University Of Helsinki Joins New International Platform To Cut Agricultural Emissions By Improving Nitrogen Use

The University of Helsinki is one of thirteen partners in AgNUE, a new international research platform launching this year to transform how nitrogen fertiliser is managed in agriculture, with the goal of cutting environmental losses without reducing crop yields.

Nitrogen fertiliser is essential for global food security, but when mismanaged it contributes to significant environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions, air and water pollution, as well as ecosystem degradation.

Despite decades of research, the proportion of applied nitrogen fertilizer that is actually taken up by crops remains below 50% in many crops. This means that more than half of the nitrogen applied to fields is lost, creating a cascade of environmental and economic costs.

One key reason is that many of today’s models used to estimate how fertiliser moves through soil and how much is lost to air and water, rely on data of suboptimal quality. Such data do not fully reflect how nitrogen behaves in real fields under changing weather, soil conditions, and management practices. Improving these models is crucial, as they help bridge the gap between scientific understanding of nitrogen cycling and the implementation of policies designed to mitigate nitrogen pollution.

AgNUE is short for Agricultural Nitrogen Use Efficiency Platform and addresses this challenge by creating the first international network dedicated to measuring and understanding how nitrogen moves through agricultural fields. Spanning Europe and the United States, the initiative brings together leading research institutions to collect comparable, high-quality field data under different soil types, climates, and farming systems.

“If we want to reduce nitrogen losses at scale, we need models that reflect what actually happens in the field,” says Diego Abalos, professor and PI of the project, Aarhus University. “AgNUE is designed to close the gap between measurements, models, and real-world decision-making.”

A new benchmark for nitrogen research
At the core of AgNUE is a network of twelve intensively monitored field sites, known as “supersites”, including the two Danish SmartField locations. SmartField is an innovation platform designed to reduce nitrous oxide emissions and nitrate leaching at field level. Across all sites, nitrogen inputs, transformations, and losses are measured continuously and in much greater detail than before. These measurements are combined with advanced isotopic techniques and microbial studies to better understand what drives nitrogen losses.

For the first time, results from coordinated nitrogen balance experiments will be stored in an open, central data repository with harmonised quality assurance procedures, creating a unique benchmark dataset for testing and improving a wide range of models.

“Better data is the foundation for better models,” says Alex Woodley, Associate Professor and Co-PI at North Carolina State University. “By working across countries and production systems, AgNUE will significantly improve our ability to predict nitrogen losses and evaluate mitigation strategies under real conditions.”

From science to policy and practice
AgNUE will expand coordinated field-scale experimentation to a paneuropean and even transatlantic scale. The resulting data will provide policymakers, industry, and farmers with reliable evidence on which mitigation practices deliver measurable environmental benefits. The existing SmartField initiative as well as the new AgNUE platform are supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. AgNUE is funded with up to €24 by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and additional US-based funding to establish measurement sites in the US.

“Agriculture is a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions because of its use of nitrogen fertiliser. At the same time, agriculture is increasingly exposed to the consequences of climate change — including those driven by its own emissions. I am confident that the tools developed through the AgNUE platform can help mitigate climate change globally without compromising crop productivity and food security,” says Claus Felby, Vice President for Agriculture and Food, Novo Nordisk Foundation.

By combining multi-scale modelling, model ensembles, and AI-driven model–data fusion, AgNUE aims to significantly reduce uncertainty in nitrogen balances and losses. This strengthened modelling capacity responds directly to the growing need for robust and verifiable reporting of agricultural emissions in national and European climate strategies.

International collaboration
Hosted by Aarhus University (Denmark), AgNUE brings together universities and research organisations specialising in soil biogeochemistry, agroecosystem modelling, microbiology, meteorology, and sustainable agronomy. The platform is funded with up to €24M by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and is further supported by US-based funding.

Partners are brought together across Europe and the United States: North Carolina State University (USA), University of Illinois (USA), Wageningen University & Research (Netherlands), University of Basilicata (Italy), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany), Danish Technological Institute (Denmark), Colorado State University (USA), Technical University of Madrid (Spain), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Sweden), Norwegian University of Life Sciences (Norway), University of Helsinki (Finland), and INRAE – the French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (France).

Together, the consortium will establish a long-term research platform designed to accelerate the development, testing, and adoption of nitrogen loss mitigation strategies. The initiative is expected to deliver co-benefits for climate mitigation, ecosystem health, public health, and economic resilience in agriculture.