The 2024 MINAGRIS plenary meeting in Dijon took place during October 2024. This was an important opportunity for our partners from across Europe to come together for discussions about the latest advancements in the project and plan the next steps for exploring the presence and impacts of micro- and nano-plastics in agricultural soils.

We kicked off with a warm welcome from Fabrice Martin-Laurent (INRAE) and Esperanza Huerta Lwanga (WU). The first morning featured insights from our EU Project Officer, Gemini, Silvia (European Commission), and Benjamin Van Doorslaer of DG Agri, and updates on key areas, including project coordination, stakeholder engagement, data integration, experimental trials surrounding the transport, degradation, and impacts of micro- and nano-plastics.

Day two included an excursion to INRAE's research centre and farm near Dijon. This included seeing agroequipment for mechanical weeding, visits to plots and various agroecological infrastructure, and interactions with Liselore Martin of AgrOnov, and Tiffany Régulier of GEOCHANVRE: biobased mulching to replace plastic mulching.

The final morning was spent discussing next steps and exploring how we will share our key project findings in coming months - stay tuned, we have some exciting resources and events planned across the next two years!

MINAGRIS partners Paula Harkes, Esperanza Huerta Lwanga, and Violette Geissen, all of Wageningen University & Research, have co-authored a peer-reviewed paper about the influence of microplastics on bacterial community succession during the aging of earthworm casts. Read the full paper by clicking here. 

Read more: New peer-reviewed publication from MINAGRIS

We are pleased to share our first summary factsheet! These factsheets are designed to provide engaging, bitesize overviews of our research findings. 

This factsheet is based on MINAGRIS research which explored the influence of microplastics on the bacterial community succession during earthworm cast aging. Read our factsheets by clicking here. 

Some of the MINAGRIS team are presenting at an upcoming joint stakeholder event with our sister project, PAPILLONS. The event is on Wednesday 22nd May from 10:00 CET and is entitled: “Agricultural microplastics: seeing beyond the surface”

The MINAGRIS presentations include: 

The event is being held in-person in Helskinki, Finland, as well as being live-streamed online. 

Click here to find out more and register.