On February 24, the “Second Conference on Synergies for Strategic Collaboration among INUO Research Units” was held in the ‘Salón de Grados’ of Building A3 at the University of Jaén. This conference was organized by the University Institute of Research on Olive Grove and Olive Oils (INUO) at the University of Jaén with the goal of identifying and fostering synergies among the Institute’s units, in order to facilitate mutual understanding of their lines of research and promote specific collaborations, particularly with the recent addition of the Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence Unit.
The event began at 10:30 a.m. with opening remarks by INUO Director Juan B. Barroso, who expressed his gratitude for the warm reception the conference had received from the Institute’s research staff and from the research centers and institutes at the University of Jaén. He then briefly explained the format of the conference, which would consist of a short presentation on the research areas pursued by each unit, followed by an analysis of potential synergies and collaborations with other units to address current research needs.
The first speaker was Juan Carlos Begara Morales, a researcher at the Biochemistry and Cellular Stress Unit, whose research focuses on the study and characterization of crop response mechanisms to abiotic stress resulting from adverse conditions—particularly those associated with climate change—with the goal of contributing to the development of biotechnological tools that promote crop adaptation to the environment.
Next, the head of the Ecology Unit, Roberto García Ruiz, highlighted the unit’s primary objective, which focuses on the design and implementation of ecological and sustainable solutions for olive grove management. To this end, the unit is composed of a multidisciplinary research team that includes zoologists, ecologists, botanists, and plant ecophysiologists. More specifically, its main lines of research are aimed at strengthening the prevention and control of pests and diseases in olive groves; analyzing the ecophysiological responses of olive trees to stress and disease; promoting diversification in olive groves and the implementation of ground cover; and studying the dynamics of soil-olive tree-quality relationships and the safety of olive oils, among other topics.
Alicia Serrano Gómez spoke on behalf of the Genomics and Genetic Improvement Unit, highlighting the main line of research in genomics—based on the study of the olive tree’s genome—since understanding its genetic information can improve its growth conditions. In contrast, the Genetic Improvement branch focuses on crop productivity and oil quality. To this end, they study different cultivation systems, taking into account adverse environmental conditions and disease resistance, through the use of rootstocks and biotechnological tools. She also highlighted the existence of the World Olive Germplasm Bank, which comprises more than 1,100 olive varieties from around the world, providing a wealth of genetic diversity for genomic studies.
At the conclusion of the first block of presentations, researcher María Dolores La Rubia García noted that the Process Engineering Unit seeks to contribute to the advancement of knowledge and raise the technological level of companies in the olive oil sector, in addition to generating and applying scientific and technological knowledge to the sector. Among its main lines of research are the technology for the production and physicochemical characterization of olive oils; the characterization, use, and utilization of byproducts from olive groves and the olive oil industry; the treatment of liquid effluents, including their use in the production of energy compounds through the use of photosynthetic organisms; and the hydrolysis and fermentation of lignocellulosic materials from the olive oil industry to obtain high-value-added products. Currently, they are developing a project funded by the European “Marie Sklodowska-Curie” program focused on producing hydrogels from olive grove waste, thereby promoting the circular economy in the olive oil sector.
After the coffee break, Francisco José Torres Ruiz, head of the Marketing and Economics Unit, emphasized that they strive to connect research with the real needs of the market and users, to translate scientific findings into services, products, and strategic decisions, and, more specifically, to work with a focus on impact, sustainability, and adoption. To this end, they analyze consumer behavior, the optimization of communication activities, agri-food policies, international trade flows and their causes, the effects of quality certifications, agri-food cooperatives, and food fraud, among other topics.
Next, researcher David Moreno González from the Analytical Chemistry Unit highlighted the main projects in which the unit’s research staff is involved. They are currently developing multidimensional strategies for the authentication of complex food matrices, which will make it possible to verify the authenticity of olive oils. Additionally, their research focuses on identifying biomarkers of pesticide exposure in farmers in the olive-growing sector by designing analytical tools to detect them.
Next, Pablo Cano Marchal, head of the Robotics and Automation Unit, highlighted that the unit’s research areas are organized into four categories: (1) Modeling and control of the PEAOV, which enables automatic, systematic, and structured decision-making; (2) the development of advanced sensors focused on computer vision, typically used for inspecting olives in the courtyard and olive paste from the mixer at the oil mill; NIR spectroscopy applied to olive pomace and oil; spectral cameras for olives, for example, to detect pesticides; and the electronic nose used to classify virgin olive oils by quality; (3) machine learning and artificial intelligence applied to improve calibrations and build models; and (4) precision agriculture focused on olive grove monitoring and phenotyping.
Later, Juan B. Barroso—in the absence of the head of the Health and Epidemiology Unit—emphasized that this unit had discovered in its previous studies the presence of several compounds with antitumor properties in virgin olive oils (VOOs) and that, taken together, these compounds account for the health-promoting and preventive properties of this food. Currently, his research is focused on advising on and designing statistically based studies in human populations, as this approach allows for the identification of the root causes of various diseases in order to develop prevention strategies.
Finally, the conference concluded with a presentation by María Isabel Ramos Galán, a researcher at the Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence Unit. She emphasized that the Digital Transformation component is characterized by its cross-cutting approach, as it focuses on the massive collection of remote data (satellites, UAVs/drones, etc.); ground-based monitoring; the large-scale management and digitization of multisensory, multi-source, multiscale, and multiformat data, among others; the analysis of geospatial information; and the representation and mapping of spatial information. Artificial Intelligence, on the other hand, is a tool that allows us to model, predict, and control processes.
In conclusion, the Institute’s director thanked the attendees for their participation in the conference and invited the various units to participate in INUO’s next internal call for projects.
