COMUNIDAD aims at developing, testing, and implementing a framework that will make use of Copernicus data from agriculture, forestry and rural development in Chile and Colombia. It will develop solutions integrated on the COMUNIDAD platform with different sources of data. The COMUNIDAD Platform will be important base for the use of EGNSS and sharing of expertise with public and private entities from the target countries to introduce EU-space based applications and to use of Copernicus data, to develop jointly algorithms, services and products, which serve local user needs. The interaction with each Pilot Application in Chile and Colombia will feed to long-term policy strategy development, aiming at bringing about the transition into the new paradigm of sustainable agriculture and forestry growth. The combined use of EGNSS and Copernicus to develop innovative downstream applications combining positing navigation and timing with Earth observation services will be an essential part of the COMUNIDAD development through pilot applications in Chile and Colombia with the direct involvement of regional end users, decision makers and support organisations. This approach is not only demonstrating the possibilities of potential transfer of the results and addressing the potential barriers, but as well introducing the added value for developing new markets, information sharing, open access and transparency. The platform is combining existing components and services for new target regions where potential for utilization is expected. The COMUNIDAD will address 4 main Scientific Objectives via 6 WPs. The cooperation of 9 partners is envisaged, from them 5 are from Chile and Colombia and 4 from EU.

Lack of knowledge and awareness of the importance of long-term soil health is a major driver of soil degradation affecting its capacity to provide ecosystem services. The ‘Soil Deal for Europe’ Mission proposes a novel approach to R&I for impact, based on Open Science and strong stakeholder and citizen engagement. PREPSOIL will adopt a proactive approach to co-create with stakeholders, leveraging on both offline and online facilities, with the ultimate purpose of generating long-lasting interaction spaces. Furthermore, PREPSOIL will provide the first assessments and efforts towards an improved knowledge base and awareness level on soil health for multiple stakeholders. PREPSOIL’s web portal is envisaged as the European “one-stop-shop” for all information, resources and digital engagement tools for the Mission stakeholders. It will offer an open-source workspace, including collaboration instruments, ready to be expanded to meet requirements from the Mission. This interaction and engagement strategy supports stocktaking and dialogue to understand how regional ‘soil needs’ assessment, supported by harmonised monitoring mechanisms, can lead to action in Living Labs (LLs) and Light Houses (LHs) for soil health. An ambitious 'soil needs' appraisal campaign will be carried out. In combination with other actions, it will provide direction and capacities for the future national soil health monitoring mechanisms, as well as mapping and preparing the implementation of regional LLs through model business plan guidance.

InnoVar will develop next generation plant variety testing by building tools and models that augment current practices capitalising on advances in genomics, phenomics, imaging technologies and machine learning. The InnoVar database, populated with historical and de novo genotypic, phenotypic and environmental data will facilitate model development and evaluation for revision of DUS and VCU processes. Innovative ways to measure DUS characters will be evaluated. VCU evaluation procedures will be revised and shaped to comprehensively address variability in growing conditions, stresses and management approaches. Processes for identifying optimally-adapted varieties and delivering information to farmers, end-users and stakeholders will be put in place. This will include the creation of the High Performance Low Risk (HPLR) varieties as a concept and a brand potentially leading to harmonisation of VCU testing across the EU. InnoVar will focus on wheat initially, and apply the InnoVar approach to other major crops. Developments and advances achieved will also influence breeding processes. This project will take variety information to the next level in four ways: (i) providing information on new DUS and VCU characters and identifying synergies; (ii) developing varieties with proven suitability for the various growing scenarios; (iii) making this information available to farmers throughout the EU, and (iv) disseminating the information in readily accessible and easily updated digital formats. Cutting-edge science will be integrated with tried and tested DUS and VCU processes to deliver an invigorated EU variety evaluation system capable of delivering increasingly productive and more sustainable cropping to meet the challenges arising from population growth, food security and climate change.

SIEUSOIL will design, implement and test a shared China-EU Web Observatory platform that will provide Open Linked Data to monitor status and threats of soil and assist in decision making for sustainable support of agro-ecosystem functions, in view of the projected climate change. The Observatory platform will through customizable modules support the wise management of soil at field level and will provide showcase of good practices on soil management both for EU and China. The final target will be to support sustainable management of soil, increase land productivity sustainably, reduce crop yield variability across time and space, and support the policy formulation process. Innovative practices and tools will be tested in SIEUSOIL and their impact will be assessed for improved soil fertility and land suitability.

STARGATEs contribution beyond state-of-the-art in applied climatic data solutions is the implementation of analytics models to support local and regional policy formulation and implementation related to mitigation on microclimate changes. Currently, policy making organizations predominantly utilize own data, typically limited to their own jurisdiction/administrative area. However, once the policy development process expands the evidence base and data sources beyond the traditional approach, there is need for global data. The addition of national, European and even global reference data sets for comparative analysis — including meteorological, climatic analysis, satellite data sources to improve decision making processes. The studies at landscape scale are required to understand leading ecological processes. The focus will be on Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) and will extensively study the benefits of applying agri-environment-climate technical solutions to achieve sustainable agricultural development at landscape level. It means to support farm management modernization and at the same time get to know the underlying ecological factors that shape the farming landscape. STARGATE will leverage access to this data and also STARGATE climatic platform including developed models platforms to foster easy and affordable adoption by policy making bodies. The simples approach to decision support in policy development is effective visualization of data. Good visualization supports the policy developers’ in modelling sustainable policies and decisions. Unlike algorithmic simulation and modelling, visualization leaves the actual decision and assessment to a human user and thus provides an extra quality assurance before actual policy decisions are made. STARGATE provides innovative components for visualization of big data with a particular emphasis on geospatial visualization and advanced, dynamic charting.