Welcome to the fourth edition of NENUPHAR NEWS, our bi-annual newsletter bringing you the latest updates on our journey toward sustainable nutrient management across Europe and beyond!
Over the past six months, NENUPHAR has been on the move across Europe – sharing insights at major scientific conferences, leading hands-on workshops with farmers and students, and showcasing practical innovations for climate-smart, circular agriculture. From field demonstrations to expert panels, it’s been a busy and inspiring season of turning research into real-world impact.
Dive into this edition to learn more about our progress, partnerships, and the exciting developments shaping the NENUPHAR project. Enjoy 🙂
P.s. If you haven’t already, check out the NENUPHAR website, follow us on on socials and share among your networks! (LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube). Are you a player in the nutrient recovery field? Join our Community of Interest today!
JUNE
Irrigation demos to climate insights: a day with local farmers
In June 2025, NENUPHAR hit the road again: this time for the “Water and Climate Change” workshop, hosted by Dan-Slovakia Agrar a.s. Around 60 local farmers and secondary school students joined the event, which mixed practical demonstrations (including a mobile irrigation station!) with lively discussions about how water and climate challenges shape today’s agriculture. SUA-UF brought an engaging lecture on climate change and extreme weather, setting the stage for Prof. Pavol Findura to introduce NENUPHAR’s environmental goals and show how the project’s innovations can help tackle these real-world issues.
Slovakian National Field Days 2025
The NENUPHAR project made a strong impact at the National Field Days 2025 in Selice, Slovakia’s largest open-air agricultural fair. With more than 10,000 visitors, the SUA stand helped spotlight the project through a clear Slovak-language roll-up and direct conversations with attendees. Professor Ľuboš Jurík also presented NENUPHAR to key policymakers, while he and MSc. Marta Lenartowicz connected with stakeholders, partners, and potential future university students. The team is already looking forward to next year.
JULY
NENUPHAR spotlighted at ENVIRO 2025
The 27th ENVIRO 2025 International Scientific Conference in Nitra, Slovakia, offered a great stage to showcase NENUPHAR’s work on environmental quality and the circular economy. Marking the 30th anniversary of FHLE SUA, the event focused on water and soil management, climate change, waste treatment, and sustainable land use – all tightly aligned with NENUPHAR’s goals. The project featured in two key talks: Prof. Ľuboš Jurík (SUA) presented NENUPHAR’s nature-based nutrient recovery from dairy wastewater, while Assoc. Prof. Balázs Ásványi (SZE) shared promising early results on N and P recovery in soft cheese production!
SEPTEMBER
Agrokomplex 50th Anniversary
Agrokomplex 2025 marked its 50th anniversary with a vibrant, five-day celebration in Nitra, Slovakia. More than 92,000 visitors explored exhibits from 525 companies across nine countries, discovering new innovations in agriculture and food. The NENUPHAR project was on display, represented by our Slovak partners SUA. Alongside the main fair, guests enjoyed the National Exhibition of Farm Animals, the “Hunting, Forestry and Fishing” displays, and plenty of music and activities. The event opened with the President of Slovakia, Peter Pellegrini, and other national leaders, setting the stage for a lively and memorable milestone edition.
Eurosoil 2025 – Seville
From 8 to 12 September 2025, NENUPHAR joined the VII Eurosoil 2025 & X Iberian Congress of Soil Science in sunny Seville. Daniel Ruiz Beamonte (CIRCE) presented the project’s work to leading experts tackling nutrient pollution – one of Europe’s major environmental challenges. The event delivered lively exchanges, new collaborations, and fresh ideas for protecting soils, water, and ecosystems. Big thanks to the organisers for bringing together such an inspiring community of scientists!
Lithuanian partners meet with Ministry
In September, the NENUPHAR Lithuanian team met with the Ministry of the Environment to tackle a key challenge: how to close the nitrogen and phosphorus (N/P) cycle from sewage sludge in the Lielupe River basin. The discussion exposed major barriers – fragmented rules, tight budgets, missing data, and limited capacity – and made clear that real progress demands political will and coordinated action from municipalities, wastewater operators, and land users alike. The ambition is bold but essential: fully closed nutrient loops, a stronger circular economy, and cleaner, healthier ecosystems.
Bio-based fertiliser application continues in Lielupe river basin
In September, Latvian and Lithuanian NENUPHAR partners applied composted sewage sludge to five agricultural demonstration fields for a second season. Regrettably, one of three Lithuanian sites was unusable due to heavy rains. Both the compost and soils were thoroughly tested before and after application – including greenhouse gases and runoff – to compare results with conventionally fertilised fields. With low heavy-metal content, high nutrient value and reduced odour, the composted sludge offers a practical, environmentally friendly option for farmers in the Lielupe river basin.
OCTOBER
Salón del gas renovable
On 2 October, Christian Aragón from CIRCE presented “Digestate Valorisation: Impact on the Opportunity Cost of Biogas?” at the Salón del Gas Renovable in Valladolid, Spain. The talk highlighted NENUPHAR’s benchmarking and techno-economic analysis of nutrient recovery from digestate, showing how different valorisation routes affect plant costs, energy needs, and the value recovered from nitrogen and phosphorus streams. The event brought together the biogas, biomass, and waste-to-value communities to share insights and explore innovative solutions.
EU’s first ever law to protect soils!
On 23 October 2025, the European Parliament approved the EU’s first ever law on soil: the Soil Monitoring Law – an important step and major milestone in addressing soil degradation. The law sets a goal of healthy soils by 2050, defines soil health, and requires Member States to monitor soils, support farmers in sustainable practices, limit soil sealing and manage contaminated sites. Its real impact, as with all policy, will depend on proper implementation and enforcement. The law will appear in the Official Journal in November and take effect 20 days later, with three years for national transposition. For more details, see the press release from the European Environmental Bureau, NENUPHAR’s partner in Brussels.
Ebro demo BBF application
In October 2025, CIRCE, CAYC, UVIC-UCC and GEST started a 1-hectare field trial at the Ebro River Basin to test NENUPHAR’s bio-based fertilisers. The experiment compares digestate, pig slurry, ammonium sulphate, a conventional fertiliser, and a no-fertiliser control, each repeated three times. Over the barley season, the team tracks soil nutrients, crop growth, environmental impacts, and weather. In this Nitrate Vulnerable Zone, the trial shows how livestock by-products can be turned into sustainable fertilisers that improve nutrient use and protect the environment!
NOVEMBER
Partners gather in Hungary!
On 5-6 November, the NENUPHAR project held its General Assembly in Györ, Hungary – a brilliant occasion to get together and review progress and collaboration of the project. The team visited the local cheese producers TEBIKE to see their nutrient recovery technology in action, with high tech solutions turning sludge into feed or biogas and using ozone-assisted membrane filtration to reduce nutrient loss. In the afternoon, partners from NENUPHAR, P2Green, and Bioeast joined workshops at SZE to share insights, explore cross-regional synergies, and discuss policy tools for nutrient governance in the Danube River Basin. It was great to have them with us!
Slovak Demo-case update
SUA and SUA-UF are advancing NENUPHAR in the Danube River Basin with algae-based technology to recover nitrogen and phosphorus from dairy wastewater. The team maintains algae strains, tracks biomass, and works with three local dairies for a steady wastewater supply. SUA University Farm has set up a preliminary beetroot field trial with varieties Bona and Betina, applying liquid BBFs and managing soil and irrigation. Upcoming analyses of soil and plant biomass will gauge fertiliser effectiveness ahead of full-scale 2026 trials.
POLICY UPDATES FROM BRUSSELS
Policy updates on the Nitrates Directive (NiD) and Water Framework Directive (WFD)
Joined-up implementation: The European Commission, Member States, and stakeholders are developing tools to better align NiD and WFD implementation. At a recent WFD Expert Group meeting on ecological status, discussions focused on creating a best practice guide for calculating actual nutrient loads and setting reduction targets. The guide will be developed in 2026, including a dedicated workshop. The group also considered how to account for climate change impacts on freshwater ecosystems. The EEB will continue contributing to this work.
Ireland’s nitrate derogation: The Nitrates Committee recently approved another three-year extension of Ireland’s nitrate derogation, just weeks after the European Court of Justice found Ireland in breach of water legislation. This is Ireland’s sixth derogation, allowing higher manure application and higher livestock density, despite worsening water pollution and growing environmental and health risks. From 2026, Ireland will be the only EU country still benefiting from a derogation.
Directive evaluations: The European Commission continues its fitness check of the NiD, with a decision expected in early 2026. The Commission aims to explore more effective ways to achieve the Directive’s objectives, including innovative uses of manure (biogas, Renure, digestates) to support environmental and climate goals. In the same Communication, the Commission confirmed it will review and revise the WFD by Q2 2026, focusing on simplification, circularity, and access to raw materials. The EEB maintains that a review is unnecessary, as WFD implementation issues stem from policy incoherence, lack of political will, and insufficient funding, not the legal text itself.
NEWS FROM OUR NETWORK
Collaboration in action: united for clean, circular agriculture
Over the last year, NENUPHAR has been proactively reaching out to learn from and collaborate with other projects with similar objectives to us: reducing nutrient pollution and creating sustainable, circular technical and governance that support both nature, farmers and our health. We are proud to be already have officially partnered up with eight other projects (Nutri-Know, Greenhood, Renu2Recycle, HarvRESt, FlashPhos, NutriBudget, FER-PLAY EU, EU-Farmbook, Robin, BioSoilutions, SYNECO Malta, Stratus and EcoDalli and P2GreeN), with more to come! Check out who these projects are, and what they’re up to on our website.
NUTRI-CHECK NET
Thrilled to see our EU policy-focused partner, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), representing Nenuphar at the NUTRI-CHECK NET final conference! Water pollution expert Sara Johansson contributed to the session on Innovative Governance Models to Boost Nutrient Recycling, highlighting Nenuphar’s work on sustainable nutrient management. While policy work might not always make headlines, a stable EU policy landscape is vital for projects like Nenuphar. Effective governance ensures that nutrient recycling innovations can be implemented at scale, protecting both water quality and ecosystems across Europe.
HarvRESt
HarvRESt is a Europe-wide initiative transforming agriculture into a climate-neutral, energy-resilient sector. Its Agricultural Virtual Power Plant (AVPP) platform turns farms into smart, decentralized renewable energy hubs. The project offers the RES Technologies Library, an open-access toolkit for designing hybrid energy systems, and hands-on training programs to help farmers adopt renewable solutions. Pilot projects, like a Norwegian farm installing innovative wind turbines, and practical Practice Abstracts on biogas, AI forecasting, and soil health, show that sustainable, self-sufficient farming is already taking root.
FlashPhos
On 10 December, the FlashPhos project hosted a joint workshop with NENUPHAR and RENOVATE on phosphorus circularity in Europe. Phosphorus is vital for both agriculture and energy technologies like lithium iron phosphate batteries, but circular solutions can meet both demands. FlashPhos recovers phosphorus from sewage sludge, NENUPHAR from manure and wastewater, and RENOVATE recycles LFP batteries. The workshop highlighted the need to validate technologies, attract investment, secure political support, and improve coordination. With circular approaches and strategic management, phosphorus can become a resilient resource, supporting food security, industrial innovation, and Europe’s energy transition.
