In accordance with the Campus da Auga, the cluster places water as the primary focus that connects all the food production cycle stages, considering the use of waste generated at each stage, its relationship with the environment, and water quality as a vulnerable resource.
Therefore, the research in the cluster follows four strategic objectives:
- The role of the agricultural soils in the water protection, conservation and purification in the context of mainly conventional agriculture and of agricultural valuation of by-products and potentially polluting effluents.
- The agronomic research for the reduction of water requirements and of potentially polluting agricultural inputs.
- The optimisation of raw materials use in the food processing, including the valuing of by-products and design of food and ingredients of higher nutritional, organoleptic and functional quality which, at the same time, contribute to the development, diversification and sustainability of the food industry.
- The safe reusing of by-products and wastewaters as agricultural inputs for the primary production.