The overall objective of GALILEO is to rely on genuine Multi-Actor Approaches (MAA) to co-develop context-specific, people-centered agroforestry innovations in representative agro-pastoral, agroforestry, and agro-silvo-pastoral systems from Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The aim is to promote agroforestry as leverage to significantly improve agricultural, household, and climate change adaptation and mitigation performances and to enhance biodiversity in SSA. We build upon 8 agroforestry Living Labs (LLs: local scale and actors), 4 national and 1 regional Innovation Platforms (IPs), set up across 4 AU SSA countries. Our LLs are set in semi-arid zones of Senegal and Kenya and normally humid but drought-prone zones of Ghana and Cameroon thus comparing and covering a large range of SSA conditions. Through MMA, we co-construct potentially adoptable scenarios ex-ante with Innovator, Target, and Control actors in our LLs, then implement, assess, and compare performances in their pilot plots during the whole project. We use field observations also to calibrate process models, able to simulate under future CC scenarios. After full multi-criteria and trade-off analysis, we finally co-select the most effective scenarios ex-post. We thus rely on transdisciplinary research, providing qualitative and quantitative data on the biophysical, socio-economic, and environmental performances. Such adoptable agroforestry innovations will also enable farmers/pastoralists and stakeholders to diversify their incomes from new agroforestry value chains, of which 2 are GALILEO-original. They will also benefit from carbon farming and payment for ecosystem services opportunities. Through our IPs, we also engage in solid MAA collaborations and policy dialogues to first identify bottlenecks and second elaborate guidelines, and policy recommendations, helping towards strengthening their local innovation ecosystems, under a favorable institutional and policy framework.

Soil-borne plant-parasitic nematodes are a biosecurity risk for global food production with an estimated annual loss of €110 billion worldwide. Root-knot nematodes (RKN) and potato cyst nematodes (PCN) rank 1 and 2 in the Top 10 of high-impact plant-parasitic nematodes with RKN alone accounting for ~5% of global crop losses. RKN and PCN are A2 quarantine pests or emerging species listed on the EPPO Alert List. The two PCN species are also included in EU Commission implementing regulation 2021/2285. Recent reports document the emergence of new RKN and PCN problems in tomato and potato cropping across Europe and beyond due to two independent drivers: global warming and genetic selection. For decades, non-specific, environmentally harmful agrochemicals have been applied to manage RKN and PCN. The increasing awareness about their negative impact prompted the phasing out of most nematicides. Consequently, there is an urgent need for novel, durable control strategies that enable adequate responses by stakeholders to prevent crop losses in the EU and beyond. NEM-EMERGE will provide a spectrum of sustainable, science-based solutions for both the conventional and organic farming sector based on the principles of IPM, including (1) optimized crop rotations schemes including cover crops, (2) tailored host plant resistances, and (3) optimal use of the native antagonistic potential of soils. Moreover, monitoring and risk assessment tools will be generated to support Plant Health Authorities in decision and policy making. To ensure the adoption and implementation of NEM-EMERGE tools in the sector, a bottom-up co-creation process and multi-actor approach will be used based on stakeholder demands from both the conventional and organic sector. This makes NEM-EMERGE a key driver for the transition to sustainable farming in line with the Farm to Fork Strategy thereby contributing to the challenging targets set by the Green Deal.

Africa's soils are in crisis, with widespread degradation threatening agricultural productivity, biodiversity, and water regulation. Unsustainable farming practices, climate change, and population growth exacerbate this issue, leading to reduced crop yields, food insecurity, and economic hardship for millions. Women and youth are particularly affected, facing increased workloads and limited educational and economic opportunities. Addressing these challenges requires accurate and accessible soil health data, which is often unavailable or hard to obtain across the continent. This hampers policymakers and researchers in monitoring soil conditions, tracking changes, and implementing targeted interventions. The AUSO project aims to tackle these issues by establishing a continental African Union Soil Observatory (AUSO), which includes an African Soil Data Center (ASDAC) and a Soil Health Dashboard to fill existing data gaps. Managed by FARA and owned by the African Union Commission, the AUSO will consolidate soil data from various national and international sources, creating a user-friendly platform for soil health monitoring. Through efforts to address data shortages and develop national soil health strategies in 12 countries, AUSO will empower stakeholders in the public and private sectors to make informed decisions, prioritize interventions, and support evidence-based soil and land management policies that promote sustainable agriculture. AUSO will build on the Soils4Africa SIS and draw insights from the EU Soil Observatory and other initiatives, ensuring relevance and adaptability to the African context. The project will adopt a co-development approach, engaging stakeholders from national agricultural institutes, government departments, and other key organizations.

Food security in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) is under threat, and unless agricultural productivity in the region doubles within the next 2 decades, it will face major consequences in terms of famine and associated problems. Plant-parasitic nematodes (PPN) are microscopic roundworms whose unmanaged presence has a massively deleterious effect on crop productivity. They infect many plants of great economic importance, including maize, potato, soybean and banana, resulting in annual yield losses of billions of USD worldwide. Notably in SSA, a poor understanding and awareness of nematology within higher education has resulted in a lack of trained nematode scientists and professionals, both in non-profit and private sectors. As a consequence, the importance of PPN management remains overlooked, effectively sabotaging potential for improved agricultural productivity. The inclusion of nematology at the initial stages of higher education in Africa is crucial to maximise the number of students exposed to the discipline, resulting in better-prepared, fully-informed BSc and MSc graduates entering the job market. In SSA, increasing the numbers of well-trained nematology students will be vital in addressing the many nematology-related problems in the area, as well as in providing sustainable solutions to food security and environmental health in the region.The main aim of the NEMEDUSSA project is to support this academic transformation via promotion of nematology in selected Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and by transforming these selected HEIs into regional centres of excellence for nematology education. To achieve this overall objective, the aims of NEMEDUSSA are to:• enhance nematology capacity at HEIs by professionalisation of staff and by upgrading facilities;• develop BSc and MSc modules in nematology to be incorporated into existing HEI programmes; • establish a Pan-African Nematology Network; • disseminate awareness aand information to a range of stakeholders.

Targeting ambitious changes in agricultural practices that would preserve restore and enhance soil carbon and soil health requires an increased coordination of international research cooperation. The specific challenge lies in the identification, implementation and verification of agricultural soil management practices which create a positive soil/ecosystem carbon budget at the farm and landscape levels, sequester carbon, improve soil structure and soil quality and provide climate change adaptation while contributing to sustainable development. In this context, the CSA CIRCASA has an overarching goal to develop synergies on research in this field at European Union and global level, targeting four realistic and highly complementary objectives: O1. Strengthen the international research community on agricultural soil carbon sequestration; O2. Provide an improved understanding of agricultural soil carbon sequestration and its potential for climate change mitigation and adaptation and for demands of increased food production; O3. Synthesizing stakeholder’s views and knowledge needs on agricultural soil carbon sequestration and climate change O4. Favor a more structured approach, by preparing an International Research Consortium (IRC) These four objectives will produce measurable outputs during the time frame of the project and create significant outcomes for the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and of the Paris agreement (COP21, 4 per 1000 voluntary initiative) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). CIRCASA will benefit from the participation of three major initiatives: the Global Research Alliance on agricultural greenhouse gases (GRA), the Joint Programming Initiative on Sustainable Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change (FACCE JPI) and the 4 per 1000 - Soils for Food Security and Climate - initiative, and from the contribution of the CCCAFS and the WLE programs of the CGIAR.