Building trust, one field trial at a time: CiNURGi partners’ views

At the last project meeting in Lund, Sweden we asked everyone to share their thoughts on the project and its achievements and these are their answers:

From concept to practice

Partners described the importance of making nutrient recycling more understandable and concrete. One summed it up as “turning nutrient recycling from a largely technical concept into a more practical, credible and policy-relevant option for the Baltic Sea Region.” Recycled fertilisers were tested in field demonstrations in several countries, which takes the project and its solutions closer to actual end-users. That was also seen as important for increasing farmers’ trust in the new solutions. The pilot investments were kept modest, which would make them easier to accept and replicate. As one partner put it, “In previous projects investments have been perhaps too large to be easily accepted.”

Clear answers, including uncomfortable ones

Not all findings were good news. When the candidate technologies were analysed thoroughly from the socio-economic perspective, most of them turned out not to be viable. This was naturally quite unheartening, but at the same time a very important result. Knowing where feasibility at a more holistic level needs to be improved is also progress.

The hard part: policy

The project produced evidence-based policy recommendations, but partners were realistic about what comes next. One noted that transferring them into concrete changes in national and regional policy remains a major challenge; another called it “highly important to go from recommendations to actually implementing policy that supports recycling.” Partners also admit that a project this broad could not do everything: “Some very important activities didn’t have enough resources, which is a problem in such wide-ranging projects.” Open questions remain, such as how much nutrient plants can actually use from recycled fertilisers.

Together towards more sustainable nutrient management

Many partners named the network itself as one of the most lasting results. Researchers, advisors, industry and farmers from across the Baltic Sea Region worked side by side, sharing knowledge from technical details to questions of governance. One partner pointed to “the excellent cooperation and good spirits during the meetings and in the project among all partners.” Another believes the most underrated result is “the incredible variety of activities, organisations, people and findings that we have made during the whole project.”

CiNURGi leaves behind knowledge, a network and a clearer road map. The real test begins now: turning that road map into practice, together.

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