‘NETTLE: Cross-border cooperation for the valorisation of alpine plants as a source of bioactive compounds’ is a project within the framework of Interreg Italia - Austria, which the FH Salzburg is carrying out together with the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and the University of Udine. It started on 1 February and the kick-off meeting has now taken place in Salzburg.
The NETTLE project is based on the philosophy of Hippocrates ‘Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food’. The aim is to obtain natural extracts from 30 different alpine plant species (Compositae, Rosaceae and Labiates) with interesting biological activities that are typical of the Austrian-Italian border region. The functional properties of the extracts will be determined and will subsequently be used as a source of bioactive compounds for the development of functional foods with antioxidant effects and cosmetic/medical formulations for the treatment of skin diseases such as acne, neurodermatitis or epidermolys bullosa. Salzburg University of Applied Sciences is part of the project with its Biomedical Analytics and Wood Technology & Timber Construction degree programmes.
The kick-off meeting of all project partners took place on 12 March at the Schmiedhaus site at the Salzburg Provincial Hospitals. The teams of the project partners from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and the University of Udine travelled to Salzburg for the event. It was also the first personal meeting of all the people involved in the project. A total of 4 people from the project team from Bolzano, 3 from Udine and 6 from Salzburg attended the meeting. The lead partner in the project is the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. After a short welcome and introduction round, the work packages of the project were gone through and individual things were discussed. One important point was the collection of samples from the various plant species. A botanist from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano is on board as an expert. Sampling plan, sampling timeframe, sampling sites, the type of storage of the material etc. were discussed.
Before lunch, there was a short photo shoot and then we continued with a short tour of the Schmiedhaus laboratories. The afternoon started with a creative round in which all project partners worked in groups to come up with ideas and events in their region for publicising the project to the outside world. In addition to cooperation with local media, radio interviews and participation in conferences, ideas such as a family competition ‘Explore your plant’, a plant memory, a Smell&Guess event, a travelling exhibition with ‘Meet the Scientist’ and many other creative ideas were born. Finally, the administrative processes of the project were discussed and the date for the next meeting was set. The labour-intensive day came to a cosy end in the Humboldtstubn. After this kick-off meeting, the project team is definitely very motivated for the next steps of project realisation thanks to the mutual exchange.
