The basis of higher education is the development of MSc and PhD programs, that could greatly benefit from international cooperation and state-of-the-art teaching methodologies. The growing human population will need a continued input from agricultural sector, that will be increasingly challenged by climate change. It is thus crucial to develop higher education programs in the agricultural field. Climate smart crop development (CSCD) could be accomplished when crop adaptation to a changing environment is improved. Climate change management (CCM) would be the second pillar in achieving a sustainable agriculture and in eliminating hunger (2nd FAO objective). The main aim of AdaptNET is to strengthen education, research and innovation capacities in the area of CCM & CSCD by promoting information exchange from higher education institutions (HEIs) of EU, and building capacities in HEIs in India. This will be achieved by tuning existing MSc and PhD programs, developing new MSc programs, and implementing the blended learning approach.AdaptNET aspires to improve the capacity for sustainable cooperation and create a long-lasting international network of excellence, that could continue its activities after the end of the project, also by involving local NGOs and governmental bodies.The outputs of AdaptNET will be:● Advanced professional competences of teachers● Revised & updated PhD curricula● Updated MSc programs● Use of new pedagogical methods & QA mechanisms● Establishment of e-laboratories at Indian (PC) partners● Establishment of e-learning systems at PC Universities to support students, as well as professionals in Life-Long learning.It is foreseen that PC participants will master the innovative teaching techniques, and their academic mobility will be stimulated, allowing mutual cultural enrichment & sustainable international partnership between EU & PC partners.

INCREASE will enhance the management and use of Genetic Resources on food legumes, which are crucial for sustainability, food security and human health, as recognized by the new European Protein plan for the innovation of this sector in Europe. To meet this challenge INCREASE will expand the utilisation of food legumes Genetic Resources targeting users’ needs in terms of accessibility, quality and quantity of information available. INCREASE, working with four important food legumes (chickpea, common bean, lentil, lupin) with significant value for the innovation of EU agriculture and food industry, will be based on four pillars: i) innovative data management solutions to develop gold standards for data sharing and integration into the central infrastructure, with decentralised data input, defined methodologies and best practices for exploitation of the novel information produced as well as the development of user friendly visualization tools; ii) developing novel tools and principles for germplasm management, based on the development of “Intelligent Collections” as a set of nested core collections of different sizes representing the entire diversity of each crop; iii) adoption of cutting-edge technologies for genotyping and phenotyping combined with the potential of Artificial Intelligence focusing on traits of interest for users; iv) international effort with the involvement of non-European partners and international organization to expand the scope and ambition of INCREASE, by facilitating the integration of available data and available Genetic Resources for European users. We will develop a citizen-science experiment, primarily aimed at dissemination of the project to stakeholders and citizens. Overall, INCREASE will strengthen Europe in the field of legumes Genetic Resources and simultaneously it will represent an important model and tool for all crop Genetic Resources.

NADiRA aims to incorporate Copernicus, other Earth Observation products and in-situ IoT devices into mAgriTM, an existing value chain orchestration platform connecting, in smallholder contract farming, producers with banks, insurers, input providers and agro-industries to control risks and improve the productivity, security, and welfare of tens of thousands of African farmers. By industrializing EO products , NADiRA reduces mAgriTM’s operating costs, while increasing the timeliness, granularity and reach of its following services: (1) Agricultural investment risk mapping, to reduce finance institutions cash-out and increase availability of input credit to smallholders, (2) More robust, affordable agricultural insurance contracts, to reduce persistent climate risk, (3) Improved smallholder tactical management of crop nutrient deficiencies and post-harvest losses to increase productivity, harvest quality and income. NADiRA demonstrates, on a large market scale, the economic and commercial viability of the combination of EO, IoT and mobile technology and its leverage on the new business model implemented by MANOBI, Swiss Re, credit and insurance institutions and agro-industries to improve smallholder productivity. Four pilots run in parallel in Senegal and Nigeria targets (i) different crop types and production systems (irrigated rice, rainfed peanuts, maize and sorghum) in (ii) 10 crop campaigns (4 irrigated, 3 rainfed) and (iii) various production environments and management practices. This demonstration sustains the development of a business plan with financial objectives and an associated roadmap to capture 30% of the addressable market in Africa. The outreach actions benefits from the communications channels of the NADiRA partners, active in Africa (MANOBI, Swiss Re, ICRISAT, local banks and farmers associations), in Europe (SPACEBEL, University of Liège, Viveris and EUGENIUS association) and Asia (ICRISAT). A Copernicus Relay will be established in West Africa.