LANDMARK is a pan-European multi-actor consortium of leading academic and applied research institutes, chambers of agriculture and policy makers that will develop a coherent framework for soil management aimed at sustainable food production across Europe. The LANDMARK proposal builds on the concept that soils are a finite resource that provides a range of ecosystem services known as “soil functions”. Functions relating to agriculture include: primary productivity, water regulation & purification, carbon-sequestration & regulation, habitat for biodiversity and nutrient provision & cycling. Trade-offs between these functions may occur: for example, management aimed at maximising primary production may inadvertently affect the ‘water purification’ or ‘habitat’ functions. This has led to conflicting management recommendations and policy initiatives. There is now an urgent need to develop a coherent scientific and practical framework for the sustainable management of soils. LANDMARK will uniquely respond to the breadth of this challenge by delivering (through multi-actor development): 1. LOCAL SCALE: A toolkit for farmers with cost-effective, practical measures for sustainable (and context specific) soil management. 2. REGIONAL SCALE - A blueprint for a soil monitoring scheme, using harmonised indicators: this will facilitate the assessment of soil functions for different soil types and land-uses for all major EU climatic zones. 3. EU SCALE – An assessment of EU policy instruments for incentivising sustainable land management. There have been many individual research initiatives that either address the management & assessment of individual soil functions, or address multiple soil functions, but only at local scales. LANDMARK will build on these existing R&D initiatives: the consortium partners bring together a wide range of significant national and EU datasets, with the ambition of developing an interdisciplinary scientific framework for sustainable soil management.

The European Consortium for Communicating Stem Cell Research (EuroStemCell) unites 33 partner institutions, that collectively represent >400 stem cell research groupings across Europe. Our common goal is to provide trusted high quality information on stem cells accessible to citizens and stakeholders across Europe, through support and further development of the multi-lingual European Stem Cell Information Portal www.eurostemcell.org. To achieve our aims, EuroStemCell will adopt the highly structured system for coordinated information management established by the FP7 Coordination and Support Action (CSA) also called EuroStemCell. From this, we will implement an ambitious programme of online and direct stakeholder engagement with stem cell research and regenerative medicine, aimed at European citizens at all educational levels. This will include provision of resources tailored specifically for decision-making on stem cell-related questions and an extensive programme of dissemination and capacity building in science communications and public engagement. The proposed work centres on an information hub team, which will link to all project partners and to stakeholders in the stem cell and regenerative medicine arenas and wider society, working with these groupings to implement the project. All outputs will be delivered in 6 European languages, to ensure broad accessibility, and will be rigorously evaluated against measurable objectives throughout the project duration. The proposed consortium comprises leading stem cell labs across Europe, including new member states, together with experts in ethical and societal concerns and evaluating clinical outcomes. It thus provides unparalleled European expertise across the fields of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine and is uniquely placed to maintain and further develop www.eurostemcell.org as a world-leading stem cell information resource, thus meeting the challenge outlined in Topic HOA-6-2014.

iFishIENCi will deliver breakthrough innovations supporting sustainable aquaculture, based on enabling technologies and circular principles, thereby providing the European aquaculture industry with the competitive advantage and growth stimulation needed to be a mover in revolutionizing global efficiency in fish production and meet society's needs for food from the ocean. This ambitious task will be achieved by providing to the market the iFishIENCi Biology Online Steering System (iBOSS) that significantly improves production control and management for all fish aquaculture systems. iBOSS will maximise feed utilisation through smart feeding, provide continuous monitoring of fish behaviour, health and welfare and reduce response times to aberrations. iFishIENCi will target circular principles and zero waste by qualifying new and sustainable organic value chains for feeds, and valorisation of by-products. iFishIENCi´s innovations will provide important new assets to the consortiums SMEs, fish-farmers, feed producers and technology providers in the aquaculture sector, leading to market growth and job creation. Assets will be maximized through a comprehensive sustainability assessment and engagements with the sector, regulators and consumers. 11 European companies (SMEs and larger companies) and 7 research & Innovation expert groups are joining effort to achieve this innovation leap towards the implementation of smart feeding and smart breeding into the fish farming industry.

The aim of Soils4Africa is to provide an open-access soil information system with a set of key indicators and underpinning data, accompanied with a methodology for repeated soil monitoring across the African continent. The soil information system will become part of the knowledge and information system of FNSSA and will be hosted by an African institute. Activities are: (i) define use cases and indicators in consultation with stakeholders; (ii) make a functional design of the soil information system; (iii) develop detailed procedures and tools for the field activities based on the LUCAS methodology and collect 20000 soil samples; (iv) develop detailed procedures for laboratory work and analyse the collected soil samples at one reference laboratory located in Africa; and (v) develop the technical infrastructure for the soil information system and serve the results as open data linked with open EO data. The project addresses the work programme of SC 2 in the following ways. First, it contributes to priority 2 (Fostering functional ecosystems) because the soil information system is a tool to target interventions that improve soil quality and provides insight in the impact of these interventions. Secondly, it contributes to priority 1 (Addressing climate change and resilience on land and sea), as the soil information system will contribute to the assessment of carbon losses from soil and the identification of areas with high potential for soil carbon sequestration. Finally, the soil information system provides a platform for the development of sustainable business models by service companies aiming at the development of sustainable food systems, contributing to priority 3 (Boosting major innovations on land and sea). Soils4Africa is linking with relevant H2020 projects and Copernicus on EO data use. It actively connects organizations across Africa and Europe for synergies and promotes an open science approach.

The general objective of LEAP4FNSSA is to establish a sustainable structure, or ‘Platform’, for the efficient and coherent implementation of the AU-EU Research and Innovation Partnership as described in the FNSSA Roadmap. Under the aegis of the HLPD and its Bureau, and by building upon related projects such as RINEA, CAAST-Net. Plus, ProIntensAfrica and LEAP-Agri, LEAP4FNSSA aims to achieve this overall objective through three specific objectives: - Increase the synergies and coherence between actors, research and innovation projects, initiatives and programmes, through the development of institutional alliances and clusters of projects; - Develop a learning environment and a large knowledge base, including monitoring and evaluation activities, creating communication and links between different initiatives to improve STI cooperation; - Establish a long term and sustainable governance and funding mechanism for the Platform. To reach these objectives, LEAP4FNSSA will build on a large consortium of experienced partners and implement a methodology based on 3 principles: long-term impact, relevance of the outputs to the HLPD, and innovative actions. Long-term impact of the CSA relates to its main objective to enable and catalyse the transformation of the existing AU EU FNSSA Partnership into a bi-continental Platform for collaboration, organised along a Knowledge and Management Communication Framework. Outputs relevant to the HLPD will be achieved by connecting and framing activities of all Work Packages on top of the supporting activities specifically requested in the SFS-33-2018. Innovative actions are foreseen to run the Platform efficiently throught e.g. the development of a new approach to information mapping, text and data mining, and testing of multistakeholder alliances at a regional level and the mobilisation of actors to manage research and innovation programming in a 4-steps management cycle.