dr. J. Meurs (Joris)

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• ResearchGate

H-index: 9

• 2022 - 2023 VOCSENSE: Towards smart soil sensing to expedite the transition to a greener agriculture With a growing population, soil health is increasingly important. However, past land use intensification, including fertilizer and pesticide use has significantly aggravated soil biotic diversity and functioning. Emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from soil could be promising to monitor soil biological health. The unique profile of soil VOCs can be linked to soil microbial community composition and concurrent soil biological health. The current challenge is to link VOC profiles to soil health parameters that can be used by farmers. The VOCSENSE team will deliver step-change research on the fundamental relationships between soil biodiversity, VOCs and soil health parameters, to guide farmers in sustainable decision making.
• 2022 - 2028 Many (animal) diseases are accompanied by the release of volatile substances that form a specific odour. As a result, it regularly happens that veterinarians visit a livestock farm and can already make a diagnosis on entering the stable based on the smell they perceive. In this project, researchers from universities and colleges, together with companies and institutions have joined a consortium to develop a sensor that can detect these odors and thus warn the farmer at an early stage of a possible outbreak. Different sensor platforms and different chemical material functionalization strategies will be compared and the best combinations will be used for further development. Analytical methods will be employed at RU to analyze extensively the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) related to the disease odor. We aim to study the relation between the VOCs and disease and investigate the possibility to use these VOCs as biomarkers for early detection. These data will be used in the development
• 2020 - 2027 The goal is to develop and integrate fundamental knowledge from the biological, technical, and social sciences for the next generation of sustainable agricultural systems, based on the new concept of “technology-4-ecology-based farming” (T4E-farming). This is a national partnership between five Dutch universities (WUR-coordinator, TU Eindhoven, TU Delft, University of Twente, and Radboud University), technology and innovation centre OnePlanet, TiFN (top institute Food & Nutrition), and various parties from the business community. The consortium will perform research in three case studies: greenhouse horticulture, dairy farming, and arable farming. Radboud University is represented by our group in dairy farming case study. We shall use our expertise in spectroscopy and breath analysis and contribute with the development of an optical sensor for (real-time) monitoring of methane emission in exhaled breath of cows, next to other relevant volatile compounds.

• 2023 - MW Troffee