AgriVentures Opens a New Soil Living Lab — Ready for the Next Wave of International Projects

AgriVentures is proud to announce the opening of a new agricultural Living Lab in Kubrat, Bulgaria — a real-world demonstration site now ready to host EU-funded research, pilot trials, and innovation projects across the agrifood value chain.

Following the success of "Triathlon of Success" — a demonstration field built around intermediate (cover), melliferous and oil-bearing crops — the Kubrat site has evolved from a one-day showcase into a permanent, working Living Lab open to European partners and project consortia. Backed up with project management experience, the team together with Agrovar and Seeds.bg are open to new large scale projects.

From Demo Field to Living Lab

On June 11, 2026, AgriVentures and partners Сортови Семена Разград and Agrovar hosted a demonstration day on more than 20 plots in Kubrat, bringing together farmers, agronomists and project partners around nine alternative crops: lupin, vetch (Vicia ervilia), fenugreek, field pea, buckwheat, safflower, camelina and white mustard. Farmers and agronomists walked the plots, inspected live soil profiles, and discussed how cover, pollinator-friendly and oilseed crops can cut input costs, restore soil organic matter, support pollinators, and add resilience against drought.

That single day has now become the foundation for something bigger. The Kubrat field is being established as a permanent agricultural Living Lab — a real-farm environment where new crop varieties, soil-health practices, crop rotations and digital monitoring tools can be tested, measured and demonstrated under real production conditions, together with the farming community that will ultimately use them.

Why It Matters for EU Funding

Living Labs are at the heart of the European Commission's approach to agricultural innovation — most visibly through Horizon Europe's Mission Soil – A Soil Deal for Europe, which is funding networks of Living Labs and Lighthouses across the continent to translate soil science into farm practice. AgriVentures has been closely tracking this wave of funding, including the 13 newly launched Mission Soil projects spanning soil biodiversity, carbon farming, erosion monitoring, nitrogen fluxes and pollinator-friendly farming.

With the Kubrat Living Lab now operational, AgriVentures can offer European project consortia something many proposals lack: an established demonstration site, a network of engaged farmers and agronomists, and three years of crop and soil data already in motion through the cover/melliferous/oilseed rotation programme. This positions the site — and AgriVentures as a partner — for participation in upcoming calls under:

• Horizon Europe Mission Soil — Living Labs and Lighthouse farms for soil health, carbon farming and biodiversity

• AgroDigiRise 2.0 — the European Digital Innovation Hub for agriculture, supporting digital adoption on farms

• Erasmus+ and SAFE-AGRI — skills, training and responsible-innovation initiatives for the agrifood sector

Open for Partners

AgriVentures, together with Select Seeds and Agrovar, is now inviting research institutions, agritech companies, farmer cooperatives and project coordinators across Europe to explore collaboration opportunities at the Living Lab — whether as a demonstration site, a data-collection partner, or a pilot location for new Horizon Europe, Erasmus+.

"The demo day showed us that farmers want practical answers, not theory. A Living Lab gives us a place to find those answers together — and to bring that evidence straight into new European projects." — AgriVentures team

Organisations interested in partnering on a project proposal involving the Kubrat Living Lab can get in touch with the AgriVentures team at start@agriventures.co, or via agriventures.co or https://pokrivni.com/

AgriVentures is a mission-driven non-profit accelerating innovation in agriculture and food, connecting startups, farmers, researchers and funding opportunities across the European agrifood ecosystem.

The role of Agriventures in supporting agrifood innovation

As the agritech startup ecosystem grows across Europe, initiatives such as Agriventures are helping connect entrepreneurs, researchers, investors, and policymakers working in agriculture and food innovation.

Agriventures focuses on supporting agrifood startups, biotechnology innovation, and access to European funding for agriculture, while also helping entrepreneurs navigate the complex landscape of startup financing, venture capital, and research commercialization.

By strengthening connections between startups, research institutions, investors, and farmers, Agriventures contributes to building a stronger agricultural innovation ecosystem that can accelerate the transition toward sustainable agriculture and resilient food systems.

Through knowledge sharing, events, and ecosystem building, Agriventures helps ensure that promising agritech innovations can scale and reach farmers, food producers, and global markets.