LOWINFOOD supports the reduction of food loss and waste in European Union by demonstrating innovative solutions following a multi-actor approach that involves actors along the entire value chains. The main objective of the project is to co-design, together with actors of the food chain, low-waste value chains by supporting the demonstration of a portfolio of innovations in the fruits & vegetables, bakery products and fish value chains, as well as in a-home and out-of-home consumption. Proposed solutions are already tested as prototype in lab or in relevant environment but are waiting to be validated and demonstrated to TRL 7/8. The impact of the innovations will be evaluated by providing evidence of (i) their efficacy in reducing food loss and waste in different food value chains, (ii) improving the socio-economic performance of these value chains, and (iii) reducing the environmental impact of the value chains concerned. LOWINFOOD comprises seven interrelated work packages, among which four deal with the demonstration and market replication of the innovations addressed by the project (WP2-5), one to be started before the demonstration of innovations, and seeking to implement a multi-actor approach to support the evaluation of the innovations and including the identification of the methodology, the definition of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and the actual evaluation (WP1), one to communication, dissemination and market replication (WP6) and one for project coordination management (WP7). The LOWINFOOD consortium includes universities, research institutes, start-ups, foundations, associations and companies working in the food sector with expertise in all relevant scientific and technical areas covered by the project: innovation, demonstration, knowledge transfer, dissemination, policy advice and marketing strategy.

Agriculture and food industry having a high dependence on resources in their production and striving for long-term sustainability. In this context there is an urgent need to optimise resource use and smooth the transition to a knowledgedriven agriculture. The NUTRIMAN is a Nitrogen and Phosphorus thematic network compiling knowledge “ready for practice” for such recovered product applications, practices and technologies, interconnecting applied science and industrial practice, for the user interest and benefits of the agricultural practitioners. There is an urgent need to spread knowledge and network information towards agricultural practitioners about the insufficiently exploited N/P recovery innovative research results (technologies, products, practices). The project objective is to improve the exploitation of the N/P nutrient management/recovery potential for the ready for practice cases not sufficiently known by practitioners. Our action will open new opportunities for farmers to develop connections between applied researches with practical usefulness results and farming practice in the priority area of nutrient management and nutrient recovery. Uses a bottom-up approach to identify incentives and bottlenecks for adoption and to prioritise between technologies/products and will ensure larger willingness to adopt innovations and improve multiplicator effects. Large scale take up of the recovered N/P innovative fertilisers targeted, produced from un-exploited resources of organic or secondary raw materials in line with the circular economy model, and economical/environmental efficiently used by farmers. Effective dissemination and exploitation promoted by multilingual web platform, other communications and best practice field demonstrations for farmers. This action is contributing to the successful deployment of the vast reservoir of existing scientific/practical knowledge on the N/P recovery theme, including multi lingual abstracts in EIP-AGRI format.

The European Fruit Network (EUFRUIT) includes 12 countries focussed on 4 thematic areas of critical for the competiveness and innovation potential of the European Fruit sector: i) new cultivar development and evaluation; ii) minimise residues on fruit and the environment; iii) optimising storage and fruit quality; iv) sustainable production systems. EUFRUIT will coordinate and support innovation through developing a framework for relevant stakeholders and it will establish a systematic approach for knowledge gathering and dissemination. The systematic approach includes: i) scanning & synthesis via 4 expert groups who scan state-of-art knowledge, practises and technologies and synthesise the material to identify key areas of learning and best practise approaches at a European level. ii) showing & sharing will deliver outreach/dialogue at a national level through establishment of local ‘operational groups’. An online Knowledge Platform will hold all outreach material, outreach activities include; 100 industry publications, 90 technical bulletins, 25 flyers/newsletters, 60 seminars, 160 field based meetings, 25 conference plus 12 events aimed at the general public. iii) sustaining the network will occur through long-term integration of the assembled EUFRUIT network in future actions. The overall outcome of EUFRUIT will be establishment of a framework and a systematic approach that together builds a bridge across the ‘valley of death’. This bridge will secure a direct path for new knowledge in the future and reduce the likelihood of repetition of research at a national level. The European fruit sector will have ready access to up-to-date information to implement and value will be created both for the industry with respect to competitiveness, sustainability and efficiency and society through ensuring the security and safety of fruit; underpinning human health and wellbeing.

The general objective of NOVASOIL project is highlight the benefits for the society and the environment from the investment in soil health. The main expected outcome of the project is a toolbox for the analysis of suitability of different business cases that promote soil health. This toolbox will be based on a set of good examples from Europe and other countries and the needs and demands from the society. The toolbox will include a categorisation of the models and business cases taking into account: a) sustainable soil management under different land uses and climatic conditions; b) products based on practices promoting soil health; c) consumption and certification practices conductive: d) the reuse of land and e) sustainable soil management in the context of the EU Taxonomy Regulation. For that, NOVASOIL is composed by a multidisciplinary team with a large experience on European and national projects focus on soil health and business models. As well as, NOVASOIL will built a Community of Practice around project objectives in order to co-develop soil health business models and the tool-box for incentives taking into account their needs and demands. NOVASOIL is organised in 5 WPs plus coordination following the expected objectives and impacts of the call. The first step is to develop a conceptual framework of soil health and business. This framework will nurture other WPs in order to develop in the same way all the expected objectives. The soil health business models will analyse current successful experiences in Europe and outside Europe in order to categorise them taking into account their variability. In addition, NOVASOIL includes 13 Case Studies with business models that promote soil quality and products based on sustainable crop and soil management. On the other hand, an analysis of current policies related will be carried out in order to provide suggestions and improvement that facilitate the implementation of these soil health business.

Waste4Soil envisions the development of 10 technological and methodological solutions for recycling food processing residues from the food industry into local, biobased circular soil improvers for improved soil health. A user-driven standardised Evaluation Framework will support stakeholders from the food value chain, including waste managers, to assess their status towards food processing residues circularity and take action for recycling suitable waste streams into beneficial soil improvers. To ensure co-innovation and collaborative research, Waste4Soil will setup 7 Soil Health Living Labs across Europe, in Greece, Finland, Spain, Poland, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia, to study the valorisation of 8 types of food processing residues (i.e., meat, fish, dairy, cereals, olive oil, beverages (wine), fruits and vegetables, and processed food). The project focuses on assessing and improving the effectiveness of existing routes of food waste management to soil improver components, formulation and application methods by focusing on: 1) Anaerobic digestion residues by employing novel nutrient separation including Selective Electrodialysis, bio-electrochemical and membrane systems 2) Novel efficient Biochar production from food processing wastes and digestates 3) BioPhosphate processing 4) Effective composting process of solid residues 5) Protein hydrolysates acting as soil improvers and AD-Microalgae combined processes for soil biostimulants and 6) An enabling management platform applied in all living labs, with a growing database of data analytics, route optimisation applications, soil health evaluations and application recipe’s, commercial aspects, and the capacity to use IoT devices in logistics. The 27 partners and 1 associated partner supporting this project proposal are forming a transdisciplinary partnership accross 10 European countries.