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Belgium
Country
Universite de Liege
The Research Centre in Urban Agriculture (C-RAU, www.agriculture-urbaine.be) was created in 2011 and belongs to the University of Liège (ULIEGE) at Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech campus. The C-RAU develops and studies soil and soilless production systems for urban communities and professionals (market gardening, agroforestry, indoor vertical production, hydroponics, bioponics and aquaponics systems, rooftop greenhouses, agrivoltaism for horticulture…). These systems are part of WASABI Platform (https://www.wasabi.uliege.be/cms/c_5106416/en/wasabi). Both C-RAU and WASABI are managed by Prof. H. Jijakli who participated or coordinated more than 80 projects in Belgium and abroad (e.a. 20 European projects). He has to his credit more than 600 scientific outputs (including more than 130 refereed articles; 10 patents, 4 spin-offs). The C-RAU wants also to create a strong link between public and industrial worlds in order to implement novel techniques economically and socially affordable for agriculture/horticulture sectors and consumers. This last mission is achieved thanks to the strategic innovative initiative WASABI 2.0 bringing together more than 60 partners from the entire horticultural value chain.