We are thrilled to officially announce the launch of AYUMI (Advancing sYstems for sUstainable food processing and circular water Management for Irrigation), a 48-month Horizon Europe project co-funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement No. 101287078.
To mark the beginning of this transformative journey, our consortium of 18 partners from across Europe and Egypt gathered in the historic city of Turin, Italy, hosted by our project coordinator IRIS srl at the Museo della Montagna.
Check out our official Kick-Off Meeting recap video below:
Overcoming Barriers to Agricultural Water Reuse
Agricultural water reuse across Europe and the Mediterranean remains largely marginal. The bottleneck isn’t a lack of innovative technology, but rather deep-seated systemic barriers:
- Fragmented Governance: Unclear permitting pathways and lack of harmonized risk frameworks.
- Weak Economic Incentives: Ad-hoc pricing models that fail to capture the true value of reclaimed water and nutrients.
- Trust & Safety Concerns: Uncertainty among farmers, regulators, and consumers regarding food safety, long-term soil health, and emerging contaminants.
AYUMI is designed as a direct, system-scale response to these challenges. We aren’t building isolated prototypes—we are embedding modular, TRL 7-8 treatment chains directly into operational infrastructures across Europe and the Mediterranean.
Demonstrating Impact Across 5 Socio-Climatic Living Labs
To prove basin-scale adoption, AYUMI is deploying and validating real-world solutions across 5 distinct socio-climatic demo sites:
- Italy (Apulia Region): Demonstration activities on agricultural water reuse, with operational and utility expertise provided by Acquedotto Pugliese S.p.A. (AQP).
- Spain (Aragón Region): Decentralized, modular treatment chains serving rural WWTP nodes.
- Germany (Braunschweig): Long-running, full-scale reuse scheme acting as an advanced monitoring and Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) benchmark.
- Egypt (Nile Delta): Large-scale, arid-zone precision fertigation for export horticulture and crop resilience.
- Greece (Crete Island): Smart water-quality management for alternative sources in island ecosystems.
Over the next 48 months, our multi-disciplinary team will work hand-in-hand with farmers, water utilities, regulators, and consumers through local Living Labs. Together, we will deploy AYFlow, a smart digital platform for real-time monitoring, traceability, and strategic basin-scale modeling; develop True-Cost Tariffs, monetizing externalities like avoided synthetic fertilizers and reduced CO2 emissions; and establish Open Science Data Rooms, providing transparent, FAIR datasets, capacity-building kits, and training opportunities for operators and regulators.
Stay tuned to our website and LinkedIn channel for regular updates, open science data releases, and upcoming webinar announcements!