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.

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.

D4AgEcol will show the potentials of digitalisation as enabler for agroecological farming systems in Europe based on available knowledge and actors' and stakeholders' co-innovation capacity . Partners from seven countries across a wide spectrum of pedoclimatic zones in Europe will assemble a holistic evaluation of digital tools and technologies. This will be based on indicators for agroecology, economic considerations and investigations about perceived benefits for user and stakeholder. Drivers, barriers and risks of digital technologies for a transformation towards agroecology will be identified. The results of this analysis will feed in national and European roadmaps for agroecology, indicating the need for adjusted policies and a technology research and innovation agenda.

The ‘IPM Decisions’ project proposed here will accelerate impact from farm Decision Support Systems (DSS) for IPM, as advocated in the Sustainable Use Directive. The impact of DSS in crop protection has been constrained by regional and sectoral fragmentation of actors, inadequate testing of DSS and quantification of their benefits, DSS addressing single pests whilst farmer decisions need to account for multiple pests, and DSS which are insufficiently risk-averse. We will address these constraints and enable innovation by creating a ‘one stop shop’ delivering DSS, data, tools and resources through a pan-European online Platform and an ‘IPM Decisions Network’. The latter forming a community of users and stakeholders. Users will be farmers and advisers, and applied research or industry organisations that deliver or develop DSS. Each type of user will access the Platform via a tailored Dashboard, specific to their requirements. The project consortium brings together multi-actor participants from research, crop protection industry, ICT, meteorological services, policy, farming, advisory and extension organisations. Participants in IPM Decisions are also participants in relevant European projects and networks, enabling efficient engagement and impact. The focus will be on delivering DSS for key pests of major outdoor crops. Integrating key examples of contrasting DSS on the Platform will address urgent needs and demonstrate that the Platform has the functionality required for wide impact. Longevity of the Platform and Dashboards beyond the life of the project will be aided by minimizing the resources required to maintain and update the system, and a realistic business plan. Software, scientific publications and research data will be open access. IPM Decisions addresses all the requirements of part A of SFS-06-2018-2020. The outcomes from this project will support the EU wide demonstration farm network to be established under part B of the call.