Crop wild relatives (CWR) are wild plant species genetically related to cultivated crops. Their untapped diversity can enhance resilience to biotic and abiotic stress and the nutritional quality of modern crops. Wheat, sugar beet, and oilseed rape were selected by Pro-wild because of their importance to food security and EU farmers and because some of their wild relatives are endemic to Europe. Moreover, these CWRs constitute a rich and under-exploited resource needed to face challenges linked to climate change and the transition to low-input agriculture. The genetic diversity and vulnerability of these CWRs must be better characterized to optimize their conservation and utilization. The objectives of Pro-Wild are to identify priorities for in-situ conservation of the selected CWR gene pools, to survey and complement CWR genebanks collections, and to increase the use of CWRs in crop improvement. Pro-Wild associates 18 partners from 11 EU and associated countries with expertise in ecology, conservation, genomics, pathology, microbiology, plant breeding, agriculture, and sociology. Pro-Wild will compile and analyse CWR occurrence maps and perform new in-situ collections. It will predict the vulnerability of several CWR species and populations to ongoing climate changes. Ex-situ collections will be complemented with endangered CWRs accessions. Pro-Wild will investigate the resilience of CWR collections for relevant biotic and abiotic stresses. The identification of CWR-derived desired traits and their transfer into elite backgrounds will be done to promote CWR use. Overall, Pro-Wild specific goals will be coordinated with input from breeders, farmers, and consumers. Pro-Wild outcomes will contribute to European Green Deal initiatives through research, education, and training. It will serve the EU biodiversity and the Farm to Fork strategies by preserving, characterizing, and utilising wild species that have unique importance for the resilience of our food systems.

The Societal Challenges addressed by European Union (EU) strategies such as the Green Deal and Farm-to-Form require innovative solutions in agriculture, forestry and rural areas. The Multi-Actor-Approach (MAA) is a promising instrument to speed up innovation. However, the H2020 RIA LIAISON (2018-2022) has identified some deficits and inconsistencies in the interpretation of the MAA by both current and potential MA consortia and Member States’ (MS) authorities. PREMIERE will therefore foster the development of sound, coherent and well-prepared MA projects in two ways. Firstly, it will contribute to the building of project consortia that make best use of the complementary knowledge of their members during proposal writing, project activities and beyond, in particular by improving the connection between Horizon Europe (HE) MA projects and Operational Groups (OG). Secondly, through insights and tools, it will support the implementation of innovative governance and sound decision making in policy and administration for the green transition. By using the results from LIAISON and capturing ‘grass roots’ ideas from project participants, policy makers and executive agencies through stakeholder dialogue across all 27 EU MS (including with the SCAR AKIS SWG, National Contact Points and other relevant HE projects), PREMIERE will develop tools as well as training and networking events for capacity development. These will include a Serious Game, an Online Academy and a MOOC. The project will test out the effect of providing seed funding to at least eight MA organisations (mainly OGs) and prepare a handbook of good practices. This user-focused workplan, with its open science outputs, will lead to more effective EU and national AKIS. It will be implemented by a very experienced, competent and genuinely MA consortium of policy makers, executive agencies, advisors for co-innovation partnerships, AKIS actors and/or and current and potential MA project partners.

LIAISON aims to make a significant and meaningful contribution to optimising interactive innovation project approaches and the delivery of EU policies to speed up innovation in agriculture, forestry and rural areas. Researchers, policy advisors, actors from interactive innovation projects, initiatives and networks, farm/forestry advisors, decision-makers and administrators will jointly investigate the design and implementation of interactive innovation project approaches. Looking with the eyes of a larger number of interactive innovation initiatives we will assess the infrastructure of H2020 and Rural Development Programmes at the project, national and European levels. Central in the project are a 'light-touch' review of the experiences in 200 projects and initiatives, and an in-depth assessment of 32 interactive innovation project approaches in a broad range of agricultural and forestry sub-sectors and countries. We will present the diversity of projects and practices through an online 'story map' with entries from all over Europe and select 15 practitioners from innovation projects who will contribute to the project's analyses and outcomes. LIAISON will produce practice-ready methods, protocols and tools, co-designed in processes involving the target users themselves. These include participatory tools for co-creation and co-learning, for networking, communication and dissemination, impact assessment tools, and methodologies and tools for self-evaluation. An Interactive Online System will help innovation actors to access these. LIAISON will develop detailed best practices and approaches for H2020 multi-actor projects, Thematic Networks, Operational Groups and other interactive innovation approaches that contribute to the implementation of EIP-Agri. All project outputs generated by LIAISON will be subject to a process of validation and fine-tuning based upon practical peer-review by consortium members and other closely involved actors and stakeholders.

AgriLink aims to stimulate sustainability transitions in European agriculture through better understanding the roles played by farm advice in farmer decision-making. To this end, AgriLink will analyse and improve the role of farmer advice in 8 innovation areas that combine challenges identified in the “Strategic Approach to EU Agricultural Research & Innovation”. AgriLink builds on the premise that the full range of advice-providing organisations need to be included in the assessment of service provision and innovation adoption. The methodology combines theoretical insights with cutting edge research methods within a multi-actor, transdisciplinary approach. It draws on ‘micro-AKIS’ (individuals and organisations from whom farmers seek services and exchange knowledge with) analysis in 26 focus regions, sociotechnical scenario development and ‘living laboratories’ where farmers, advisors and researchers work together. Research in focus regions will provide insight in farmers’ micro-AKIS, advisory suppliers’ business models, and regional farm advisory systems. This will feed an assessment of the efficacy of governance of farm-advice-research interactions across Europe. Newly developed advisory methods and new forms of research-practice interaction will be validated and further developed in Living Laboratories. A socio-technical scenario method will be used to explore, jointly with stakeholders, transition pathways towards more sustainable agriculture. Crucially, AgriLink builds on insights and experiences from both research and practice. The consortium consists of researchers from different disciplines (institutional economics, innovation studies, AKIS studies, sociology of networks), as well as of advisors (from public, private and farmer-based organisations) from across the EU. Actors from advisory services will be active in the validation and dissemination of results, to ensure that all project findings are both scientifically sound and practically useful.

SALSA will assess the role of small farms and small food businesses in delivering a sustainable and secure supply of affordable, nutritious and culturally adequate food. SALSA will identify the mechanisms which, at different scales, can strengthen the role of small farms in food systems and thereby support sustainable food and nutrition security (FNS). By considering a gradient of 30 reference regions in Europe and in Africa, we will obtain a differentiated understanding of the role of small farms and small food businesses in very differently structured food systems and situations. SALSA will elaborate and implement a transdisciplinary, multi-scale approach that builds on and connects relevant theoretical and analytical frameworks within a food systems approach, and that uses qualitative, consultative and quantitative methods. We will also test a new combination of data-based methods and tools (including satellite technologies) for rigorously assessing in quantitative terms the interrelationships between small farms, other small food businesses and FNS, paying particular attention to limiting and enabling factors. SALSA will use participatory methods, at regional level, and establish a more global Community of Practice and multi-stakeholder learning platform, based on FAO’s TECA online communication and learning platform. The SALSA consortium, and the joint learning and close cooperation, have both been designed with the EU - Africa dialogue in mind. Responding to the call we will unravel the complex interrelationships between small farms, small food businesses and FNS, and unfold the role played by small farms in (a) the balance between the different dimensions of sustainability, (b) maintaining more diverse production systems, (c) supporting the urban/rural balance in terms of labour and (d) in facilitating territorial development in countries facing a strong rural population growth.