VISIONARY wants to make a difference in food system transitions, by identifying what factors underlie the path dependencies and ‘lock-ins’ in current unsustainable food systems, and showing how these can be overcome. VISIONARY will tackle both, policy and business shifts as drivers that are necessary to make a change at the system level. The project aims to improve the sustainability of agriculture by promoting practices in food production systems that are more environmentally friendly, economically viable and socio-culturally appropriate. VISIONARY focuses on existing initiatives, practices and (policy) interventions (case studies) that are still niche or small-scale, and investigates the barriers to scaling up and out. Case studies cover value chain examples with a differing complexity, different environmental policy transitions pathways and existing agri-food system examples, namely the shift to organic farming and more plant-based protein production and consumption. At its core, VISIONARY uses methods from experimental and behavioural economics to identify barriers and appropriate behavioural interventions (nudges, education, incentives) for farmers and consumers. The novelty of VISIONARY lies in the combination of experimental methods with a systems thinking approach, considering the whole agri-food system as an influence on farmer decisions. The innovative combination of quantitative and qualitative data from a variety of methods is our important methodological contribution to more system based research. Comparability will be achieved by applying the same or similar methods across case studies in Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Italy, Spain, Denmark and the UK. In order to achieve improved capacities, for researchers in behavioural and experimental research, as well as for policy makers and value chain actors to, utilise such research, VISIONARY will work with these actors in Science-Policy-Interfaces set up alongside the case studies.

The proposed project: Initiative of Fostering cross-border knowledge exchange and co-creation on sustainable soil and farm management (Soil-X-Change) will help to connect farmers, actors, policy makers, projects, and initiatives to speed up innovation and promote faster, wider co-creation and transposition of innovative solutions into practice. It will contribute to effective AKIS by intensifying thematic cooperation between researchers, farmers, and other stakeholders in the EU. Soil-X-Change will also contribute to the green transition, smart agriculture, climate-neutrality, and sustainability areas, as well as enhancing and exchanging the knowledge of the main actors. Soil-X-Change, initiated by EIP-AGRI Operational Group practitioners (OGs), reflects the needs of 151 direct partners. It will collect, combine, harmonise, analyse and integrate the results and data product developed by the different EIP-AGRI OGs and the project partners. Soil-X-Change will disseminate and share innovative practices across 9 member countries. Furthermore, the Soil-X-Change project will bring together EIP OGs and key stakeholders working on sustainable soil and farm management to create an EU-wide network, share knowledge, and introduce ready-to-use practices that will enable farmers to make the right decisions related to agricultural production practices. At the end of the project the extended knowledge and innovative ideas of member and non-member OGs will widen the scope of their activities and showcasing their result to an increased number of stakeholders and farmers in an international environment and network across EU countries. Soil-X-Change will use a bottom-up approach (farmers to OGs) and will reinforce and share practical knowledge using the main dissemination channels suitable for farmers and practitioners.

The EU ILUC directive in 2015 introduced in the legislative framework a new concept for transport biofuels, the indirect land-use change (“ILUC”). Following, the recently issued red ii Directive introduces an exemption for biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels certified as low ILUC-risk toward the phasing out requirement for high-iluc risk feedstocks. The respective delegate act defines as low ILUC risk: ‘fuels produced in a way that mitigates ILUC emissions, either because they result from productivity increases or they come from crops grown on abandoned or severely degraded land’. The aim of the proposed project is to support the EC in the foreseen revisions of REDII by providing evidence, measuring and widely disseminating the market potential of low ILUC risk value chains for biomass, biofuels and bioliquids in Europe. The work will focus on three specific pathways to achieve low ILUC-risk, sustainable value-chains for advanced biofuel production, distinguished among the type of biomass, the cultivation and production mode. The project will map and evaluate both possible productivity increase for crops grown on abandoned or severely degraded land, and the feasibility of a new biogas-to-liquid production route. The core activity of BIKE project will be to investigate on the reliability of identified low-ILUC risk biofuels production routes, assessing the environmental, social and economic sustainability of proposed solutions. A detailed assessment of existing policy and legal framework, influencing the deployment of low ILUC risk value chains will also be performed to inform future policy and decision making in this area.

The objective of ATTRACTISS is to improve & embed competencies, approaches, instruments & governance models for Member States (MS) AKIS and specifically for Innovation Support Services (ISS) as a crucial AKIS actor, to enable them accelerating individual grassroots innovative ideas to come to fruition & to generate solutions for the transition process to more sustainable agriculture & forestry. ATTRACTISS has the goals to (1) empower ISS & all AKIS actors, through capacity building & provision of effective methods & supportive tools, to discover innovative ideas & enable uptake in a co-creative way thereby fostering AKIS ecosystem building to support the transition to sustainable and circular agriculture & forestry systems (2) support Managing Authorities (MA) in all EU MS to organise & monitor efficient support for ISS; & (3) provide support for new actors in AKIS processes to better facilitate co-creation approaches involving farming, practitioners & research centres. ATTRACTISS achieves these goals by (1) setting up an EU wide network for ISSs that allows to connect, develop common understanding, vision & capacities about their roles & functions within the AKIS. This ultimately leads to the development of an ecosystem in favor of Multi-Actor Approaches (MAA) & innovative projects; (2) building upon and giving continuity to other previous initiatives to focus on ISSs & broaden the networks; (3) systematizing the current databases & tools for ISSs to provide a unique virtual location for tools & guidelines to support best practice; (4) providing a step change in the provision of support & training for key actors in MAA & ISS across MS which builds knowledge, understanding & confidence in the practical delivery & benefits of these approaches; & (5) enabling institutional dialogue among ISSs & MAs based on enhanced understanding of the potential to organize ISS in a way that will lead to targeted CAP interventions for the integration of ISS within the AKIS.

The EU Farm to Fork strategy, which is at the heart of the European Green Deal, aims to make food systems fair, healthy, and environmentally friendly. To achieve the objectives of the Farm to Fork strategy, the Commission proposed, among other, new targets to reduce the use and risks of pesticides (RURP). The main objective of AdvisoryNetPEST is to establish and upgrade a network of advisory services across the EU, increasing the knowledge sharing between advisors, and among the whole AKIS, and the adoption of innovative solutions to RURP by farmers. The project will achieve this by: 1) Developing a EU network of advisors to RURP, based on existing networks and national AKIS, covering the 27 EU Members States (MSs) and the UK. To cover all MSs, the project will adopt a twinning approach: 14 National Networks will be created by the project partners, and these will engage with 14 Associated Networks through a twining program. The network will cover all European pedo-climatic areas, integrating four EU regional clusters and the most relevant crop sectors. 2) Identifying, selecting, and shaping Novel Approaches (NAs), which are technically, economically, socially, and environmentally viable, that will be adapted and replicated across the EU. 3) Exchanging knowledge and training advisors and students to promote the adoption of the NAs. 4) Connecting the project with other national and EU projects, initiatives and policy makers. 5) Scaling up the NAs, fostering the adoption of innovative solutions by farmers and the whole value chain. The project will embrace a multi-actor approach, gathering 19 partner organisations with a vast experience in advisory and crop protection. The consortium will also represent a diversity of AKIS stakeholders, including advisors, researchers, and other value chain actors, as the cornerstone of a regional, national, and EU level network that will allow a wide sharing of technical and practical expertise to RURP in the long-term.