Horta

Academic Spin-off
Name: Horta s.r.l.

Company headquarter: Via Egidio Gorra 55

City: Piacenza

Host University: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Website: www.horta-srl.it

E-mail: [email protected]
Horta Srl is a spin-off company of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore borne in 2008; its mission is the increase of the value of research by transferring the technological innovation to practical agriculture at national and international level. The core activity of Horta is the development of Decision Support Systems (DSSs) for sustainable crop production based on new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Successful DSSs are grano.net®, orzo.net®, vite.net®, used for the sustainable management of wheat (durum and winter wheat), barley and grapevine, by hundreds of growers and advisors on thousands of hectares all around Italy.


The know-how included in the DSSs derives from research and development activities performed in collaboration with the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and other research entities in Italy and Europe. Moreover, Horta manages a certified weather station network of more than 600 stations distributed on the whole Italian territory and provides to its users assistance for the optimal use if the DSSs. Finally, Horta performs extension activities to disseminate the results of the research and development activities and of the DSSs through visits by growers, advisors and other stakeholders to its demonstration and experimental fields.