NURTURE-Africa 2027 | Seeking Research & Pilot Partners

NURTURE-Africa – Integrated Water, Nutrient and Energy Solutions for Climate-Resilient Smallholder Farming

Target call: HORIZON-CL6-2027-02-FARM2FORK-02-two-stage
Optimising the water-nutrient-energy nexus for sustainable and climate-smart agriculture in Africa (FNSSA).

Project Overview

NURTURE-Africa is an international Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Action proposal under development, coordinated in its preparation by Negentra.

The initiative brings together expertise in agricultural science, hydrology, energy systems, artificial intelligence, digital twins, socio-economic research and participatory agricultural innovation.

Its central objective is to investigate and validate integrated water-nutrient-energy (WNE) management solutions that can improve agricultural productivity, resource efficiency, environmental sustainability and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

Scientific and Technical Approach

NURTURE-Africa proposes to combine:

• Farm-level water, nutrient and energy resource accounting.

• Process-based agricultural, soil and hydrological modelling.

• Physics-informed machine learning and uncertainty-aware digital twins.

• Practical decision-support tools adapted to limited data, connectivity and technical resources.

• Resource-efficient irrigation and pumping practices.

• Sustainable nutrient management, circular nutrient use and soil conservation.

• Participatory testing with farmers, extension services and local research organisations.

• Economic, social and environmental impact assessment.

A central research question is whether integrated and physically constrained decision support can deliver measurable benefits beyond conventional farming advice, and under which conditions advanced digital methods justify their cost and complexity.

African Research and Field Validation

The project aims to compare and validate solutions in at least two contrasting African agro-ecosystems, including irrigated and rainfed or mixed smallholder farming contexts.

Field sites and experimental arrangements will be confirmed following scientific, operational, regulatory and accessibility assessments.

The project will investigate water consumption, energy requirements, nutrient balances, crop performance, farming costs, environmental safeguards and farmers' ability to adopt proposed practices.

Partners We Are Seeking

We particularly welcome discussions with:

1. African universities and agricultural research institutes specialising in agronomy, soil science, hydrology and farming systems.

2. Farmer cooperatives, producer organisations and agricultural extension networks with direct access to smallholder farming communities.

3. Agricultural pilot operators able to support field trials, resource monitoring and comparable experimental observations.

4. Laboratories and technical organisations with soil, water and nutrient analysis capabilities.

5. Experts in agricultural economics, impact evaluation, rural development, gender inclusion and farmer adoption.

6. Water authorities, irrigation organisations and public bodies responsible for agricultural water management.

7. Technology partners specialising in affordable sensors, field data acquisition, interoperability and agricultural decision-support systems.

African-led participation, local knowledge, realistic operational capacity and equitable research collaboration are central principles of the project.

Current Development Status

The proposal is at an advanced consortium-development stage, with a Stage 1 research concept and scientific methodology under collaborative review.

We are working with international research and technology stakeholders while refining field-validation arrangements, implementation responsibilities and the evidence required for an impactful proposal.

Additional organisations offering complementary capabilities and demonstrable operational contributions are welcome.

Negentra's Contribution

Negentra contributes capabilities in physics-informed AI, digital twin development, numerical modelling, resource optimisation, scientific software engineering and uncertainty-aware decision support.

Our goal is to integrate scientific knowledge and field observations into practical tools that remain understandable, affordable and useful to local agricultural actors.

Collaboration Invitation

We invite African and European organisations interested in contributing to the NURTURE-Africa consortium to arrange bilateral meetings with us during the Horizon Europe Cluster 6 Brokerage Event in Brussels on 15 January 2027.

We welcome discussions on prospective scientific contributions, African field-validation capabilities, complementary consortium roles and collaboration opportunities.