SYBERAC Consortium Meeting: Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain – March 2025
The SYBERAC project held its second in-person consortium meeting in Barcelona on 5–8 March 2025. The event included a stakeholder engagement day, focused consortium meetings, and a field visit to the Ebro Delta.
Wednesday: Engaging Stakeholders Through Vineyard Insights and a Collaborative Workshop
The day commenced with a study visit to the Familia Torres vineyard in Pacs del Penedès. The SYBERACM team received a guided vineyard tour by Montse Catasús Asenjo, followed by a presentation on climate change adaptation by Aleix Nuñez Marcé.
We saw firsthand how management changes toward regenerative viticulture impact vineyards, informing our project's case study 5 on viticultural pesticide impacts in soils.
Changes included...
🌱 planting cover crops for organic material buildup + CO₂ sequestration
🐑 sheep trimming the cover crops + soil fertilisation
🐔 chicken to loosen soil + pest control
🚜 reduced tillage to preserve topsoil
🥬 garden for organic compost
Participants then travelled to the Delegació del CSIC in Barcelona for an afternoon stakeholder workshop. The workshop featured presentations on project and case study introductions, interactive group work sessions, and a comprehensive plenary discussion. The session concluded with a wrap-up covering action items and dinner arrangements.
Thanks to our stakeholders Georgina Bray of RSPB and Magda Silva of Câmara Municipal de Cantanhede for the fruitful exchange and your views on SYBERAC case studies 1 & 5!
Group photo of the SYBERAC project team
Thursday & Friday: Advancing Project Objectives
The consortium meeting took place at the Delegació del CSIC of Catalonia in central Barcelona. Discussions focused on key project aspects, including…
communication within and beyond SYBERAC (WP5)
the refinement of the "System-based ERA" definition
case study reflections on how to break silos
methodological approaches for interactions between the real-world Case Studies (WP2) and Modelling (WP3)
biodiversity measurement proxies and generic biodiversity modelling,
stakeholder engagement updates.
We had fruitful inter-partner discussions on both days, facilitating collaboration and knowledge exchange.
Saturday: Understanding a Case Study Site in the Ebro Delta Field Visit
A field trip to the Ebro Delta was organised for interested project members. The itinerary included visits to a bat nest box case study site (Case Study 2A), the MonNatura visitor centre, the organic rice farm Riet Vell (run by SEOBirdLife), the Migjorn godwit area, and the restored wetlands of Finca Bombita. This field trip provided valuable context and practical understanding of the project's case study area within the Ebro Delta. We had the chance to learn a lot about the area and its various uses for growing rice, producing salt, traditional fishing, hunting, growing mussels and increasingly since the pandemic, tourism. We had the chance to see various sites with bat boxes where measurements of Case Study 2A will take place, as well as see a flock of godwits which are the subject of Case Study 3 about pesticide effects on migratory birds. Naturally, uniting these uses and the protection of biodiversity poses unique challenges. SYBERAC will contribute to understanding how to best achieve this by researching the effects of pesticide use on rice fields on bats.
