On 2–3 October 2026, the Bulduri Biotechnology Centre (BBC) at Bulduri Technical School in Jūrmala, Latvia, hosted the fourth event of the Nordic Testbed Network Roadshow 2026 – the “Bulduri Field Day”.
Roadshow 4 was the first NTN Field Day held in Latvia. 57 registered participants from Latvia, Sweden and Estonia, including researchers, testbed staff, start-ups, growers, advisors, VET teachers and students, and representatives of the Latvian Ministry of Agriculture, explored the operational pilot systems of the Latvian Digi-Garden testbed.
Hands-on demonstrations
After an introduction to the Nordic Testbed Network, BBC and its current projects, participants rotated in small groups between four demonstration blocks: precision irrigation and fertigation with automatic irrigation and lighting control and soil analyses; field and lab phenotyping with the robot “Robis Floksis”, which participants could operate themselves; controlled-environment agriculture systems, including aeroponics, hydroponics/NFT and lighting-regime trials; and plant biotechnology, featuring micropropagation and Temporary Immersion Bioreactors, including moss propagation in liquid media.
A start-up corner featured pitches from Umeå University (Sweden) and Moshub, a start-up developing moss-based green infrastructure against urban air and noise pollution in cooperation with BBC. Field visits covered the trial plots of the EIP-AGRI project “DigiDārzs” and a demonstration project on regular soil and plant analyses in vegetable production. The day closed with a discussion on next steps and joint call opportunities, followed by a networking dinner.
Reaching growers and the public
Day 2 coincided with the Bulduri plant and crafts fair, which attracts several thousands of visitors. In a programme held mainly in Latvian, growers, nurseries, and the general public learned about artificial lighting for plants, the growing racks being developed at BBC, soil fertility, composting and enzyme activity in soil, and took part in a guided field tour of crops grown under different fertilisation regimes. Posters and information about NTN were on display throughout the day.
Nordic–Baltic value
The Field Day presented, for the first time within NTN, a Latvian testbed combining controlled-environment agriculture, precision horticulture and plant biotechnology. The discussions opened concrete cooperation topics, such as AI-based processing of phenotyping data, joint testing in CEA and field conditions, and scalable in vitro propagation, and laid a basis for future joint applications and multi-site test campaigns within the network.
The event was funded by the Nordic Testbed Network, coordinated by Nordic Forest Research (SNS) and Nordic Agri Research (NKJ).
