A major sustainability challenge for the European society is moving beyond conventional, industrialised food production and agricultural systems, characterised by a high use of external inputs. Mainstream conventional food production systems are posing a serious threat to the environment and to biodiversity and are becoming increasingly unsustainable due to unacceptable levels of food waste in industrialized countries and to shrinking farmers’ incomes. Alternative systems with reduced use of external inputs have to be promoted , based on i) an optimised use of agricultural biodiversity (hereafter ‘agrobiodiversity’), ecological processes and natural resources and on ii) improved food systems based e.g. on short supply chain quality food, where consumers play an active role in driving produce demand and consequently offer. CAPSELLA will address this challenge in two ways: (a) raising awareness on these issues especially within and among local communities (smallholders agriculture, biodiversity, food quality) but also within the broader European public, and (b) offering innovative ICT solutions that will address needs and requirements coming from the communities. To achieve this we will use a combination of participatory bottom up data collection and top down data integration to develop solutions for two domains: agrobiodiversity and local food knowledge. The project aims to (a) build from scratch open data repositories concerning regional agrobiodiversity, and (b) to build upon and enhance existing data sets on the agrobiodiversity and food domains. Based on these, the project will develop a number of community-driven data powered ICT solutions, which will be tested by the communities engaged in the project and will result in a number of pilots. Finally, our project will have a strong societal and business sustainability focus by also including incubation activities for selected pilots.

LIVESEED aims to improve the performance and competitiveness of the organic sector by boosting organic seed and plant breeding efforts. To increase the availability and choice of organic seed, LIVESEED will (i) harmonize the implementation of legislative requirements and develop an EU-wide router database tool for seed suppliers, (ii) develop improved cultivar testing systems, organic seed health and quality strategies, best practices for organic seed multiplication, and new variety testing protocols for the registration of cultivars for the organic sector, (iii) develop novel breeding concepts, selection tools, and genetic resources, (iv) explore plant-microbe interactions, (v) initiate new breeding networks to close major gaps for legumes, cereals, vegetables, fruit trees and fodder crops, (vi) identify bottlenecks in the organic seed market, (vii) develop business and governance models for breeding and seed production, (viii) engage stakeholder groups for knowledge exchange, practical training, and capacity building, and (ix) provide recommendations based on synthesis of LIVESEED outcomes. The innovative multi-actor and -action research approach (‘learning by doing’) of LIVESEED ensures a broad and fast implementation of the project outputs across Europe. The LIVESEED consortium represents a multidisciplinary European partnership involving 48 organisations (35 partners + 13 third linked parties) and >30 stakeholders from 16 EU countries and Switzerland, including researchers, breeders, seed producers, organic associations and retailers. Combining scientific and practical knowledge will enable the consortium to generate innovative solutions adapted to the needs of end-users for different pedo-climatic and socio-economic contexts. The main outcome will be an improved breeding efficiency and a greater choice and uptake of organic seed derived from resilient cultivars to optimize organic and low-input agriculture and strengthen sustainable food production in Europe.

Organic/low input cereal food systems in the EU are emerging in answer to the sustainability crisis of the conventional agri-food sector. “Alternative” systems are based on local, decentralized approaches to production and processing, regard to quality and health, and short supply chains for products with strong local identities. Diversity is deeply embedded in these food systems, from the agro-biodiversity grown in farmers’ fields, which improves resilience and adaptation, to diverse approaches, contexts and actors in food manufacturing and marketing. Diversity thus becomes a cross-sectoral issue, underlying innovations in the agronomic, processing, and marketing phases which respond to consumers’ demand for healthy products. CERERE’s objective is to foster and speed up these innovations to strengthen the economic, social and environmental sustainability of these cereal food systems, consolidate links among practitioners and with researchers, further enhance the resilience of agro-ecosystems and make the overall sector more competitive and better recognized by society. By creating a multi-actor network of researchers and communities of practice, by adopting a bottom-up approach, and by liaising with EIP-AGRI Operational Groups, CERERE will synthesize, share and disseminate existing best practices, research results and co-innovative solutions in organic/low-input cereal food systems, focusing particularly on agro-biodiversity and the associated values of quality and health. Through its activities and training products, CERERE will address the key issues and most urgent needs of these systems: availability/ management of adapted germplasm, use of rotations, soil fertility, weed competitiveness and crop protection strategies, quality-oriented processing techniques, alternative marketing schemes. For each of these, CERERE will identify opportunities for better integrating science and practice, paving the way for more dynamic interactions between the two domains.

DIVERSIFOOD will evaluate and enrich the diversity of cultivated plants within diverse agroecosystems so as to increase their performance, resilience, quality and use through a multi-actor approach. By integrating existing experienced networks and using specific and relevant cases across Europe the project will strengthen “food culture” to improve economic viability of local chains resulting in a greater diversity of produce with a cultural identity. Thanks to the composition of its consortium, DIVERSIFOOD will cover the whole food chain from genetic resources to marketing, connecting and amplifying local existing actions. It will design specific concepts and methodologies for combining in situ experiments to ensure performance and quality. It will evaluate the genetic resources of a dozen underutilized and forgotten plant species for organic and low-input agriculture or marginal/specific conditions, including the association of various underutilized legumes with several cereals, and create new diversity by innovative breeding methods designed for more intra-crop variation. It will help to facilitate cooperation between participatory research networks and professional breeders as well as policy makers in connecting formal and informal seed systems in Europe in relation to international negotiations on Farmers’ rights with the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Key-lessons based on the diverse experiences in the project will be shared to support on-farm seed production networks to guarantee high quality seed. DIVERSIFOOD will demonstrate the socio-economic value of on-farm seed systems, help at local and wider policy levels to increase food and environmental awareness, and improve multi-actor approaches to embed healthy and tasty local products in regional food chains. Demonstration and dissemination will take place at all stages, in collaboration with network organizations for a greater impact.

TRIBIOME's vision is to develop and implement a systemic solution to transform current food production systems. To this end, TRIBIOME aims to advance alignment with the Green Deal and Farm2fork strategies, by deepening the knowledge of soil/plant/animal and human microbiomes, as well as their interrelationships and interconnections, so that they can play a leading role in the resilience of food production systems in the near future. TRIBIOME will face the main challenges such as the need to minimize resources, reduce the environmental impact and promote healthy and plant-based food chain while feeding a constantly growing world population under the paradigm of climate change. This project aims to drive this concept from its base, establishing its central nucleus in current agricultural production systems based on the relevancy of the soil and plant microbiome, in order to produce more with less, through knowledge of microbial biodiversity and its interaction with the plant, developing novel technologies to influence its modulation (i.e., those enhancing plant growth, nutrient use efficiency, abiotic stress tolerance and better nutritional and health quality of food products) in such a way as to generate an upgrade quality food and have a positive influence on the microbiomes of both animals and humans. To this end, we will work cooperatively in a multiactor approach framework with all actors in the food production systems chain, from farmers to consumers, industry, investors and policy makers, in order to develop systemic solutions that guarantee their implementation and solve the real problems and needs of society.