Laboratory of Agricultural Constructions and Environmental Control

Director

Nikolaos Katsoulas , Professor (Agricultural Constructions-Greenhouses)

Members

Evangelini Kitta, Laboratory Teaching Staff (Agricultural Constructions)

Laboratory Vision

The activity of the Laboratory of Agricultural Constructions and Environmental Control (LACEC), from 1995 to the present day, focuses on research issues that mainly concern the Greenhouse sector, and especially on environmentally friendly production through the optimal design and control of the greenhouse climate, which leads to the reduction of energy, water, fertilizers and pesticides inputs, and the environmental footprint of the greenhouse.

LACEC has extensive research facilities, which include fully automated greenhouses, laboratory equipment for the analysis of mass end energy balance in agricultural buildings, various instrumentation for measuring climate variables and plant physiological activities.

The research team of the LACEC has highly qualified personnel (Agronomists, Engineers and PhD and MSc students) with the necessary skills and experience in issues related to research, technology transfer, training and education.

The members of the LACEC team place particular emphasis on the field of greenhouse technologies and in particular on issues related to: bioclimatology, greenhouse design, equipment and covering materials, the use of new technologies and techniques, and the development and use of sensors and greenhouse management systems.

So far LACEC has participated in more than 50 research projects funded by the European Commission and National Funds in topics related to greenhouse technologies and management, have published more than 120 articles in international peer-reviewed journals and more than 300 in proceedings of national and international conferences.

Website: https://ee.uth.gr/en/content/laboratory-agricultural-constructions-and-environmental-control

Lab multimedia resources

LACEC videos

Courses

Nikolaos Katsoulas, Professor

Undergraduate courses

Undergraduate program of the Department of Agriculture Crop Production and Rural Environment.

Agricultural Constructions – Greenhouses (5^th Semester) eclass: https://eclass.uth.gr/courses/AGR_U_135/

Hydroponic Systems (4^th Semester) eclass: https://eclass.uth.gr/courses/AGR_U_172/

Agricultural Constructions- Facilities for postharvest treatment of agricultural products (9^th Semester) eclass: https://eclass.uth.gr/courses/AGR_U_144/

Research Interests

The Laboratory of Agricultural Constructions and Environmental Control (LACEC) of the Department of Agriculture Crop Production and Rural Environment of UTH is active in the field of agricultural building’s design and equipment, with specialty in Greenhouses and hydroponics systems.

Its main research areas include:

Bioclimatology
Greenhouse design, cover materials and equipment
Environmental physics, mainly greenhouse
Greenhouse energy saving and renewable energy sources in agricultural buildings
Greenhouse crop physiology
Crop growth modelling
Livestock and storage room climate

Nutrient requirements and management of nutrient solutions for horticultural crops in closed and open hydroponics systems.

Selected Research Projects

From 1995 to 2025, the members of the LACEC have participated in more than 50 research projects and have coordinated more than 20 of them (List of research projects that LACEC members have participated in) Professor Nikolaos Katsoulas has been involved as Researcher or Scientific Responsible/Coordinator of 19 projects funded by the European Commission, 6 Bilateral Research Projects, 23 National Research Projects and 4 Research Projects funded by the Research Committee of the University of Thessaly.

Indicative research projects in the last seven years:

1_With funding from the European Commission

– Pathways to phase-out contentious inputs from organic agriculture in Europe, Organic Plus. H2020 (SFS-08-2017, RIA project, grant agreement No 774340), 01/05/2018-30/04/2022. Budget for UTH: €165 500.

– Precision irrigation management to improve water and nutrient use efficiency in the Mediterranean region, PRECIMED. Project funded in the framework of PRIMA projects. 01/10/2019-31/09/2022. Budget for UTH: €180,000.

– Field-testing and demonstration of digital and space-based technologies with agro-ecological and organic practices in systemic innovation, PestNu. H2020, Green Deal, Innovation Action project, grant agreement No 101037128), 01/10/2021-30/09/2024. Budget for the UTH: €372,500.

– Innovative concepts and technologies for ECOlogically sustainable NUTRlent management in agriculture aiming to prevent, mitigate and eliminate pollution in soils, water, and air-EcoNutri. HORIZON-CL6-2022-ZEROPOLLUTION-01, Innovation Action, Proposal number: 101081858, 01/11/2022-30/04/2026. Budget for the UTH: €247,000.

– Crop responsive greenhouse agrivoltaics system with CO, enrichment for Higher Yields-REGACE. Call: HORIZON-CL5-2022-D3-01, Innovation Action, Proposal number: 101096056, Proposal acronym: REGACE. 01/02/2023-31/01/2026. Budget for the UTH: €573,800.

– Emergent soil, plant and food onsite digital services on chemical and biological contaminants. HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-03. Proposal number: 101157922, Proposal acronym: E-SPFdigit. 01/10/2024-30/09/2027. Budget for UTH: €420,000.

2_With funding from the General Secretariat for Research and Innovation

– Cascade Hydroponics: an integrated approach to increase productivity, resource use efficiency and sustainability of protected horticulture, CasH. Greece-Germany bilateral project. 06/2018-03/2024. Budget for UTH: 214,000 €

– Development of a textile with Silica coating for environmentally friendly control of insects in agricultural production, AgrilexSil, Greece-Germany bilateral project. 05/2018-12/2021. Budget for UTH: €132,000.

– Development and optimization of an aquaponic system to increase sustainability in food production, FoodOASIS, 2018-2021. Co-financed by the Union and Greek national funds through Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH-CREATE INNOVATE Code: 11DK Budget for UTH: €470,000.

– Exploitation of liquid wastes for microalgae cultivation and use for biodiesel and aquafeed production, Algae4Fuel&Aqua. 2018-2021. Co-financed by the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH -CREATE-INNOVATE (project code: T1EDK-01580). Budget for UTH: 316000 €.

– Semi-transparent organic and printed photovoltaics for energy efficient Mediterranean greenhouses, Fotokipia. 2018-2025. Co-financed by European Union and Greek national funds through Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH-CREATE INNOVATE (project code: TIEDK-01701). Budget for UTH: 105 000 €.

– Innovative polymer greenhouse films via application of functional coating, INGRECO. 2018-2023. Co-financed by the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH-CREATE- CREATE INNOVATE (project code: T1EDK-01499). Budget for UTH: 85 000 €.

Selected Publications

From 2000 to 2025, the members of the LACEC and Nikolaos Katsoulas have published more than 115 articles in international peer-reviewed journals and more than 300 in proceedings of national and international conferences (List of Papers published in International Journals of the SCI)

Professor Nikolaos Katsoulas has been involved as an author to 9 Books and Books Chapters, 133 Papers published in Proceedings of International Conferences, more than 130 papers published in proceedings of National conferences in Greek. More than 4000 citations of his published work have been found in the ISI® data base

(List of Books/Book Chapters and of Papers published in International Conferences)