NitroScope
Intelligent nitrogen management for European agriculture
NitroScope is a four-year Horizon Europe project that aims to establish Europe's most comprehensive and integrated nitrogen monitoring network to date. With over 100 monitoring stations in more than ten pedoclimatic regions, the project combines advanced sensor technology, modeling and user-friendly digital tools for farmers to quantify nitrate concentrations and nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions in real time.
With the participation of 25 organizations from 15 countries, NitroScope translates scientific data into practical, region-specific solutions to increase fertilizer efficiency, reduce nitrogen losses, promote healthier soils, safeguard water quality and strengthen climate-resilient agricultural systems. As part of the EU Soil Mission, the project contributes directly to the objectives of the Soil Agreement for Europe.
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Nitrogen (N) is essential for plant growth. Nevertheless, current agricultural systems have a low nitrogen use efficiency: Only 30-50% of the applied fertilizer is taken up by the plants. The rest is lost to the environment, leaching into groundwater or volatilizing as nitrous oxide (N₂O), a highly potent and persistent greenhouse gas. These losses impair soil functionality, degrade water quality and contribute to climate change. This underlines the urgent need for smarter and more effective nitrogen management across Europe.
NitroScope brings together scientists, land managers, industry and policy makers to improve the monitoring and management of nitrogen flows. Using advanced sensor technologies at over 100 sites in at least ten European soil climate regions, the project generates high-resolution, real-time datasets on nitrate dynamics and N₂O emissions. These data streams are integrated into a central, cloud-based platform that calculates region-specific emission factors and provides decision support to optimize nitrogen use efficiency.
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