BEATLES aspires to change the way agri-food systems currently operate and accelerate the systemic and systematic behavioural shift to climate-smart agriculture and smart farming technologies fully aligned with the ambitions of the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies, and the new CAP at regional and EU levels. By adopting a food systems approach, the agri-food value chain is viewed as a system of interlinked components where interactions lead to systemic innovations. Through targeted selection of agri-food value chains across the EU and by engaging multiple stakeholders in the co-creation of systemic innovations, in the context of appropriate behavioural and experimental settings, the project will provide an integrative inventory of behavioural insights about the full range of “lock-ins” and levers that hinder or motivate behavioural change, including individual, systemic and policy factors. Five different food systems representing the major crop and livestock farming systems in Europe (cereals, dairy, stone fruits, livestock, vegetables) in various EU regions (Western, Eastern, Southern and Northern Europe), will be studied to account for the diversity in agri-food systems and conditions in the EU. The behavioural insights are used to develop transformative pathways, via business strategies and policy recommendations, to encourage transition to fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food systems. BEATLES will provide a set of business strategies establishing roadmaps for a fair shift towards climate-smart agriculture, based on environmental, social and economic sustainability assessments. Moreover, a series of policy recommendations and tools will be developed to foster behaviourally informed policy design and implementation. The active participation of multiple value chain actors, at various levels of society (public, political, professional), in the co-creation activities all along the project’s lifespan will establish a mutual understanding of the value

Fertilisation is key to feeding the growing world population, yet the most common fertilisation scheme based on conventional fertilisers poses threats to the environment (e.g. eutrophication caused by nutrient leaching) and sustainability of the EU food system (due to high dependence on fertiliser imports from third countries). Thus, among the key EU political priorities is to reduce by 20% the use of conventional fertilisers by 2030 and to decrease nutrient losses by 50%. A promising solution for this aim are alternative fertilisers produced from recovered nutrients from secondary raw materials (e.g. bio-waste, sewage sludge). However, their wide scale deployment is hindered by lack of awareness about alternative fertilisation, concerns regarding their technical viability and the disparity of legislations that creates a state of uncertainty. In this context, FER-PLAY is a comprehensive approach to gather, harmonise, select and complement the knowledge on alternative fertiliser value chains and diffuse it to promote the wide-scale production and application of alternative fertilisers with best environmental, social and economic performance as well as technical and regulatory viability. Thus, FER-PLAY employs a unique methodology for mapping the value chains, select the most promising ones and assess their impacts. FER-PLAY engages key stakeholders in co-creation of results and broadly disseminates them. The consortium gathers key players from the whole value chain: (1) alternative fertiliser producers from all the main types of secondary raw materials (producers of digestate- 183 members, of compost- 120 members and of struvite), (2) entities representing conventional (1.5M members), organic (100,000 members) and young (200,000 members) farmers, (3) a Pan-European network with +100 members representing public administrations, supported by (4) waste valorisation and agriculture research institutes, (5) market strategists and (6) communication experts.

The EU is the leading region for the production of organic fruits, with a rapidly expanding production and a demand for organic products which grows every year. However, at the same time, the amount and value of organic imports from outside the EU is increasing. For organic fruit farmers in the EU this poses a challenge to succeed in an increasingly competitive market. In addition, organic fruit growing is a very demanding farming activity. This is because, the sector faces specific problems that cannot be solved using conventional approaches based on the use of synthetics substances. As organic fruit growers cannot rely on synthetic inputs, many of them have, on a local level, developed competitive strategies to improve plant health. Moreover, there is considerable research on improving organic fruit growing systems. The problem, however, is that this knowledge is not easily accessible to farmers all over Europe and remains either locally known or only available in the scientific sphere. The sector is in need of a network focused on organic fruit production that bridges the gap between science and practice and makes locally found solutions available to other fruit growers in Europe. Therefore, the specific objectives of BioFruitNet are: 1) Collect and synthesize existing knowledge ready for practise, 2) Create a stable European innovation network, 3) Strengthen established networks, 4) Widely distribute solutions, 5) Extend the Organic Farm Knowledge Platform. To achieve these objectives, we will first carry a thorough mapping exercise to find relevant networks at national level in partner countries and beyond (WP1). Then, compile all existing practical and scientific knowledge relevant to organic fruit farmers (WP2) and select the best practices (WP3). We will then focus on adapting and translating all best practices in an easy-to-understand format like practice abstracts (WP4) and disseminate the information through high impact channels (WP5).