Healthy soil is at the heart of the European Green Deal and one of the main targets of the Mission Board. The EU is currently struggling with soil degradation which is undoubtedly linked to agriculture intensification. Thus, a new soil management paradigm on soil monitoring, restoration and protection must be an endeavour of farmers, scientists, businesses, politicians and citizens. LivingSoiLL intends to respond to these challenges by establishing 5 Living Labs (LLs) in PT, FR, ES, IT and PL focused on permanent crops (vineyards, olive groves, chestnuts, hazelnuts and apple orchards), comprising at least 50 demonstration sites and 10 lighthouses, and with active participation of more than 2000 local actors. These LLs will focus on improving healthy soils and ecosystem services through co-creating, co-implementing and co-testing (digital) solutions to reduce erosion, improve soil structure, reduce the impacts of the intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides, increase water storage, enhance soil biodiversity, and the overall resilience of soil. By promoting locally adjusted innovative solutions, spreading sustainable soil management practices and enhancing soil literacy, LivingSoilLL will contribute to the overall improvement of soil health and environmental resilience. This approach, applied in real-life settings, will mobilize farmers, farm advisors and local communities, facilitating the assemblage of formal, scientific knowledge with experience-based farmers know-how, fostering a forum for the exchange of experiences and best practices. LivingSoilLL is also designed to produce policy recommendations on best soil management practices on permanent crops to reduce erosion while promoting other soil health indicators. With its approach, LivingSoiLL projects intends to contribute to creating the necessary conditions to EU be able to sustain healthy soils for future generations

The loss of biodiversity is one of the largest and most important challenges worldwide. The current rate of species extinction, due to human influences, is up to 1000 times higher than the natural extinction rate. Agriculture is the most important land use in Europe, with around 50% of the surface used for agricultural production. In the past, agriculture significantly contributed to increasing the diversity of landscapes and species in Europe. Today, intensive agriculture is one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss in the cultural landscape. Sound knowledge is available regarding food production and protection of biodiversity and ecosystems. But that knowledge is still not sufficiently considered and production methods not sufficiently adapted. One important reason for that is that biodiversity is still not enough considered in a farmer´s professional education or further training nor do they receive consulting directly on the farm. In addition, vine growers do not carry out systematic analyses of their impacts on biodiversity on their whole farm. The EU is a leading producer of wine. Spain, Portugal and Turkey belong to the top ten countries in Europe with the largest vineyards. The main target group of the project was the organic vine growers - farmers producing grapes in the vineyards - either for viticulture as for sultana production. As organic vine-growers work constantly on improving biodiversity in their fields, because vivid ecosystems and a high diversity in the soil and between vine rows are a prerequisite for healthy grapes and a good quality. However, the results are also interesting and applicable for conventional vine-growers. The project aimed at adapting vine-growing practices to protect, enhance and promote biodiversity in vineyards. This was achieved with a transfer of knowledge between the partners, to train each other and to develop high quality training materials for vine-growers. The training materials and the implementation of training courses contribute to specify the professional education of a vine-grower and to high quality VET. The partnership consisted of eight partners; of tandems between nature conservation organizations and farmer/wine grower associations in Germany, Spain and Portugal and of an organic agriculture company in Turkey. The partners are experienced in the topic of viticulture and/or biodiversity and while developing each output the exchange of those experiences and the training of each other was the first achievement. The training material support vine-growers to integrate biodiversity into their work. They consist of information materials where knowledge was made more accessible to vine-growers and of specific biodiversity training modules with a focus on systematic analyses of their impacts. All results are available in 5 languages: • Biodiversity Fact Sheet for vine-growers: explains biodiversity, shows links between viticulture and biodiversity and names best practices• Biodiversity Guide in viticulture: introduces on approx. 60 pages typical species in vineyards and gives some interesting facts. Icons were explicitly developed for that purpose indicates areas in the vineyards and measures to promote these species. • Educational videos: a number of videos introduce important measures for biodiversity in viticulture and outlines advantages of biodiversity for making good vines and sultanas. • Biodiversity Check: with this output, comprehensive individual training with external expertise is facilitated to assess potential negative impacts and give recommendations for improvement where necessary. • Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP): a catalogue of possible measures for all viticulture/grape growing relevant areas. It enables vine-growers to manage their biodiversity activities Due to the project, project partners could sharpen their profile in all aspects of biodiversity and viticulture and became national specialists in carrying out both biodiversity training modules. In addition all partner organizations implemented the outputs into their training programs and continue to work in this area. Vine-growers having already received individual trainings could specify their professional education and increase competitiveness. The outputs can be used in different scenarios: in training courses in agrarian schools/universities; advisors or technicians giving advice directly on the field or it can be used by the vine-growers directly. Due to this approach time expenditure for additional time-demanding schooling activities can be reduced. But vine growers still receive the needed knowledge to adapt production methods and to specify their professional education. Most of the outputs can be use directly or with the easy adaptations in other vine-growing regions or countries. The concept of the training materials can be used and adapted to other (agricultural) sectors. This already happened for example for banana production in Central America.

WATSON provides a methodological framework combined with a set of tools and systems that can detect and prevent fraudulent activities throughout the whole food chain thus accelerating the deployment of transparency solutions in the EU food systems. The proposed framework will improve sustainability of food chains by increasing food safety and reducing food fraud through systemic innovations that a) increase transparency in food supply chains through improved track-and-trace mechanisms containing accurate, time-relevant and untampered information for the food product throughout its whole journey, b) equip authorities and policy makers with data, knowledge and insights in order to have the complete situational awareness of the food chain and c) raise the consumer awareness on food safety and value, leading to the adoption of healthier lifestyles and the development of sustainable food ecosystems. WATSON implements an intelligence-based risk calculation approach to address the phenomenon of food fraud in a holistic way. The project includes three distinct pillars, namely, a) the identification of data gaps in the food chain, b) the provision of methods, processes and tools to detect and counter food fraud and c) the effective cross border collaboration of public authorities through accurate and trustworthy information sharing. WATSON will rely upon emerging technologies (AI, IoT, DLT, etc.) enabling transparency within supply chains through the development of a rigorous, traceability regime, and novel tools for rapid, non-invasive, on-the-spot analysis of food products. The results will be demonstrated in 6 use cases: a) prevention of counterfeit alcoholic beverages, b) preservation of the authenticity of PGI honey, c) on-site authenticity check and traceability of olive oil, d) the identification of possible manipulations at all stages of the meat chain, e) the improved traceability of high-value products in cereal and dairy chain, f) combat of salmon counterfeiting.

The Mediterranean economy is highly dependent on agriculture. However, agricultural sustainability and productivity in this region are under serious threat due to climate change and depletion of water resources. This is worsened by poor management practices, such as the overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, overgrazing, and monoculture farming. ReCROP aims to redesign Mediterranean agrosystems with improved resilience capacity and higher productivity, focusing on the development of sustainable agricultural production systems through the combined use of biotechnological tools and environmentally friendly agronomic practices. This will allow farming systems to face climate change trough the improvement of below and aboveground biodiversity, fertility, and water conservation. RECROP uses the novel approach of plant-microorganism management that relies on the increase of soils functions and health by using bioinocula, amendments, cropping systems, and climate-ready crops, to increase crop yields while providing ecological services, e.g., increasing carbon sequestration, organic matter, nutrient cycling and water conservation. ReCROP covers the Mediterranean Geographical Area (MGA), involving Morroco, Egypt, Tunisia (South MGA), Italy and France (North MGA), and Portugal and Spain (West MGA), and incorporates major crops cultivated in these countries - vineyards, cereals, and aromatic/medicinal plants. ReCROP relies on a multi-actor approach by involving agricultural associations, local farmers and companies in the design of new resilient agrosystems. Agricultural practices will be tested and monitored across different edaphoclimatic conditions from experimental plots in a climatic area with Atlantic influence (N Portugal and NW Spain) to others in drier and hotter regions on the N of Africa. RECROP will use established and new fields to tackle the specific objectives: i) implement and validate widely adaptable agro-ecological farming; ii) devise new bioinoculant formulations to enhance soil biodiversity and functioning, plant health and yields of the target crops; iii) provide a new tool based on omics technologies to help farmers in the decision-making process through the assessment of soil biodiversity profiles for prediction of crop suitability; iv) characterize from a socio-economic point of view the main drivers to encourage farmers to switch towards greener practices and promote their acceptability; v) foster innovative sustainable solutions for ecological farming systems involving the views of local stakeholders and providing guidelines to improve the resilience of Mediterranean target crops. This multilateral cooperation will provide evidence regarding best practices to overcome some of the most serious threats for agricultural Mediterranean systems. ReCROP will address technical and economic issues in an integrated way to serve as a platform of demonstration trials that can reach the farmers and wider audiences to promote the adoption of more sustainable practices. ReCROP will explore a set of indicators suitable for monitoring progress in the best-performing agroecosystems and demonstrating the benefits of sustainable agronomic schemes targeting Mediterranean crops.

Building on a methodology for innovation-driven research previously developed and tested, the WINETWORK project has the ambition to stimulate collaborative innovation in the wine sector. The project will implement a methodology that has been successful in promoting demand-driven innovations in previous regional and European projects. This approach is mainly based on the interactions between a network of facilitator agents, several regional technical working groups and one European scientific working group. A participatory approach is used to translate results from science and practical knowledge into technical datasheets that are used to prepare materials adapted to end-users. A bottom-up approach is also used to identify a demand-driven innovation agenda. In the WINETWORK project, the approach will be implemented in ten regions from seven countries representing more than 90% of the EU wine production. The main topic addressed in the network concern the control and the fight against diseases that jeopardise the future production potential of the EU (Grapevine Trunk Diseases and Flavescence Dorée). As they represent a threat for the economic viability of the entire sector, these topics have been previously identified as a priority by winegrowers, scientists and decision-makers. As many winegrowers are testing innovative and sustainable approaches to fight these diseases, it is very beneficial to capture these ideas and to share them between EU countries. Innovative practices will be synthesized, tailored and translated to become fully accessible to innovation support services and to winegrowers. The project will then deliver a vast reservoir of existing scientific and practical knowledge related to sustainable vineyard management. It will also provide a methodology that will support all agriculture sectors to enhance innovation-driven research. WINETWORK involves 11 partners of excellence representing the entire innovation chain, from science to farmers.