Agricultural University of Athens - Farm Structures Lab

The Farm Structures Laboratory (FSL) of the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA) was founded in 1963 and it belongs to the Department of Natural Resources Development and Agricultural Engineering of the School of Environment and Agricultural Engineering. The FSL research team has many years of experience in research and teaching activities, mainly in the science and technology of agricultural constructions and environmental control and is distinguished by intense activity in international research programs. Our research team includes 3 academic members, 4 Post-doc researchers and 10 doctoral students, as well as technical and administrative staff.

In terms of research, the FSL has made a significant contribution to the international literature in the wider scientific area of Agricultural Engineering and has developed strong synergies with other distinguished research groups, industries and bodies at the European level. The main research areas in which FSL is active are: • Analysis and design of agricultural constructions and construction materials • Agricultural plastics (development, optimization, waste management and recycling) • Hydroponic facilities • Technologies and systems for the production of agricultural products in controlled conditions (controlled environment agriculture) • Artificial environment of farm buildings (greenhouses / farm animal shelters) • Gas emissions from rural buildings (e.g. greenhouse gases) and their collection, treatment and use • Determination of environmental footprint with the life cycle analysis method (LCA) • Numerical modeling, computational mechanics, fluid mechanics (CFD, FEMA) • Artificial intelligence in agriculture (smart agriculture, smart sensors, algorithms etc) • Behavioral and properties testing, degradation and characterization of biogenic and conventional plastic materials, sheets and nets • Design of products of the agro-food sector based on materials of biological origin, biodegradation of materials in various environments, biodegradation control in the laboratory • Environmentally friendly practices to limit the environmental footprint (circular economy, degradation of agrochemicals, nanotechnology, energy management and renewable sources) • Synthesis of polymers and other materials from agricultural waste

The FSL has extended experience on funded research programs (International, European & National), some examples are: ECONUTRI: Innovative concepts and technologies for ECOlogically sustainable NUTRIent management in agriculture aiming to prevent, mitigate and eliminate pollution in soils, water, and air. RES4LIFE: Energy smart livestock farming towards zero fossil fuel consumption FARMSUSTAINABL: Enabling Smart Livestock Farming Technologies for Environmental Sustainability using Blockchain INTELIRRIS: Intelligent Irrigation System for Low-cost Autonomous Water Control in Small-scale Agriculture DiTECT – Digital TEChnologies as an enabler for a conTinuous transformation of food safety management systems SMARTBIC: Smart farming and circular bioeconomy LIVEAGE: Ammonia & Greenhouse Gas Emission from Animal Production Housing MELS: Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from livestock systems AGROFOSSILFREE: Strategies and technologies to achieve a European Fossil-energy-free agriculture

FSL has modern research facilities including material testing equipment, rapid artificial aging of polymers facilities, a wide range of software including Finite Element and LCA. Also, it has a number of research facilities like research greenhouses and fields, where a number of sensors (physical, chemical etc.) are installed and IoT systems are operating. There are also other infrastructure (wi-fi systems, cable infrastructure etc). These research facilities can be used for the assessment of the effectiveness of the proposed/developed nano-agrochemicals and their performance in real conditions, in terms of effectiveness on crops (toxic, yield), the release rate and the controlled initiation of release.