Bio4safe aimed to reduce water and fertiliser use in horticulture by using biostimulants and innovative tools. This combination aimed to result in up to 20% reduction of water use and 10% of fertiliser use, depending on the crop. 

By including biostimulants based on seaweeds, the project hoped to generate economic opportunities for seaweed producers. Innovative sensors allowed growers to monitor plant responses to reduced water supply and to adjust irrigation accordingly. Analytic tools allowed users to determine water and nutrient use efficiency. 

This project sought to gather pilot data on biostimulants, generate innovative tools and demonstrate them to support growers, producers of biostimulants and suppliers of substrates & fertilisers. 

The project was co-developed by networks of growers, policy makers and producers of fertilisers and seaweeds.  The multi-stakeholder approach was thought to permit a successful realization of project objectives since expertise of all partners was complementary, ensuring a broad dissemination. A policy protocol was presented to policy makers to help implement the new European legislation on biostimulants.

The Bio4safe project was conducted in all four countries of the Interreg 2 seas area because of the following reasons. Firstly, in order to increase the impact of the results on the eutrophication of the coastal waters, the project needed to reduce phosphorus fertiliser leaching in all countries in the 2 Seas area. Secondly, horticultural growers in the four countries are subjected to the same European directives on water. Furthermore, the results are immediately usable since there are no technological or regulatory barriers to implement the project results in the 2 Seas area.

In order to reach the critical mass (growers, but also policy makers, consumers and industry stakeholders) in this important topic, it was essential to have all stakeholders involved to ensure dissemination of the project results to a wide target audience in the whole region. Dissemination activities, such as the pilot experiments, sought to reach a wider target audience when conducted on different locations in different regions. As biostimulants are generally applicable, they can be used for other crops than the ones chosen in the pilot experiments. 

With the Bio4safe database, the biostimulant producers received an objective way to advertise the benefits of their products. This database allowed growers to better select a specific biostimulant for their crop and growing conditions, with a larger chance of success and with happy customers as a result. 

A large number of companies have contacted partners to put their trial results on the database. Many of those companies are from outside the regions covered by the project, and the Bio4safe partnership would have never had contact with them without the project.