In the recent years, social economy proved itself to be a vital source of growth and jobs in the rural areas that are facing a higher risk of poverty, and significant problems in access to adequate education and training, with agriculture still significant in terms of employment. Social enterprises and coops play a key role in involving rural inhabitants as European citizens more fully in society as stakeholders, i.e. workers, volunteers and users of these enterprises. In order to access opportunities created by various EU policies that can have a positive influence on poverty of rural areas, enterprises and inhabitants of rural areas need an adequate and constant access to training and advise services, tailored to their needs, competences and characteristics. The project contributes significantly to the development of the social economy in rural areas by the fulfillment of its three specific objectives: 1) the design and development of innovative training and coaching materials for start-up and management of social enterprises and coops in rural areas; 2) the development of the capacity of training organizations involved in adult education and their staff and 3) the development of alternative learning approaches that facilitate inclusion of marginalized citizens into entrepreneurship training activities including new media based training to widen access to adult learning. The project was implement by a consortium of 5 partners: four cooperative/ social enterprise network organizations and training providers from countries selected in the project that represent different cooperative &social enterprise patterns: Trentino/IT, Almeria/SP, and Västra Götaland/ West Sweden, where the cooperative formula is a successful model, allowing farmers to enjoy the added value of their products, creating employment and contributing to the sustainability of rural areas, providing also disadvantaged worker integration and Romania where coops and social enterprises are still at an emerging stage. The main project results are: 40 best practices of social enterprises and coops identified and promoted, with the most successful business models documented into 16 case studies for training purposes; 4 country-specific policy reports published; 4 packages of training materials including a general introductory material on start-up and management of social enterprises and coops and specific modules focused on different types of entities i.e.farmers coops, work integration and social services social coops, rural social enterprises and coops (micro-credit, utilities and consumer social enterprises), and respectively green social enterprises, based on collective experience sharing from the 4 countries; 2 start-up do-it-yourself guides for coops and social enterprises – one for agricultural cooperatives and one for other types of social enterprises or coops; an innovative informational and learning movie – “The Story of a New Crop” and the European toolkit for trainers, advisers and facilitators working with starting up and developing coops and social enterprises in rural areas, which integrates the whole research and documentation efforts of the consortium in an unique training and learning collection of materials suitable to be used widely at European level. In terms of access and dissemination, the impact of the project was: over 500 trainers, facilitators and consultants for community social enterprises and coops, policymakers and leaders in the cooperative & social enterprise systems in the participating countries gained unlimited access to the newly produced materials and were informed about the availability of such materials through direct emails, over 2000 social enterprise practitioners that received the periodical newsletters of the Institute of Social Economy are able to use tools from the project publications; 251 end-users (practitioners from or in rural areas) directly involved in the pilot dissemination workshops were informed, to which we add the 41 trainers, researchers and advisers specializing in social enterprise & cooperative management that gained knowledge and information on practices and policies in other member states and EU level during the 4 short-term joint staff training events organized in each of the participating countries. The 25 members of the European Economic and Social Committee were directly informed about the outcomes of the project. New contacts have been built and other key relevant stakeholders and initiatives existent at EU level have been identified and can be base for further common initiatives and better options for making our work more efficient. On the long run, the partner organizations will benefit from the improved training capacity. The target groups - social enterprises and coops, as well as start-up groups or other training providers that want to initiate such enterprises have open and unlimited access to all the materials, on the project’s webpage www.ies.org.ro/erasmus.

Starting from current best practices and key success factors observed and analysed in innovative value chains and the state of the art in technological and non-technological approaches, CO-FRESH proposes to develop techniques, tools and insights for the re-design of agri-food value chains. Through collaborative and systemic approaches, the tools and formats will be applied in 7 pilot cases representing diverse fruit and vegetables agri-food value chains (including protein crops for food and feed) across Europe. CO-FRESH will use the Intervention Research approach to study models of collective innovation action within and across organisations. The CO-FRESH consortium brings together key actors from pilot agri-food value chains; actors’ associations (farmers, food producers, cooperatives, consumers); experts in technological (including digital) solutions and non-technological (including social, organizational, and institutional) solutions; as well as experts in environmental, social, economic sustainability, and in consumer’s acceptance. The main objective of CO-FRESH is to (re)design and pilot innovative systemic approaches to agri-food value chains to scale up this innovation at European level. These innovative approaches will improve economic, social and environmental performance/efficiency of these value chains, through smart integration of technological, social, organisational, managerial and institutional innovations; all of which serve to make them more sustainable.

Climate Farm Demo is a unique pan-European network of Pilot Demo Farmers (PDFs) covering 28 countries and all pedo-climatic areas. Its overall aim it to accelerate the adoption of Climate Smart Farming (CSF) practices and solutions by farmers and all actors of the Climate Smart Agriculture Knowledge & Innovation Systems with a view of adapting agricultural production systems to climate change and of achieving a carbon neutral agricultural sector by 2050, thereby meeting the targets of the EU Climate strategy. To reach this objective, the project adopts a Multi-Actor approach by connecting 1500 Pilot Demo Farmers and their Climate Farm Advisors (CFAs) at European and national levels to increase knowledge exchange & cross-fertilisation in their respective AKIS. The CFA’s will support the PDF’s in implementing Adaptation and Mitigation Measures suggested by contextualised guidelines and will assess & monitor their environmental performance thanks to harmonized methodologies & tools. Technical and social innovations covering a broad range of thematic areas will be demonstrated to the wider farming community across six annual demo-campaigns (4500 demo-events) supporting interactive and peer to peer learning. New and innovative CSF solutions will be co-created in 10 Living Labs spread across Europe and lessons learned from multi-actor innovation will be shared and scaled. A set of public and private rewarding mechanisms will be identified, proposed and demonstrated to the AKIS actors, thus incentivising the uptake of CSF solutions while ensuring sustainable business models. Strategic and operational cooperation will be organised with projects, flagship initiatives and policy-makers at European and national levels in order to share knowledge, organize coordinated actions, and produce policy briefs. Finally, to accelerate the wide spreading and uptake of results, an ambitious dissemination, exploitation and communication strategy will be deployed at EU and national levels

ECONUTRI is a consortium of scientific experts and researchers from different disciplines, private companies, farmers’ associations, and stakeholders. ECONUTRI is partnering with six Chinese Institutions, four from public research and two from industry, to complement activities and to strengthen the scientific collaboration between Europe and China. The project will scientifically support the EU’s Green Deal in its target to reduce fertiliser use by least 20% by 2030, thereby reducing by 50% losses of nutrients associated with negative environmental impacts. More specifically, ECONUTRI will address water pollution caused by NO3 and P leaching and run-off from cultivated soils, manure/slurry and plant residues, as well as greenhouse gas (N2O, CO2, CH4) and NH3 emissions from cultivated soils, barns, and organic biomass during storage, composting, and land application. ECONUTRI will optimise, validate, and demonstrate 24 innovative technologies that currently have a TRL of 4-6, and will increase their TRL to 7-8. These technologies are integrated parts of a holistic concept based on recycling of nutrients and organic material, novel machinery and fertilisers, novel decision support systems (DSS), and novel nutrient management plans incorporating nature-based solutions to reduce nutrient losses and to increase nutrient use efficiency. The expected results include hyperspectral analysis algorithms, advanced on-line DSS platforms to develop smart nutrient management plans for organic and conventional crops, protocols for circular cropping systems in open field and greenhouses, advanced emission monitoring feedback systems, novel manure spreaders, variable rate technologies for precision fertilisation, smart fertilisers, and biostimulants increasing N use efficiency. ECONUTRI will establish eight demonstration sites and deploy a comprehensive range of dissemination, communication, and exploitation activities to maximise the impact of the expected results and technologies.