STRATUS, extending over 60 months, aims to connect advisors across Europe for accelerating knowledge creation and sharing on Integrated Fertilization Management, supporting farmers to bring this knowledge into practice to achieve the ambition of the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies, thus reducing nutrient losses to the environment while maintaining soil fertility. For this, STRATUS will create an EU-wide advisory network through the creation of three transnational sub-networks (Fertilization Innovation Networks - FIN) on Precision farming, Bio-based fertilisers and Soil quality (SQ) in which trained advisors will collect a total of 104 Good Practices (GPs) and Research Innovations (RIs) on optimal fertiliser use and will identify at least 48 Best Practices (BPs) as the result of the systemic feasibility assessment of the GPs and RIs . In addition, STRATUS will also ensure the integration of the advisors in the MS AKIS as well as the adaptation of the project work to the local conditions through the creation of 10 Communities of Practices (CoPs), in 10 partners countries, established with local AKIS actors, following the MA approach. Based on these BPs, STRATUS will develop 60 demonstrations and training material that will facilitate advisors to exchange knowledge, experiences and key challenges for advisory practice through Cross Visits in all MS and CoPs. All the knowledge generated in the project will become available through an inventory hosted in the digital platform of the STRATUS project. STRATUS will determine the model for the exploitation model of the platform besides the self-sustainability of the EU-wide advisory network . STRATUS will cover all EU27 MS, eleven (11) MS are covered directly by project partners, while the other are covered through being members of EUFRAS and SEASN and project’s advisory organisations in charge of “mirroring” knowledge exchange.

ClimateSmartAdvisors is a pan-European multi-actor network covering 27 countries. Its aim is to boost the EU agricultural advisory community, leading to an acceleration of the adoption of climate smart (CS) farming practices by the wider farming community within and across EU AKISs. To reach this objective, ClimateSmartAdvisors focuses on the crucial role of advisors in the development and dissemination of CS innovations and practices. The project will organize activities focusing on strengthening the advisors’ capacity in providing CS advice and boosting the advisors’ role in the transition towards CS farming through their involvement in innovation projects, CS-AKIS, and EU projects and initiatives. A number of complementary activities are developed to strengthen the CS advisory capacity of the EU advisory community: 1) an EU-wide network of 260 advisory Communities of Practice (CoP) to support the development of 1500 advisors will form the core of CS knowledge exchange; 2) 140 advisors will receive expert training on selected topics, relevant for their context and for facilitating a CoP; 3) CoPs will internationally exchange knowledge on 12 thematic areas; 4) a knowledge repository will provide advisors with CS tools, practices and approaches developed in the ClimateFarmDemo project and further expanded in ClimateSmartAdvisors, 5) monitoring, evaluation and learning activities will capitalize lessons learned in and outside the project. Activities to boost the advisors role in the CS transition include: 1) connecting to local and EU (multi-actor innovation) projects, initiatives, AKIS actors, and policy makers to clarify and address joint needs, challenges and lessons learned, 2) the set-up of Co-Design Innovation Experiments to learn on how to strengthen the advisors’ role in innovation processes. Finally, to accelerate the wide spread of results, an ambitious dissemination, exploitation and communication strategy will be deployed at EU and national levels.

The recovery of wildlife populations (large carnivores and large herbivores) has created many additional challenges for pastoralism, already under pressure from multiple socio-economic drivers. These challenges include damage (depredation), extra costs, and many social conflicts. Some of the major obstacles to addressing these challenges are conflicts between stakeholders and the contested nature of relevant knowledge. The CoCo project will address these obstacles by adopting a multi-disciplinary approaches with a strong social science representation and a Multi-Actor Approach with widespread stakeholder engagement that facilitates co-creation of knowledge with high legitimacy. The process will cover (a) the relationship between livestock husbandry practices and damage from wildlife, (b) ways to integrate wildlife management and pastoral management, (c) perceptions and values that different stakeholders have about the pastoralism-wildlife interface, (d) experience with different governance structures, (e) the potential of new and emerging technologies in both wildlife and pastoral management and monitoring, and (f) a cost benefit analysis of different scenarios for pastoral and wildlife management. The project will use methods as diverse as systematic reviews, field inspections, face-to-face interviews, focus groups, questionnaires and modelling. The project’s ambition is to collect original quantitative data from at least 1000 pastoralists, 1000 hunters and 1000 landowners and qualitative data from 100’s of stakeholders deployed in a comparative way across 12 countries. The insights stemming from the reviews, the analysis of new data, and the modelling will be integrated into a Roadmap for Coexistence that produces policy relevant recommendations for a better standardization, harmonization and integration of both pastoral and wildlife management systems. This will reduce conflicts and secure multi-functional landscapes for both pastoralists and wildlife.