Last week, the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies hosted the mid-term meeting of the NeutraWeed project, bringing together researchers and partners from across the globe.

In January and February 2026, Yaolei Shen, PhD candidate at the University of Twente, completed his second secondment at the Department of Information Engineering at the University of Pisa, in collaboration with the “E. Piaggio” Research Center, as part of the NeutraWeed project.

In November-December 2025, Elisa Lorenzetti, post-doctoral researcher from the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, completed her secondment at The Argentine No-Till Farmers Association (Aapresid) within the NeutraWeed project.

In November-December 2025, Elisa Lorenzetti, post-doctoral researcher from the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, completed her secondment at The Argentine No-Till Farmers Association (Aapresid) within the NeutraWeed project.

Between October and December 2025, María Muñoz Arbeláez and Anna Rizzolo, PhD candidates at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (Italy), completed their secondment at the School of Agriculture of the University of Buenos Aires (FAUBA) within the framework of the NeutraWeed Project.

The NeutraWeed project was recently featured in an article in the Italian magazine AgroNotizie, highlighting the innovative concept of neutral weed communities and their potential for more sustainable weed management.

The NeutraWeed consortium is pleased to announce that the call for papers for the Special Issue in Q1 Journal Weed Research is now officially open and available online.

In November 2025, Maria Arias Martín, researcher at the Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA-CSIC, Spain), completed her secondment at the Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires (FAUBA).

In November 2025, Andreas Rekkas from the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA) completed his secondment at INRAE in Dijon (France).

In October, Paola Cassiano from the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies completed her secondment at the School of Agriculture, University of Buenos Aires (FAUBA) within the NeutraWeed project.

Altreconomia has published an interview with Philip McMichael, rural sociologist and Professor Emeritus at Cornell University, internationally known for co-developing the food regime theory.

In October 2025, Virginia Cerantola, agronomist at AAPRESID - Argentine Association of No-Till Farmers, completed her secondment at the Group of Agroecology of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (Pisa, Italy) within the NeutraWeed project. Her stay focused on scientific exchange, training, and joint planning of agroecological weed-management strategies.

From mid-September to mid-October, Elba de la Fuente, Professor of Weed Science at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, carried out her secondment at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (SSSA) within the NeutraWeed Project.

In October, Marco Esposito, coordinator and scientific director of the NeutraWeed Project, presented a new research project he is conducting between the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa (Italy), Cornell University (United States), Zhejiang University (China) and the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (France) at the joint meeting between the International Weed Science Society, the Asian Pacific Weed Science Society and the Weed S

From September to October 2025, Yaolei Shen, researcher at the University of Twente, completed his secondment at the Department of Information Engineering, University of Pisa, collaborating with the Centro di Ricerca “E. Piaggio”.

NeutraWeed partners continue to spread the word about their research! Recently, Dr María Arias and Recently, Dr María Arias and Dr Eva Hernández (INIA-CSIC) and Dr Remedios Alarcón (IMIDRA) took part in a forum organised by OH-FINE – Organic Farming Innovations Network Europe. Like NeutraWeed, OH-FINE is an EU-funded initiative dedicated to driving the agroecological transition in Europe and supporting the development of more sustainable, resilient, and environmentally frien

The concept of Neutral Weed Communities (communities of weeds that coexist with crops without reducing yield and quality) was developed at Cornell University in the United States, at the Prof. Toni Di Tommaso's Weed Ecology and Management Laboratory.

From May to September 2025, Michele Pierallini, researcher at the University of Pisa (Italy), completed his secondment at the Robotics and Mechatronics (RAM) Laboratory of the University of Twente (The Netherlands). His work focused on developing learned and physics-informed models for underactuated soft robotic systems: an approach that combines physical principles with real-world data to better predict complex robot dynamics.

From August to September 2025, Dr M. Remedios Alarcón Víllora, researcher at IMIDRA (Spain), completed her secondment at the School of Agriculture, University of Buenos Aires (FAUBA) within the NeutraWeed project.

From June to August, Susanna Debenedetti, Coordinator of training, research and experimentation from Deafal NGO, completed her secondment at Cornell University. Her work focused on understanding how people perceive Neutral Weed Communities and related ecosystem services, using a multidisciplinary approach that combined public engagement, immersive experiences, and stakeholder interactions.