potential of typical Mediterranean agro-industrial side-streams and wastewater to support the production of slow-release fertilizing microbial biomass and biostimulants;
- Identify the operating parameters that maximize heterotrophic aerobic assimilation of carbon and nutrients into microbial biomass;
- Validate the use of direct nitrogen stripping to recover and valorize excess waste nitrogen during the treatment of high carbon-to-nitrogen ratio side-streams and wastewaters;
- Characterize the composition of the produced microbial biomass and evaluate different downstream processing techniques, including the production of microbial protein hydrolysate.
Leader: UNINA
Participants: UNINA and NRC
Main tasks:
- Screening and characterization of agro-industrial wastewater and side-streams
- Development of heterotrophic aerobic assimilation towards optimized fertilizing microbial biomass production
- Testing and validation of direct nitrogen stripping and upcycling combined with fertilizing microbial biomass production
- Characterization and downstream processing of the microbial biomass
WORK PACKAGE 6 - Monitoring of potentially toxic metals, trace elements, pesticides and other emerging organic pollutants
The objectives of this work package (WP) are to:
- Improve, develop, and validate analytical methods capable of quantifying the presence of regulated pollutants;
- Determine the extent to which the treatment and recovery processes developed in PRIMA prevent inorganic and organic pollutants from being found in the products and outputs that will be recovered;
- Compare the residual contaminant loads with European and/or national guidelines.
Leader: IC2MP
Participants: IC2MP and IPGP
Main tasks:
- Development, improvement, and validation of quantification methods
- Quantification of inorganic and organic pollutants in samples
- Risk assessment analysis
WORK PACKAGE 7 - Agronomic investigation of the developed innovations under relevant Mediterranean conditions
The main objective is to develop novel and efficient fertilizing strategies aimed at optimizing water, nutrients, and organic matter management under complex salinity scenarios while increasing the yield and crop quality of strategic vegetable and field crops in the Mediterranean region. The specific objectives are to develop and promote appropriate technical packages for agricultural production in a typical water-scarce and potentially saline Mediterranean scenario, as represented by Egypt.
The proposed work will thus:
- Optimize the exploitation of water and nutrient resources in marginal environments under climate change;
- Improve farming systems to achieve better management of organic matter;
- Develop and implement new irrigation and biofertilization protocols in a variety of saline agricultural conditions to maximize the utilization of natural resources while minimizing the potential contamination of water bodies due to contaminants of emerging concern.
This will be pursued by testing and validating the effects of novel ferti-irrigation, biofertilizers (liquid digestate and fertilizing microbial biomass), biostimulants (microbial biomass hydrolysate), and bioinoculants (PGPR) on selected representative vegetable and field crops.
Leader: NRC
Participants: NRC, UNINA, IMU, and IYTE
Main tasks:
- Assessment of new ferti-irrigation and fertilization technologies/strategies performance for tomatoes compared to current practices
- Assessment of new ferti-irrigation and fertilization technologies/strategies performance for barley compared to current practices
WORK PACKAGE 8 - Process integration and validation at semi-pilot scale
The overarching aim of this work package (WP) is to validate the innovations developed in other WPs and promote their integration at a semi-pilot scale. To this end, the following objectives will be pursued:
- Set up and operate the single innovations at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4-5;
- Combine these technologies and processes in a relevant environment;
- Support the design of the methodological approach to assess the techno-economic and environmental feasibility of the proposed innovations.
Leader: UNINA
Participants: All
Main tasks:
- Scale up of the MBMBR technology
- Scale up of the HSTAD treatment
- Scale up of the heterotrophic aerobic assimilation process
- Process integration and data generation for the feasibility assessment
WORK PACKAGE 9 - Economic and environmental analysis
The objectives of this work package (WP) are:
- To perform a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) of the developed processes and innovations in relation to conventional water, nutrient, and organic matter management and agronomic practices;
- To perform a techno-economic analysis (TEA) of the developed processes and innovations to identify their projected cost-benefit profile;
- To define the environmental and economic aspects that deserve further improvement in order to drive the future upscale of the MedInCircle platform;
- To propose a methodological approach to consider the influence of governance framework conditions at the water basin level.
Leader: UNINA
Participants: All
Main tasks:
- Comparative LCA of the MedInCircle platform and conventional practices
- Techno-economic analysis
- Methodological approach to address site-specific governance framework conditions