BROILERNET will create twelve national level innovation networks and three EU level networks of broiler farmers, advisors, supply chain integrator companies, farmers' organisations, researchers and veterinarians to address the upcoming challenges faced by broiler farmers. The project will be designed around three main fields of concern: (1) environmental sustainability; (2) animal welfare; and (3) animal health management. Through a multi-actor approach, the most urgent needs of broiler farmers will be identified and the network will collect and evaluate good practices that are able to meet these needs. BROILERNET will also engage with existing and new broiler-focused EIP-AGRI Operational Groups (OGs) and enhance their impact. The selected best practices will be spread through a variety of communication and dissemination activities to reach the vast majority of broiler farmers in the countries of the participating consortium partners, but also to all broiler farmers across Europe. Numerous multi-language flyers, videos and national roadshows are just some of the dissemination methods that will be foreseen among the activities dedicated to communication and dissemination.

BovINE will tackle urgent sustainability challenges faced by beef producers by bringing together beef farmers, farming organisations, advisors, researchers and all relevant actors across 10 member states to close the divide between research and innovation in Europe. There are 255,000 farms in the EU bovine meat sector, yet no network focused solely on their needs has been established to date. Coordinated by Teagasc (IE), BovINE is built around the multi-actor approach to implement more intense cooperation between researchers, advisors, farmers and relevant actors to facilitate greater exchange and acceptance of co-created solutions. BovINE draws on the EU, national and regional connections of the 18 consortium members to appropriate networks, on the four related key themes of socio-economic resilience, animal health and welfare, production efficiency & quality and environmental sustainability. Using the multi-actor approach BovINE will (i) capture and share innovative ideas and methods from practice across Europe and (ii) identify and conserve research findings that have not yet been widely adopted, enhancing their potential for integration into practice by assessing feasibility at demonstration farms. BovINE’s strategic and targeted dissemination and communication actions are designed to raise awareness of the project’s innovation potential, and deliver engagement with farmers, their intermediaries and knowledge providers. Through driving effective cooperation between beef producers and researchers, and utilising trusted gatekeepers, BovINE will form a transnational ecosystem to stimulate knowledge exchange at international level to boost the economic viability and sustainability of the European beef-producing sector.

African Swine Fever (ASF) is one of the most important viral diseases affecting swine, with a serious socio-economic impact. It is present in more than 13 countries in Europe (10 in the EU), 28 sub-Saharan African countries, and 2 Asian countries, China and Mongolia. No vaccine is available and recent incursions in Europe and Asia are jeopardizing the pig industry worldwide. Control of ASF is based on early diagnosis and the implementation of strict sanitary measures. However, measures taken by affected countries have not been sufficient to stop spread. The objective of VACDIVA is to solve the ASF problem in Europe and affected countries through innovation efforts. VACDIVA will provide (1) Three safe and effective pilot vaccines for wild boar and domestic pigs ready for registration; (2) validated companion DIVA tests and 3) cost-benefit and effective surveillance and control-vaccination strategies, with field trials in Lithuania and Kenia. Two world leader companies in vaccine production and ASF diagnostic kits will provide production of the new vaccines and DIVA tests. Epidemiological modelling of worldwide scenarios will be offered in a portfolio of services to help animal health authorities control and eradicate the disease. This project will provide policy makers valuable decision support tools to better prevent and control ASF. VACDIVA counts with the expertise of two world ASF Reference Laboratories (OIE and FAO), the EU reference laboratory (EURL), six EU national Reference Laboratories (of 6 out of the 10 countries currently affected by ASF) and four prestigious ASF research institutions. Participation of Russian, Chinese and African laboratories will provide useful support, increasing acceptance of the vaccines. Active involvement of pig producers, agricultural associations and International agencies like FAO will enlarge the impact of communication, dissemination and training activities.

"Animal welfare is a main topic integrated in the European regulations. It is taken more or less in consideration in the vocational curricula of agriculture according to the country. Nevertheless it is usually considered as a constraint by the farmers more than as an opportunity. The project brings together 10 varying organizations (universities, colleges, advisers and farmers training institutions, Farmers union), from 5 countries (Belgium, Finland, France, Portugal, Spain) to create a pedagogical toolkit and two curricula aimed at integrating animal welfare within farmers consciousness as a pragmatic and ethical topic. The project aims to increase interest in and consideration for the controversial animal welfare topic within the professional activities of farmers through tools and two curricula (one for farmers, one for farmers trainers) which enable the implementation of a critical, creative and ethical reasoning in the respect of the context, constraint, wishes and needs of each trainee. The curricula and the toolkit enable to implement constructive debates between trainees (students, farmers) and/or within an extended community (researcher, adviser, student, farmer) about animal welfare technics, ethics, and animal welfare economical promotion. They participate to support the empowerment of the farmers and students-farmers, and contribute to implement a pedagogy based on the dialogue between the experiential, technical and scientific knowledge and the ethical issues. The first curriculum aims to train farmers animal welfare enabling a critical thinking and the integration of animal welfare as a main lever for the farm. The second one enables to train farmer educators (veterinarians, farmers advisors, teachers in vocational schools in agriculture) to take a posture of accompanior and animator to train animal welfare. Both of them have been built according to experimentations realized by the partners Anicare and are presented through key pedagogical steps which can adapted according to the specific context of the trainer. The pedagogical strategies that they propose are based on the use of a wide panel of movies showing divergent practices and farmers reasonings, animal behaviors in different farming situations, and movies of researchers, advisers and farmers commenting the farmer practices. Aniphi, a platform based on Delphi method, is more particularly proposed to implement a by-distance respectful debate with these movies . All the outputs are presented on the website Anicare www.erasmus-anicare.eu. Thanks to the diversity and to the wealth of its partnership, and to the originality of the chosen educational method; the project ""Anicare"" gives a new perspective on a first-rate theme still insufficiently developed in program of vocational training."

This aim of IMAGE is to enhance the use of genetic collections and to upgrade animal gene bank management. IMAGE will better exploit DNA information and develop methodologies, biotechnologies, and bioinformatics for rationalising animal genetic resources. It will demonstrate the benefits brought by gene banks to the development of sustainable livestock systems by: enhancing the usefulness of genetic collections to allow the livestock sector to respond to environment and market changes; using latest DNA technology and reproductive physiology for collecting, storing and distributing biological resources; Minimising genetic accidents such as abnormalities or genetic variability tipping points; Developing synergies between ex-situ and in-situ conservation to maximise resources for the future. To this end, the project will involve stakeholders, SME, and academic partners to achieve the following objectives. At the scientific level, the project will: Assess the diversity available in genetic collections; Search for adaptive traits through landscape genetics in local populations; Contribute to elucidate local populations’ and major genes’ history; Identify detrimental variants that can contribute to inbreeding depression; Predict cryobank samples’ reproductive performance; Facilitate the use of collections for genome-assisted breeding. At the technological level, it will develop: Procedures for harmonising gene bank operations and rationalising collections; Conservation and reproductive biotechnologies; A central information system to connect available data on germplasm and genomic collections. At the applied level, it will develop methods and tools for stakeholders to: Restore genetic diversity in livestock populations; Create or reconstruct breeds fitting new environmental constraints and consumer demands; Facilitate cryobanking for local breeds; Define and track breed-based product brands; Implement access and benefit sharing regulations.