In the EU there are a number of economically disadvantaged rural areas experiencing outmigration of in particular young women in the search of better education and employment opportunities. Past research demonstrated the importance of women for the economic and social viability of rural areas, in particular of female entrepreneurs. Business opportunities in agricultural dominated areas typically arise within a farm environment. Studies conducted so far explored the experiences of female entrepreneurs at farm level, such as the struggle to combine childcare and household duties with professional work. Other studies analyzed the potential impact of policies on gender equality in agriculture. However, little empirical work has been done on evaluating the actual effectiveness of policies in promoting gender equality in the agricultural sector. The objective of the proposed research project FEMAGREE is to identify the effectiveness of rural development policies in supporting female agricultural entrepreneurs. More specifically, it will establish, which support tools have been fruitful in the past, how existing tools can be improved as well as identify gaps in the current support system. For this purpose, the study will employ a qualitative approach to data collection in the form of narrative enquiries with current and future female agricultural entrepreneurs. The two case study areas will be in a region in eastern Bavaria, Germany, and a region in the West of Ireland, both of which are characterized by the outmigration of young women and a cultural dominance of traditional gender roles. The project will be hosted by a government institution, the Department of Agriculture in Bavaria, Munich. Secondments are planned with in total three partner organizations from both the academic and non-academic sector.

Animal-Future will design strategies for assessing and enhancing the sustainability of animal production systems (APS). Main objectives are (i) Assess the multi-dimensional consequences of innovations on benefits (cash flow, income, jobs, product quality and safety, ecosystem services etc.) and costs (use of scarce natural resources, health and welfare) of APS. (ii) Improve the capacity of European animal sector actors to facilitate sound changes based on a thorough understanding of mechanisms underlying trade-offs between benefits and costs. (iii) Provide guidance co-designed by scientists and animal production actors through which the latter can reinforce their innovation capacity. To achieve these, the project will (i) Develop a indicator-based decision support tool that will be used for assessing and benchmarking European APS according to benefits and costs induced by innovations (from farm to region, nation and EU27). (ii) Bring together multi-disciplinary research teams and animal production actors (farmers, processors, breeders etc.) using a multi-actor approach and starting from a farm network of intensive/extensive APS across Europe. Relevance to research area includes (RA1) Developing and assessing innovations that move farm management closer to the production frontier, while considering fundamental trade-offs with respect to social and environmental dimensions. (RA2) Insights into how animal production sector (from the farm to EU scale) can increase the efficiency of feed utilization, recycle waste and exploit potentials to convert biomass resources not directly edible for humans into high-quality protein sources for human nutrition. (RA3) Transparent and comprehensive accounting for on-farm practices that makes explicit a whole set of benefits and costs, at farm and larger spatial scales, thus raising the awareness of animal sector actors, citizens and policy makers about the often-neglected benefits that animal systems provide to society.

Innovation is a key priority for the private forestry(F) and agroforestry (AF) sector, and nationally/locally funded EIP-AGRI Operational Groups (OGs) can play a key role in driving innovation at the EU level. However, the results of the OGs in F and AF have not been disseminated to all EU countries because the various local/national OGs have not been linked to the experiences of other countries and the knowledge generated has only been shared locally. In order to disseminate the knowledge generated by the OGs in F and AF to all EU regions, FOREST4EU will set up multi-actor innovation interregional transversal Hubs dealing with 5 innovation topics ('Wood mobilisation', 'Forest adaptation to climate change', 'Improving approaches, models and tools for sustainable forest management and ecosystem service provision to improve economic, environmental and social benefits for rural areas', 'non-wood forest products', 'Agroforestry') to facilitate interregional transfer of knowledge generated by the OGs. FOREST4EU will collect, share and disseminate knowledge related to innovations from F and AF OGs. This will be done by providing tailored and understandable dissemination materials accessible through existing platforms, as well as capacity building materials developed according to identified regional needs and transferred to where the innovation can be applied. FOREST4EU will also discuss and present the benefits of OGs relevant to the Green Deal to EU policy makers. In addition, FOREST4EU will establish connections with policy makers working with CAP and innovation at the local level, particularly in countries where OGs dealing with F and AF are not funded, to promote new initiatives and a greater geographic balance between different EU regions.

The objective of GenTORE is to develop innovative genome-enabled selection and management tools to optimise cattle resilience and efficiency (R&E) in widely varying environments. These tools, incorporating both genetic and non-genetic variables, will be applicable across the full range of systems (beef, milk and mixed), and will thereby increase the economic, environmental and social sustainability of European cattle meat and milk production systems. To achieve this, GenTORE brings together: 1) multidisciplinary scientific expertise in genomics, environmental assessment, nutritional physiology, health management, precision livestock farming, mathematical modelling, and socio-economics; 2) partners and stakeholders representing breeding organisations, farm technology companies, farm and veterinary advisory services, and farm sectors (organic, grazing, etc.); and 3) a unique data basis including >1 million genotypes. This multi-actor team will develop tools for: multi-breed selection for R&E, characterisation of diverse farm environments, large-scale phenotyping of R&E using on-farm technology, on-farm management of breeding and culling decisions, and predicting the consequences for farm resilience of changing breeding and management. These tools are designed to be applicable under commercial conditions at the end of the project. They will allow increased use of the genomic diversity in cattle breeds, e.g. use of selective cross-breeding to best exploit the local production environment. They will also allow farm managers, their advisors, and policy-makers, to assess the relative importance of breeding for animal resilience vs breeding for efficiency, with respect to system resilience. As such GenTORE will not only enable the use of genomic information to facilitate predictive biology of efficiency- and resilience-related traits, but will also increase resilience of livestock production in the face of current and future challenges of climate change and food security.