Partner description
AGES is a government owned agency with a public mission and a research organisation attached to the Federal Ministry for Health and to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management. Key responsibilities of AGES are food safety, agriculture and food security, nutrition, food quality and public health. AGES employs 1,400 staff at 5 main locations. The department for Soil Health and Plant Nutrition is responsible for soil and fertilizer analysis, including contaminants, soil monitoring tasks in the context of sustainable plant production as well as for national fertiliser control. AGES – including its former organisations - has been conducting long-term field experiments since 1954.
Website: http://www.ages.at
Role in the project
AGES will contribute to WPs 2, 3, 5 and 8. We will participate in the development and harmonisation of monitoring methods (WP 2), will be responsible for case study site 9 in the Alpenvorland (Austria) and contribute with results of a long-term compost field experiment (WP3). Moreover, we will contribute to the definition of laboratory analyses and be responsible for Task 3.5. In this task an app will be developed for macro plastics monitoring in the European farming landscapes. In WP 5, we will contribute to the assessment of the impact of MP/NP on soil chemical properties, soil fertility and crop productivity (WP 5). Furthermore, we will be involved in the dissemination and communication strategies of the project (WP 8).
Persons involved
PD DI Dr. Heide Spiegel is a Senior Scientist at the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), Austria and lectures at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU Vienna) on the subject “Soils and Global Change”. She works on monitoring the effects of different soil management on soil properties related to nutrient (especially nitrogen and phosphorus) and organic matter cycling as well as soil contamination. She is the scientific manager of (long-term) field experiments. She participated in EU research projects (e.g. AQUAGRIS, SLAGFERTILISER, CATCH-C, FATIMA, AgriDemo-F2F, LANDMARK). | |
Dr. Taru Sandén received her doctoral degree in Geography from the University of Iceland in 2014, in which she focused on soil aggregates and soil organic matter in European agricultural soils. Currently she works as Senior Expert at the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) and as Lecturer of Food Security at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU). Her work focuses mostly on agricultural long-term experiments and the connection between science and society by engaging stakeholders from the agricultural and school sectors into different kind of research activities. She participated in international (EU) research projects (e.g. SLAGFERTILISER, CATCH-C, FATIMA, AgriDemo-F2F, LANDMARK). | |
Julia Miloczki, MSc is a researcher at the Department for Soil Health at AGES since 2019. She has completed an MSc at Wageningen University (NL) in Biology and Chemistry of Soil. At AGES, she has been working in projects around sustainable agricultural management, climate change effects on soil and engagement of schools and has gained experience in project management. | |
Lisa Makoschitz, BSc studied Agricultural Science and Plant Science at at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU). Her Master’s Thesis deals with the subject of soil-mineral nitrogen and productivity of wheat in sustainably intensified agriculture. |