With the support of ECONUTRI and previous research projects, the AUA team has developed a decision support system (DSS) named NUTRISENSE to support sustainable fertilization, thus contributing to a reduction of nutrient losses and fertiliser consumption in horticultural crops, as well as to a more sustainable management of water resources.

This DSS was developed by utilising two key exploitable results (KERs) of the ECONUTRI Project. These KERs according to the GA are:

• NUTRISENSE: advanced version available on-line on subscription basis to optimise fertigation (KER2),
• Hyperspectral analysis algorithms for estimating nutrient needs (KER3).

To commercially exploit NUTRISENSE as professional DDS, the AUA team of ECONUTRI founded a spinoff company named NUTRISENSE PC (https://nutrisense.online). NUTRISENSE PC was founded in January 2024. Currently, the professional services of the DSS NUTRISENSE are provided via the above referenced webpage on subscription basis (current TRL 8).

The company has already over 50 professional users, mainly from Greece but also from other countries, including China, as it is available in three languages, i.e., English, Greek, and Chinese.

The NUTRISENSE DSS comprises two versions, one for soil-grown crops (SOIL NUTRISENSE) which is associated with the KER2, and one for soilless cropping systems (SOILLESS NUTRISENSE), which is associated with KER3.

SOIL NUTRISENSE can be used to calculate optimal fertigation formulae for soil-grown crops tailored to the crop needs, taking into consideration a soil analysis and the mineral composition of the water. These fertigation recommendations can be updated whenever a new soil analysis is available.

SOIL NUTRISENSE as a DSS is an intellectual property of AUA developed within the framework of Task 3.2 of ECONUTRI (KER1). SOIL NUTRISENSE will be further improved and upgraded during implementation of ECONUTRI, based on new results obtained from the project.

The SOILLESS NUTRISENSE is the version of NUTRISENSE DSS that has been designed for use in open and closed-loop soilless cropping systems. This version of NUTRISENSE was existing before commencement of ECONUTRI (but not commercially exploitable via the private company NUTRISENSE PC) to calculate NSs based on desired characteristics given as target values and readjust their composition during the cropping period after chemical analyses of the drainage solution (fertigation effluents).

Currently, an advanced option within SOILLESS NUTRISENSE is developed within the framework of Task 3.3 of ECONUTRI to automatically readjust the nutrient supply in closed-loop soilless cropping systems utilising data from ion selective electrodes (ISEs). This version, which is based on the KER3, is not commercially available yet but the plan is to exploit it commercially via the SOILLESS NUTRISENSE after completion of pilot tests aiming to validate it at relevant environment.