News & Results

A new video presents the work developed within NeutraWeed project on the use of artificial intelligence and synthetic data for weed detection in agricultural environments.

From 21 August to 21 September 2026, Metaxia Kokkini from the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA) carried out a secondment at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment of the University of Pisa (UNIPI), as part of the NeutraWeed project.

From June to September 2026, Leonardo Zecchin from Miningful carried out a secondment at the Centre for Automation and Robotics (CAR) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), working in collaboration with Dionisio Andujar, Hugo Moreno, and Diego Torricelli, as part of the NeutraWeed project.

NeutraWeed has made its way onto Chinese television! During his secondment at Xin Chen's Laboratory at Zhejiang University (Hangzhou), where he is currently carrying out field experiments on Neutral Weed Communities, our Project Coordinator and Scientific Responsible, Marco Esposito, was interviewed by Shan Lu and Fujin Huan from the Chinese newscast Tongxiang News.

From July to September 2026, Chiara Michelone from Deafal carried out a secondment at Kenyatta University in Kenya, working in collaboration with Ezekiel Mugendi, as part of the NeutraWeed project.

The NeutraWeed project is pleased to invite researchers, students, advisors, farmers, and all stakeholders interested in sustainable farming to attend two seminars on agroecological crop and weed management, taking place on 10 September 2026, from 15:30 to 16:30, at Polo Piagge H1, University of Pisa.

From July to August 2026, Paola Cassiano from the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (SSSA) carried out a secondment at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), hosted by Eva Hernández Plaza at the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA-CSIC), as part of the NeutraWeed project.

How can ecological principles and digital technologies transform weed management? And can they work together to do so? These were the key questions explored during the NeutraWeed seminar and round table Weed-Crop Coexistence: Innovation in Sustainable Weed Management, held on 7 July 2026 at INIA-CSIC in Madrid.

From early to late June 2026, Matilde Puricelli, researcher at the Centre for Automation and Robotics (CAR) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), carried out a secondment at the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Pisa, within the NeutraWeed Project.

In June 2026, as part of the NeutraWeed Project, agricultural engineer Eugenia Niccia, from the Pest Management Network (REM) of Aapresid, Argentina, carried out a research stay at the Instituto Madrileño de Investigación y Desarrollo Rural, Agrario y Alimentario (IMIDRA) in Spain.

The NeutraWeed project is pleased to invite researchers, advisors, farmers, students, and all stakeholders interested in sustainable agriculture to attend the webinar "Weed-Crop Coexistence: Innovation in Sustainable Weed Management", taking place on 7 July 2026, from 10:00 to 11:30 (CEST, Madrid time).

From late April to late May 2026, Franco Angelini, researcher at the University of Pisa, carried out a secondment at the Robotics and Mechatronics (RAM) group of the University of Twente, within the NeutraWeed Project.

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 December 2025 and January 2026, Chiara Gabellieri, Assistant Professor at the University of Twente, completed her secondment at the University of Pisa, hosted by the Department of Information Engineering, within the NeutraWeed project. The secondment focused on a two-way exchange of knowledge and training activities in aerial robotics and weed management.

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.

From late September to late October 2025, Giorgia Pazzi, research fellow at the University of Pisa, carried out her secondment at the Centro de Automática y Robótica (CAR) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Madrid, 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

From late August to late September 2025, Manolo Garabini, researcher at the University of Pisa, carried out a secondment at the Centro de Automática y Robótica (CAR) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Madrid, within the NeutraWeed Project.

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.

On Monday 29 July at Cornell University, a talk entitled Understanding the Social Perception of Neutral in Cropping Systems was held thanks to Susanna Debenedetti.

Prof. Camilla Moonen from Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies (Italy) presented the NeutraWeed project at the 20th European Weed Research Society Symposium, held from 1–4 July 2025 in Lleida, Catalonia (Spain).

As part of our Horizon Europe-funded NeutraWeed project, Lucas Royo Simonella from the Faculty of Agronomy at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, completed a two-month research stay at Instituto Nacional de Investigaciòn y Tecnologìa Agraria u Alimentaria - INIA-CSIC (Spain) during April and May 2025.

Last April, Lina Bosaz, coordinator of the Network of Service Crops at Aapresid (Argentina), travelled to the Weed Science group of the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciòn y Tecnologìa Agraria u Alimentaria - INIA-CSIC (Spain) for a month-long research stay as part of our joint NeutraWeed project.

From January to March, Dr Guillaume Adeux (INRAE Dijon) carried out his secondment at INIA-CSIC in Madrid within the NeutraWeed project.

Prof. Cristian Malavert from the Faculty of Agronomy at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, carried out a two-month research stay at the Agricultural University of Athens, Greece, in January and February.

NeutraWeed's Project Coordinator, Dr. Marco Esposito, was interviewed by Malezas, the magazine of the Argentine Association of Weed Science

Thanks to Prof. Antonio DiTommaso the NeutraWeed Project was presented with a poster at 65th Meeting of Weed Science Society of America & Canadian Weed Science Society - Vancouver, February 24-27, 2025.

Prof. Franco Angelini of the University of Pisa, leader of WP3 of the NeutraWeed project, participated in the thematic meeting on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics organised by the Briciole Association in Massa Carrara (Italy) on 23 January 2025. The event brought together experts to explore how emerging technologies can be applied across sectors, from industry to environmental management.

With all 16 partners from the 4 continents (Europe, Africa, Asia and America), the project kick-off meeting was held on 9 and 10 December...