Plant pests and pathogens damage agricultural production and endanger food security. Their control relies heavily on the use of synthetic insecticides, leading to a negative environmental impact. Developing new methods for pest and pathogen control is therefore essential to safeguard human health and meet the challenge of increasing crop yields, while reducing the use of chemical pesticides. The overarching objective of the NextGenBioPest project is to meet this need by delivering novel and improved products, methods, and practices for the rational control of the most difficult-to-manage arthropod pests and pathogens, with substantially reduced pesticide use. The project will provide a new toolkit for plant protection in key vegetable and fruit crops including diagnostics for pest and pathogen identification and incrimination, novel Biological Control Agents and methods to augment their performance in the field, RNA-based pesticides, Low Risk/Green chemicals, plant resistance inducers and innovative agronomic and ecological practices. These innovations will be integrated with existing approaches, to achieve effective, environment friendly and sustainable crop protection. They will be validated in large field studies, with both their efficiency and socioeconomic impact assessed. Demonstration fields, extensive training and modern targeted communication channels, will enable the appropriate dissemination and uptake of the outcomes to the stakeholders and end users. Data protection and commercialization strategies will ensure their exploitation. These goals will be achieved by integrating leading institutional and industrial partners with drivers of pest control programs. The multidisciplinary and multi-actor team will exploit their diverse expertise, access to extensive preliminary data and resources, and strong networks, to meet the project objectives and ensure the knowledge and tools generated deliver economic, ecological and societal impact.

The REENFORCE project, led by the Agricultural University of Athens, aims to create a long-lasting cross-sectoral collaboration, to empower the R&I human capital base, increase the cross-sectoral collaboration and enhance the excellence of research performing organisations in the Widening countries of Greece and Portugal. The project’s thematic area lies in sustainable crop protection, more specifically in the topics of: (i) bio-based solutions and low-risk pesticides, (ii) ecotoxicology assessment of applied substances and (iii) smart spraying applications. REENFORCE addresses Action 4 of the ERA Policy Agenda 2022-2024, while it supports Europe's twin green and digital transition, in the context of agriculture and sustainable crop protection. REENFORCE consortium consists of 4 academic organisations, 4 private companies and 1 competence centre from two Widening countries (Greece and Portugal) and one non-Widening country (Belgium), specialising in the fields of bio-based, low-risk and smart application of pesticides. REENFORCE will map relevant needs and knowledge gaps in R&I and cross-sectoral collaborative research in Widening countries, defining the requirements for upskilling human capital and enhancing research organisations' excellence, following business sector demands. It will develop specialised training material, and will conduct multiple training activities (face-to-face & online), cross-border and cross-sectoral secondments of R&I talents (in the context of joint research studies and shared use of infrastructure), providing opportunities for personal career development. REENFORCE will propose best practices, institutional reforms and policy recommendations, to increase the excellence of R&I, and research support, in Widening countries, and will widely promote the economic, environmental and societal benefits of bio-based, low-risk and smart application of pesticides.

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.

In the current environmental emergency, the food system has to become more productive, inclusive, sustainable, and resilient. SOSFood will therefore use data-exploitation and AI-based technologies to provide a holistic and comprehensive image of the EU food system and develop tailored predictive tools to support well-informed decisions of all stakeholders of the food chain, with a multi-factorial, multi-actor and multi-scale approach, thanks to its multidisciplinary consortium of experts, from private and public sectors, academia research and food system representative (consumers, producers and industries). Although several initiatives have been taken in the same line, none has fully succeeded at considering the global picture of the system or delivering a reliable and accessible message to the target audience. Hence, SOSFood will result in a consolidated food data space focused on sustainability and health and decision-making tools adapted to each level of the chain (a predictive dashboard displaying data and predictions for industries, and a mobile app for consumers comprising an eco-healthy fingerprint visualization plot, a greening indicator of industries, reformulated European recipes promoting healthy, local and seasonal ingredients and general recommendations), following these steps: (1) creating a multi-actor network gathering social, political, legal, economic, technological, food, health, environmental and climatic data, promoting transparency and data-sharing, (2) mapping the food system scenario with a multidimensional strategy, exploiting the interoperability of data with advanced impact analysis and innovative AI-technologies, (3) co-designing solutions i.e., decision-making tools fitting the context and priorities of each user, validated through field case studies to ensure viability and representativeness.

AMBROSIA aims to transform the European approach to food safety in view of the impacts of climate change. It will enable for the first time a holistic systemic approach to food safety risk assessment across the supply chain in view of climate change models with the use of digital technologies including AI. Bridging the knowledge of agrifood and climate modelling and forecasting scientists and experts in food predictive microbiology and risk assessment, AMBROSIA will make possible the modelling of climate change risks (individual and cumulative) and their impact on food safety from farm to fork in 4 major biogeographical regions within Europe (Atlantic, Boreal, Continental and Mediterranean) as well as the prediction of likely novel sources of risk and hazards across key food groups consumed by EU citizens. First the project will develop a tailor made holistic Risk Assessment methodological framework for the study of climate change impact on food safety. The use of spatio-temporal climate model projections will be integrated with models of food safety hazards to enable the development of detailed predictive models. Then a digital platform will be developed and deployed for the integration of climate model projections with food safety data for the purposes of prediction and monitoring of food safety risks and hazards emanating from climate change events or processes, as well as for the communication of mitigation/adaptation measures. Extensive use will be made of a variety of data sources to enable the use of AI techniques (deep learning for predictive modelling) to be fully used in the food safety domain. The project will focus on Fusarium mycotoxins, a recognised hazard from grains (wheat, oat, barley, corn) and derived products, and enteric pathogens (Salmonella, E. coli) in fresh produce (vegetables and salads). Using a multi-actor approach, AMBROSIA will raise awareness, and provide strategic advice on mitigation and adaptation strategies.