Phenotyping platform DARkWIN project

What if we let pollinators choose our next tomato varieties?

That is the revolutionary idea driving this innovative project. In a context marked by climate change and the urgent need to find sustainable agricultural solutions, the European DARkWIN project takes a different approach: instead of artificially selecting plants in the laboratory, it proposes letting the pollinators—bumblebees in this case—make the choice for us.

By visiting the flowers they find most attractive, these insects naturally select the plants with the best traits: greater heat resistance, better water-use efficiency, or superior fruit quality. The scientific team studies this behavior to understand what pollinators prefer and how it relates to the plants’ genetics.

Technology at the service of natural selection

In the DARkWIN project, technology doesn’t replace nature—it observes and supports it.

To carry out this study, the team led by CEBAS-CSIC combines advanced scientific and technological tools:
• Miniaturized sensors (Living IoT) to track the flight of pollinators.
• Genetic and laboratory analyses to identify the most prominent traits of the selected plants.
• A phenotyping platform designed and installed by Novagric where the experiment takes place.

The platform consists of multitunnel greenhouses divided into six completely independent sectors, capable of simulating different environmental scenarios thanks to the Climatec climate control system. Each sector has its own fertigation system and real-time monitoring, allowing precise and reproducible study of how plants respond under different conditions.

Bumblebee monitored with a tracking chip

Pollinator-friendly biological control

In addition, the project incorporates biological control techniques as an alternative to chemical treatments.

In collaboration with Koppert, the use of Cryptobug has been introduced — a predatory beetle that controls mealybug populations without harming either the plants or the bumblebees.

Discover how the DARkWIN project works in the following report (don’t forget to turn on the subtitles)

Funded by the European PathFinder program, DARkWIN is an example of how science can be inspired by nature to design innovative and sustainable agricultural solutions, bringing together cutting-edge technology, animal behavior observation and advanced agronomic design.

The project, which will run for the next three and a half years, is funded by the Pathfinder programme of the European Innovation Council (Horizon Europe). The interdisciplinary consortium includes the participation of five research centres: CEBAS-CSIC, which coordinates the project; the Center for Automation and Robotics (CAR, CSIC-UPM); the Doñana Biological Station of the CSIC (EBD-CSIC); the Center for Plant Biotechnology and Genomics (CBGP, CSIC-UPM); and the Max Planck Institute in Germany, as well as three companies from the agri-food sector, including NOVAGRIC.

More information on the project: darkwin.eu