Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) is the largest Higher Education Institution in Greece and one of the largest in Southeastern Europe. It is known as the most interdisciplinary university in the country with a wide range of offered services in basic and applied research, as well as in research on humanities and social sciences. It comprises 10 faculties, which consist of 40 schools and 1 single-School Faculty. Its strategic objectives, in the framework of its vision/mission, remain high and consistently oriented to the continuation of its tradition; namely, to be a pioneer institution, standing out among Greek and many foreign Universities on all levels: education, research, culture, connection with society. AUTH is committed to performing high-quality research in pioneering topics aiming at quality and excellence promotion. Due to its wide range of scientific actions, AUTH can implement research, technological, educational, and training projects in almost all scientific fields. AUTH also promotes innovation by financing 83 patents on promising research results at national, European and international levels and by supporting the creation of spin-off companies. The AUTH Special Account for Research Funds (SARF), certified with ISO 9001:2000, is responsible for the financial management of AUTH’s research projects.
The Spectra Lab Group belongs to the Laboratory of Remote Sensing, Spectroscopy and GIS of the Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Environment of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki led by Professor George Zalidis. SpectraLab’s focus lies on the fields of Environmental Computational Science, Explainable Artificial Intelligence, Spectroscopy, Smart Integrated Sensing Systems, and especially on the modernization & digitalization of Soil Science. SpectraLab mainly deals with the development of new and improved (digital) tools and field-deployable methods and approaches for the Agri-Food Supply Chain by harnessing the power of Computational Intelligence and by handling Big Data derived from cutting-edge Sensing Technologies, some of them customized by the Lab's team.
Role within SOB4ES
In brief, SpectraLab’s role within SOB4ES is expected to focus on applying data analytics and AI to identify drivers and pressures of soil biodiversity under various land use changes, as well as to assess the links between soil biodiversity and basic ecosystem functions and services and their variability across EU regions.
