During the secondment to INNOLABS within the project TRACEWINDU, Giuseppe Paderni had the opportunity to meet different Universities in central and northern part of Italy (Pisa, Parma, Ancona and Padova), as well as the winery Fattoria dell’Uccelliera (former partner of the project). During each meeting after the needed reciprocal introduction and updating, possible future cooperation were discussed.

University of Donja Gorica researchers, Ms Andrea Milacic, Mr Amil Orahovac, and Mr Stevan Cakic, are developing and implementing their secondments at the National Institute of Industrial Technology in Argentina (INTI). They have already had few meeting at INTI and visited University of Buenos Aires (UBA).

The debate over whether fermentation was a more important human discovery than fire will continue forever. In the meantime, with Europe as the world’s premier producer of wine and a significant manufacturer of beer, Horizon-backed scientists are researching ways to reinforce Europe’s competitiveness in the drinks industry.
European Union wine sales were 16 billion litres with an export value close to € 20 billion in 2019, while beer production in the EU in 2020 amounted to 33.1 billion litres. Europe accounts for 63% of global wine production while the number of breweries in Europe now exceeds 11 000.

The wine sector has built its reputation and dominant market share based on quality but all the turmoil of recent years and the risks from climate change mean that the drinks industry cannot afford to stand still, especially with imported beverages becoming increasingly popular.
Enhancing beer and wine flavours through research into new yeast strains is one way the drinks industry is trying to keep ahead. At the other end of that, more secure supply chains are needed to ensure delivery of a quality product. This will help Europe’s drinks industry retain its market position.

The improvement of the wine production sector is possible only through the joint work of all stakeholders in this chain. The TRACEWINDU project is focused on all the stakeholders, with producers being one of the most important. As part of the secondment, and thanks to the partner National Industrial Technology Institute (INTI) Mendoza, researchers from UDG had the opportunity to visit some of the most important wineries: Benegas, Ojo de Aqua, Norton, Costa Flores (OpenVino) and La Riojana Coop. Vitivinícola – Chilecito.

TRACEWINDU researchers from the Italian partner Tenuta del Castello, Mr. Roberto Guglielmi and Mr. Riccardo Barile started the secondment at the University of Donja Gorica.  During the meetings they had the opportunity to meet with researchers and staff from UDG. The goal of this meeting was to get to know the researchers and discuss further activities within the TRACEWINDU project, as well as the continuation of cooperation between our institutions. UDG researchers welcomed Mr. Guglielmi and Mr Barile and showed them the facilities of UDG. The focus on Smart tags, IOT platforms for vineyards, and traceability data platform and its potential uses.

Tenuta del Castello and UDG visited the vineyards and headquarters of Plantaže and Šipčanik wine cellar. Colleagues from Plantaže introduced them to the grape varieties that are grown in the vineyards explaining the types of wines produced and after visiting the vineyards the two researchers also visited the Šipčanik wine cellar, where they had the opportunity to taste the wines and get acquainted with the history of the cellar. This was a great place to exchange experiences and discuss the opportunities for collaboration.

In line with the activities foreseen in WP3, the partner UNIPI has carried out several wine-making tests using an innovative wine-making protocol that can be used for the different types of wine belonging to the various partners of the project.

In particular, the overall aim of this research was to verify whether the early inoculation of homolactic acid bacteria for hexoses (Lactobacillus plantarum) carried out after 24 h, compared with that of saccharomycetes operating alcoholic fermentation, could be advantageous compared with a traditional innoculation with a different heterolactic bacterial strain for hexoses (Oenococcus oeni) operated at the end of alcoholic fermentation.

The grape variety chosen was Sangiovese, the protagonist of Tuscan oenology. The evaluation focused on different aspects such as the management of winery operations, and the quality and longevity of the product; was carried out in all phases of winemaking; and analysed both from a chemical and sensory point of view.

TRACEWINDU researcher. Dr. Monica Macaluso (UNIPI), together with researchers from UDG, visited the vineyards of the Plantaže and the Šipčanik wine cellar.

Colleagues from Plantaže introduced Dr. Macaluso to the grape varieties that are grown in the vineyards, those that are the most significant, that is, those that are authentic Montenegrin varieties and from which the most recognizable and highest quality wines are produced.

Dr. Macaluso was introduced to the method and organization of harvesting and the agrotechnical measures applied in the vineyards of Plantaže.

After visiting the vineyards, Dr. Macaluso, together with her colleagues from UDG, visited the Šipčanik wine cellar, where the wines were tasted, and got acquainted with the history of this cellar.

Dr. Monica Macaluso (UNIPI), together with researchers from UDG, visited the vineyards and the Old wine cellar Ljeskopolje of Plantaže.

During this visit, Dr. Macaluso was presented with the maturing and aging methods of the highest quality wines that are stored and produced in this Plantaže cellar.

Also, taking into account the fact that production within this company started at this location, colleague Macaluso was introduced to the history and beginnings of work and production, that is, the history of wine production in Montenegro from the earliest periods. Within this visit the highest quality wines of Plantaže were tasted.

Dr. Monica Macaluso (UNIPI), together with researchers from UDG, visited the Plantaže., i.e. its production plant.

During this visit, Dr. Macaluso was introduced to the entire technological process of wine production in Plantaže.

Dr. Macaluso was also introduced to the history of the company, from the idea of its foundation to the present moment, when the company is recognized on the global market for the quality of its wines.

Colleagues from Plantaže presented and explained in detail the laboratory analyzes carried out by the internal laboratory of this company.

As part of this visit, some of the most recognizable wines of Plantaže were tasted. Within this visit, possible ways of future cooperation were also discussed.

A researcher from University of Donja Gorica attended an international conference called “Innovabile – the 4.0 food factory for zero-waste supply chain” organized by Department of agricultural, food science of the University of Pisa, and summarizes the state of the art and trends for a sustainable food supply chain. The use of sensors to check the food quality from the producers to the consumers, the brand identity, the creation of product passport to safeguard authenticity, novel foods with nutraceutical properties, are some of the issues discussed during the conference.

Mr Giuseppe Paderni, a senior researcher at FoodHub, with a talk titled “Smart and Integrated Labelling in the Food Industry: Traceability and Authenticity Safeguard”, presented some of the FoodHub activities though the results and the work on projects as “TagItWine” and Tracewindu

Prof. dr Tomo Popovic developed a secondment with DNET in the period 28 Dec 2022 to 27 Jan 2023. During that time UDG and DNET continued work on WP4 and WP5 activities. We organized several meetings/workshops. Also, representatives from DNET and UDG visited a workshop on Industry 4.0 organized by company Metalac in Gornji Milanovac, Serbia.

Ms Bojana Malisic, a PhD candidate from UDG, developed a secondment with DNET in the period 11 Jan 2023 to 10 Feb 2023. During that time UDG and DNET continued work on WP4 and WP5 activities. We organized several meetings/workshops focusing on joint preparation of presentation for IT2023 and publication aimed at literature review relevant to WP4.

Researchers from UDG and DNET presented TRACEWINDU project at the 27th IEEE Conference on Information Technology IT 2023. The presentation on TRACEWINDU took place within the special conference session dedicated to EU projects being implemented in the region. The conference took place in Zabljak, Montenegro 15-18 February. DNET and UDG used the opportunity to organize a couple of meetings and discussions involving several researchers from UDG, DNET and other institutions.

TRACEWINDU was presented by Dr. Gustavo Pérez Gonzalez – Coordinator of TRACEWINDU Project – at “INNOVABLE, the 4.0 food factory for zero-waste supply chains”, an international conference organised last 21st of October in Pisa (Italy) by the Department of agricultural, food science of the University of Pisa, partner of the project.

Dr. Pérez presented the main objectives of the project, stressing the innovation potential of blockchain technology and explaining how the “TRACEWINDU solution” can be a valid instrument to certify the origin of a wine and to trace the path of the bottle to the final consumer.

Science is Wonderful! brings the world of science, research and innovation to the wider public, and in particular to primary and secondary school pupils.

Since its inception in 2015, it has achieved this through an annual science fair that interactively showcases MSCA research projects and innovations through presentations, hands-on experiments, games and quizzes. The event has become the flagship event to highlight EU-funded research – showcasing MSCA researchers and the impact their innovation has on EU citizens’ daily lives.

We are calling on you, MSCA fellows, to present your research projects to approximately 5 000 young visitors.

The 2023 edition will take place once again in-person in Brussels on 16-17 March 2023 and we look forward to welcoming you and your work there!

Mid-term review meeting took place at the facilities of UAB, at Sala de Juntes, Faculty of Science, UAB Campus, on 15/11/2022. The event was organized as a series of presentations, starting through a general presentation of the project to provide the basis of the meeting. Afterwards, each WP Leader highlighted the most relevant achievements, WP development status, achieved deliverables and milestones, risks, mitigations and future developments which are briefly described below.

Through the presentation, the existing problem, the approach, the involved partnership including keywords descriptors, research, and transdisciplinary aims, together with expected results, involved transfer of knowledge, expected impacts and scheduled activities were presented and the initial outputs for each WP were briefly introduced. The actual status of secondments accomplishment was thoroughly discussed determining the main causes of delay for certain partners and the proposed mitigations to correct some of the perceived deviations.