In the last years, extreme weather patterns of water scarcity (droughts) and water abundance (floods, rapid showers) are becoming more frequent and prolonged in the EU. If we do not remedy this situation, by 2050 water scarcity will lead to €12,2 billion losses per year and affect 17% of EU population. RAINS will contribute to improve the resilience of EU agriculture to water scarcity by demonstrating 10 solutions (irrigation practices, technologies and tools) that will increase the efficiency of water and nutrient management in agriculture and reduce the impact of extreme weather events. RAINS solutions include alternative forms of water supply, combined use of water and biofertilisers, improved soil water-retention, water-N/P modelling and some smart solutions (Optifangs-IA, WaterIQ) to contribute to decision-making and to integrated irrigation management across farm systems. Solutions will be demonstrated at 10 demo-farm systems representing agroecology, organic production, conventional, intensive and urban agriculture, replicated in Greece and Spain. We will also develop a hydrological and N/P model to optimised agriculture production at catchment level. A well, we will conduct co-creation workshops, knowledge transfer activities and create materials such as guidelines (2), White Papers (2) and Practice Abstracts (40). Policy focused sessions will deliver 3 sets of policy and incentives recommendations, engaging quadruple helix agricultural stakeholders, to pave the way for the uptake of sustainable irrigation and fertilization management solutions in practice in the EU. In the long term, RAINS will contribute to improve water efficiency by 50% in 12,700 ha. in more than 20 EU regions, and support >500 farmers in the transition to a more sustainable irrigation. And by 2050, the implementation of the RAINS project will save up to €6.1 billion, 244.348 million litres of water and 35.4 t CO2 eq. avoided emissions.

The EU citriculture is threatened by the emerging disease Huanglongbing (HLB, also known as Greening), considered the most devastating citrus disease due to its rapid dispersal, severity and fast progression of symptoms, huge losses in fruit production and quality, cost and difficulty of preventing new infections, lack of resistant citrus varieties and economically feasible treatments for infected trees, and absence of durable control mechanisms. HLB generates multimillion economic losses to citrus industry. Now it is time to start the research in the EU because the vector Trioza erytreae has been detected and is spreading in Spain and Portugal. The overarching objective of Pre-HLB is to develop and implement a holistic contingency plan to protect the citrus sector in the EU from HLB disease drivers and to co-create new solutions to manage the disease through a multidisciplinary approach and in collaboration with experienced partners from America and Asia. The Pre-HLB work plan includes three specific objectives to monitor progress: a) Pre-HLB preventive actions and development of mid-term tools will limit HLB potential introduction, reducing the potential economic impact in EU (estimated in 7.7 billion euros) by 40% b) The consortium will contribute to improve current HLB surveillance, contingency and control strategies. Up to 100,000Ha of citrus cropping area will be monitored to obtain field information on potential HLB infection and the dynamics of the vector in the subareas of highest risk, thus limiting disease/infestation spread. c) Excellent European research centres will join forces to fill research gaps in vector biology, host/vector/pathogen interactions, Aurantioideae genetics and genomics, as well as to develop new biotechnological tools, such as new effectors, metabolites, bio-stimulants and biopesticides.Results will identify HLB-resistance traits and will allow to generate long-term resistance.This is one major milestone in the field of citriculture.

CERBERUS will capitalize on early detection to reduce pesticide use and on intelligent spray applications to sustainably eradicate pests at their early stages, when damage is reduced and the impact of treatments is high even with low spray rates. The project will combine large-scale crop observation models enhanced by the high revisiting time and diversity of bands offered by Copernicus, with the high reliability of proximal sensing granted by IoT insect traps reporting at a daily basis, robot-based monitoring at less than 1 m from the crops, and the granularity resulting from citizen data using dedicated apps. Data coming from multiple sources will be merged through a cloud platform, which will produce risk maps and spraying recommendations for users by applying AI algorithms. CERBERUS will be the outcome of a multi-actor approach by co-creating and sharing knowledge with all the different type of actors along the whole project. Cerberus will be validated for three quarantine pests (F. dorée, X. fastidiosa, B. dorsalis) and three commonly managed pests (L. botrana, B. oleae, C. capitata), and for the three most important specialty crops in the Mediterranean basin: wine-production vineyards, olive oil producing orchards, and citrus plantations. The multi-actor approach will be strengthened by the complementarity of the consortium: three academic partners, three technology companies, one citizen science specialist, a government agency involved in crop protection, and five end-users from Italy, Cyprus and Spain, providing two pilot plots per country and target crop. The proposed concept and methodology of CERBERUS has the potential to deploy an innovative crop surveillance system, enhanced by early detection in high-value crops to firmly step ahead in the effective application of sustainable phytosanitary measures and in the co-creation of crop protection policies.

The SOTERIA project aims to advance innovative insurance solutions for climate change adaptation in different European regions and communities. To do so, SOTERIA will work through three main tracks forming the core of our approach: i) documenting best practice in relation to data, new insurance and robust enabling frameworks; ii) testing of some of these solutions; and iii) the creation of communities of practice for regions and insurance as legacy. We aim to help reducing the protection gap by documenting best practice and the testing of insurance products and services that reward proactive prevention measures while seeking to increase coverage through co-designed solutions. We will also consider the enabling framework that analyses the role of public sector modernisation and how to develop affordable insurance schemes that leave no one behind, through our Communities of Practice engaged in Climate Resilience society-insurance dialogues. SOTERIA will take these solutions from the levels of research to demonstration and testing with some at the level of pre-commercial procurement in at least three cases thanks to a network of three pilots and 5 satellites that span different geographical areas (and needs). The project legacy a set of best practice materials as well as a Community of Practice to support other regions interested to design and/or adopt innovative insurance solutions. SOTERIA will contribute to the wider goal of the Mission Adaptation to increase Europe’s resilience and preparedness to face unavoidable consequences of climate change by filling the gaps on insurance coverage for climate adaptation.

SolAqua will increase the share of renewable energy in Europe by facilitating market uptake of solar irrigation (SI). By combining photovoltaic and hydraulic technology with high efficiency irrigation, SI can provide energy for irrigation with 0 emissions and at a cost of up to 70% lower than existing fossil-fuel based solutions. The potential of SI to change the energy model of European farming is huge as irrigation demands large amounts of energy for pumping water to crops. Alongside a €4 bn energy bill, the current fossil-fuel based energy model of irrigation also has a high environmental cost; it produces 16 million tons of CO2 every year, approximately 15% of the EU’s total CO2 emissions from agriculture. Nevertheless, despite its potential benefits, market uptake of SI is being prevented by a number of non-technological barriers. Also, there is a lack of awareness and skills regarding SI among irrigators and other stakeholders, such as local SMEs and public authorities. SolAqua is the answer from a coalition of relevant stakeholders to overcome this situation. In a first stage, SolAqua will produce 7 key enabling materials and tools needed for SI market uptake but which are currently missing, such as quality standards and economic and environmental assessment methodologies. In a second stage, SolAqua will carry out a far-reaching dissemination and communication plan in order to attract more than 300,000 stakeholders in Europe and North Africa to SI in general and, in particular, to SolAqua’s exploitation plan. This exploitation plan will allow for the triggering a well-functioning SI market by producing a joint SI promotion of at least 100 MW (more than €120 M in investments) which will act as a flagship for the solution. Also, in order to support SI investments, the public authorities within SolAqua will produce a SI-suited supporting instrument and will allow for its replication throughout Europe.