Enochip (kit to detect spoilage micro-organisms in the wine production), Centro, Portugal SYNTHESIS The main objective of Enochip was to develop an innovative technology for wine producers to help detect spoilage micro-organisms (e.g. fungi and bacteria) that contaminate the wine musts (i.e. the juice pressed from grapes before it has fermented) and are responsible for spoiling the quality of the wine. The project was in a first phase to identify the wine micro-flora existing in Bairrada (a geographical area within the Portuguese Centro region), and was in a second phase to develop a user-friendly kit (enokit) for winegrowers to help identify micro-organisms responsible for wine deterioration, so as to enhance the quality of regional wines and to reinforce their competitiveness in the national and international markets. Enochip brought together three partners based in a small town (Cantanhede) of the Centro region: Biocant (coordinator and expertise provider), which is the first technology park entirely devoted to biotechnology in Portugal; the Cantanhede Wine Co-operative (end-user) that has about 1,400 associated winegrowers and is one of the largest wine producers in the Centro region; and the Municipality of Cantanhede. The project was developed around three main activities: 1) identification of the wine micro-organisms present in the wine musts through a metagenomics method (i.e. DNA genetic analyses); 2) the development of a simple technological kit aiming at monitoring the existence of undesirable micro- organisms in the fermentation of the wine musts; and 3) the validation of this kit together with a number of selected winegrowers in order to make it available to the wine market. The direct beneficiaries of the project are the winegrowers of the Centro region who, thanks to the project results, have the possibility of enhancing the quality of their wines through a cheap and easy-to-use tool. Enochip was one the 19 projects funded under iCentro - Regional Programme of Innovative Actions for the Centro Region undertaken from 2006 to 2009. The iCentro strategy focused on the identification of innovation needs of local businesses, which should be addressed by the best expertise and technological strengths available in the region, particularly in geographical areas characterised by low population density and traditional agricultural and industrial sectors. Enochip fits in this strategy by bringing together a regional prominent institution in the biotechnology field (Biocant) and an entity (wine co- operative) operating in the primary sector located outside the main regional urban centres with a specific problem to be solved: the contamination of the winemaking by micro-organisms that are responsible for decreasing wine quality. Apart from undertaking the first ever exhaustive recognition of micro-organisms present in the wine micro-flora of Centro’s sub-region of Bairrada (in fact, it is likely that a similar action has taken place in very few other regions worldwide), the Enochip project has developed and applied an innovative kit to easily monitor the presence of these organisms in the winemaking industry. The project partners believe that the characteristics of the kit are unique in the world. The enokit is a small box that contains small recipients to collect the wine musts and a strip of very small tubes containing the appropriate reagents previously prepared in a laboratory where the wine sample is to be placed. The analyses to identify spoilage micro-organisms can afterwards be rapidly made at any ordinary laboratory (results are known in less than 24 hours). By knowing the organisms existing in the wine musts, the oenologists (or other wine experts) can timely use adequate chemical products to eliminate the spoilage micro-organisms, which contributes to the enhancement of the wines quality and avoids that large amounts of wine production are not used commercially due to its bad taste. The method used through the enokit is extraordinarily faster than the traditional ways of controlling spoilage agents in the wine musts (based on Pasteur’s discoveries) that may take about a week to detect the exact types of micro-organisms. Very 1 often this is too late to avoid low quality wine as it is not possible to timely revert the action of the spoilage agents. Enochip could therefore inspire other regions to promote innovation in traditional sectors such as agriculture or the wine sector. Three main key factors can be pointed out to explain the interesting results achieved by the project: • The scientific and technological capacity of the expertise provider partner that was capable of answering to specific problems faced by the regional economic players; • The involvement of the right partners (cooperative and municipality) in order to convince the wine makers to use enokit, thus persuading a usually conservative public that is not always open to innovations; • The flexibility demonstrated by the RPIA Managing Authority, which was able to concede more funding and time to the project than initially planned. This was crucial to help the project partners to overcome some technological development difficulties faced along the process. The innovative kit developed by the Enochip consortium has considerable commercial potential. Various companies from and outside the region operating in the wine market have expressed their interest in using it. Whilst the process is for the time being at an incipient phase, the project coordinator (Biocant) is considering the best way of industrialising and commercialising the kit in the national and international markets. BACKGROUND INFORMATION Country: Portugal Region: Centro Full project title: Enochip Duration of project: 01/2007-12/2008 (Application submitted at the end of 2006) Key words: Environmental technologies, technology transfer, wine industry; Funding: total budget: €150,089.03 ERDF contribution: €113,767.48 National budget: €0 Private contribution: €36,321.55 ERDF Objective: Regional Programmes of Innovative Actions 2000-2006 1. PROJECT DESCRIPTION The objective of the Enochip project was to develop a cheap, user-friendly kit for wine producers to detect spoilage micro-organisms (e.g. fungi and bacteria) that contaminate the musts (i.e. the juice pressed from grapes). These micro-organisms are responsible for jeopardising the wine quality, so the project was aiming ultimately at enhancing the quality and competitiveness of the regional wines in the very competitive national and international wine markets. The main activities of the project consisted of: • Identifying all the local wine micro-flora through a metagenomics approach (i.e. genetic material recovered directly from wine musts samples). This relatively new field of genetic research enables studies of micro-organisms that are not easily cultured in a laboratory, as well as studies of 2 organisms in their natural environment. Thanks to this activity, it was possible to detect the micro- organisms that are present in the local wine musts; • Developing and producing a kit for real-time molecular diagnoses in order to monitor spoilage micro-organisms that are undesirable for the fermentation of the wine; • Validating the kit technology and making it available for the winemaking market. The main beneficiaries of the project are Biocant, as the project coordinator that had the possibility of developing applied research work, and the Cantanhede Wine Cooperative, which had the possibility of testing an innovative solution capable of enhancing the quality of their members’ wines. Ultimately, the beneficiaries are all the winemaking producers of Bairrada (a sub-region of the Centro region), for whom a practical and cheap tool is available to achieve better quality in the production of their wines. The main result of the project was therefore the creation of the enokit, which detects spoilage agents that may endanger the wines quality. The expected impact of the project is to enhance the quality of the Bairrada wines, which are among the best wines of Portugal. 2. POLITICAL AND STRATEGIC CONTEXT The Centro region, where the Enochip project took place, is one of the seven NUTS II regions of Portugal. Located in the central part of the country, between the two major national urban centres (Lisbon and Porto), the region has about 2.4 million inhabitants (22% of Portugal’s population). It is an ERDF Objective 1 region. The regional economy is rather diversified encompassing predominantly low technology level industrial sectors (e.g. ceramics, glass, cement, forest industries (wood, pulp, paper), and agro-food), and some medium and high-tech sectors such as health services, biotechnology, telecommunications, new materials (particularly the moulds industry), ICT, and renewable energies. The region has quite low population density in the inland areas (except the urban centres located there) in contrast with the coast lands, which are most populated and urbanised areas. Centro has a rather strong scientific and technological profile in the national context, with three public universities and five polytechnic institutes, four relevant technological centres, several private R&D units, and numerous incubators for innovative businesses. However, the region has lacked until recently a cooperation culture among its main economic and social players. In particular, no effective links have traditionally been established between the knowledge centres and the business community, which has hampered the enhancement of the innovation capacity of local