Overview
African countries face increasing challenges from zoonotic diseases due to intensified human–animal–environment interactions, worsened by limited digital surveillance tools. Despite progress in remote sensing and AI for smart farming, uptake remains low due to gaps in knowledge transfer, infrastructure, and drone operation expertise. The livestock and aquaculture sectors also face disruptions, impacting food security and traceability. The demand for sustainable animal feed drives research into insect-based alternatives, though public acceptance is low and regulatory gaps remain. Addressing these requires technological innovation, data-driven tools, and effective policy frameworks under the One Health approach to ensure food system resilience and economic sustainability.
NESTLER aims to develop an integrated digital platform to support One Health sustainability partnership between the EU and Africa. It will combine advanced remote sensing, drone-based imaging, IoT sensors, and AI technologies to monitor the environmental and animal well-being. NESTLER will process large-scale data using AI and ML algorithms, to generate predictive insights for disease outbreaks, crop conditions, and livestock welfare. It will also explore sustainable food systems by promoting insect-based animal feed and studying the role of animal waste in agriculture. Ultimately, NESTLER will inform policy, strengthen food security, and support a transition to a circular economy.
Objectives
Build interdisciplinary consensus among One Health sustainability programme among stakeholders, reviewing the need for technological intervention and the development of food security framework.
Conduct research on the production and optimisation of insect protein leading to feed recipes for livestock and fish.
Develop advanced remote sensing technologies and multi-modal data aggregation protocols to support data analytics.
Develop predictive algorithms for evaluating the impact of weather and climate models upon agriculture.
Deliver automated monitoring services for quality of crop yield and livestock wellbeing.
Develop machine learning algorithms for the evaluation of risk assessment models for predicting disease and pest outbreaks affecting food security.
Implement and integrate data analytics tools and NESTLER visualisation dashboard.
Release One-Health sustainability roadmap for EU-Africa partnership.
eBOS Role in the Project
In NESTLER, eBOS will lead the development of an economic risk assessment model, building on three decades of published research. It will account for the expansion of agricultural land, increased crop yields, and growing global trade in food products, which creates strong nutritional interdependencies across regions. As climate change alters agricultural production and food supply, the model will utilise deep learning techniques, such as regression-based algorithms, to predict a risk index that reflects these complex dynamics.
eBOS will also lead the validation and integration of the NESTLER platform for deployment. This task will unify the project’s outputs into two major platform releases. As task leader, eBOS will drive the development of a comprehensive continuous integration plan to coordinate all software components and services. The plan will analyse available software resources and define, specify, and document integration endpoints, ensuring seamless inter-module and inter-component integration across the platform.
Lastly, eBOS will contribute to the creation of an interactive visualisation toolkit for end-users. This toolkit will present user-centric information from the NESTLER platform in various formats, enabling users to engage with outputs. It will feature a comprehensive dashboard offering insights into farming conditions, including crop cultivation and pest outbreaks.
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
