The HIGHLANDS’ goal is to contribute to Inclusive Sustainable Development in Highlands (ISDH) through collective and impact-driven Research & Innovation (R&I), based on capacity building, sharing of local-global knowledge, experience, and tools. It will drive a co-innovation process through secondments and research and innovative sessions (R&IS) involving public/private and non-academic partners, to build a shared vision of ISDH, enhance the capacities of researchers, managers, users, policymakers, thus bridging the gap between research and development. Our activities will be organized in 5 integrated work packages (WP): Coordination & management (WP1); Methodology & capacity building for ISDH (WP2); Analysis, comparison and modelling of ISDH (WP3); Building a multi-actor ISDH Decision-Support Platform (DSP) (WP4); Communication, Dissemination & Exploitation of results (WP5). HIGHLANDS is supported by a network of 43 institutions including 31 partners from Europe (~35% non-academic), and skilled and motivated female and male researchers and local stakeholders. The work plan will run 8 successive R&IS (5 in Europe, 3 outside) to promote the exchange among participants as a foundation for innovation. Each R&IS will build upon collective learning principles and a holistic systemic approach, exposing participants to a wide range of world views that will encourage experimentation with practice. Each R&IS will focus on a particular aspect of sustainable highland development and will include collective learning, collaborative research, and capacity-building on data collection/analysis, modeling. To complement the R&IS, long-term secondments will be implemented for researchers and practitioners to deeply train and work together on specific issues identified by the consortium. Collected data on ISDHs will be stored in an online collaborative and interactive decision-support platform that will then be transferred to existing mountain networks.

Because of the high demand for eggs, large numbers of hens are farmed in modern egg production. Because of the intensity of this form of farming, the public has justifiably been concerned about the welfare of these birds. Higher welfare also leads to higher quality eggs, higher productivity, and lower incidence of disease and therefore lower need for antibiotics. We aim to reduce the chronic stress experienced by hens. To this end, we will investigate the neurobiological, genetic and developmental factors that lead to higher stress resilience, and the environmental (housing) factors that lead to chronic stress. Europe has led the world in hen welfare with the complete ban of battery cages (European Union Council Directive 1999/74/EC). However, the replacement housing systems have their own potential welfare challenges. Our goal is to identify these challenges and develop improvements for implementation by industry. We will train a new generation of innovative and entrepreneurial early-stage researchers, able to face different challenges related to poultry farming and to apply scientific knowledge and ideas to products and services for economic and social benefit. To do this, we will constitute an international network of groups with expertise in avian brain research, genetics, welfare and egg farming. The training will be complemented by secondments in different laboratories of the network, workshops, and industrial secondments in the poultry industry. The new generation of professionals will apply this knowledge and experience to improve poultry housing systems, welfare, and product quality, which will grow the sector's resilience in addressing growing societal demands for higher animal welfare and healthier diets. Moreover, they will contribute to strengthen Europe's human capital in R&I, increase Europe's attractiveness as a leading research destination, improve Europe's competitiveness and growth, and engage in an improved knowledge-based economy and society.