BeeGuards aims to strengthen the resilience of the European beekeeping sector by providing sustainable management practices, novel breeding strategies and digital and forecasting tools that allow the sector to adapt to a changing environment. We focus on determining how abiotic factors such as management practices, climate change, nutrition and resource limitations drive emerging biotic stressors that threaten colony health and erode the resilience of European beekeeping. BeeGuards comprises multiple actors and adopts a multi-actor approach from inception which has led to an open and inclusive design of the work programme. As a community, we will perform European-wide field studies evaluating and validating innovative threshold-based management and breeding strategies for resilience, using hives equipped with technological measurement tools. Complementary detailed immunological, behavioural, microbiological, pathological, ecological investigations will elucidate the ways in which management and climate act on honey bees and other pollinators. In this way, BeeGuards will, for the first time, provide a truly holistic view of the mechanisms determining beekeeping resilience and implement nature-based, local solutions for adaption, including model-based advisory tools for stakeholders. Our open and participatory actions include development of a WikiBEEdia community website where we will share and promote the BeeGuards concepts and results, including a Quest for sustainable beekeeping practices. Ultimately, BeeGuards will show the way for a change of perspective that is needed to achieve resilient beekeeping. BeeGuards will mitigate the environmental impact of beekeeping in terms of impact on wild pollinators and of carbon footprint, protect pollinator biodiversity, ensure the future provision of pollination services and support the economic development and inclusiveness of beekeeping, preparing the European apicultural sector to meet the climate challenge.

PerceptiveSentinel project will deliver PerceptiveSentinel platform - an INTERMEDIATE EO service that will through seamless access to highly pre-processed DATA provide: - MODELLING and PUBLISHING capabilities for - DESIGN, EXPOSURE and EXPLOITATION of EO-processing chains for - FORECASTING, MONITORING and HISTORICAL ANALYSIS in different domain fields, based on - MULTI-TEMPORAL and MULTI-SPECTRAL EO-Data and Non-EO Data MODELLING. PerceptiveSentinel platform will combine BIG-DATA SOURCES, (2) both spatial and non-spatial, (2) whether remote sensed, observed in-situ or derived (3) whether public, private or proprietary—onto a single system. The data will be transformed into action by applying STREAMING MACHINE LEARNING to UNLOCK its value. Platform’s capabilities will significantly shorten development cycles, enabling rapid development of EO services, opening new opportunities for large-scale exploitation of data and provide the means for new EO “downstream players” to smoothly enter the market without the investment into their own storage and processing capabilities. Commercialisation approach will be based on (1) FREE and OPEN access to services and data, (2) OPEN-VALUE-CHAIN approach, (3) LOW COST of services and on (4) DELIVERING VALUE TO END USERS. It is our intention that PerceptiveSentinel platform becomes FIRST value and benefit sharing EO platform in the world. We intent to expose an alternative business model building on COOPERATIVE VALUE CREATION and capture, including all aspects of EO value chain from data providing, product/service development, publishing and consuming. We believe in synergetic effects of cooperation, using PerceptiveSentinel platform to establish alliances with external partners, taking an open approach to participation and building joint commercial success on the delivery of new added value.

Soil-borne plant-parasitic nematodes are a biosecurity risk for global food production with an estimated annual loss of €110 billion worldwide. Root-knot nematodes (RKN) and potato cyst nematodes (PCN) rank 1 and 2 in the Top 10 of high-impact plant-parasitic nematodes with RKN alone accounting for ~5% of global crop losses. RKN and PCN are A2 quarantine pests or emerging species listed on the EPPO Alert List. The two PCN species are also included in EU Commission implementing regulation 2021/2285. Recent reports document the emergence of new RKN and PCN problems in tomato and potato cropping across Europe and beyond due to two independent drivers: global warming and genetic selection. For decades, non-specific, environmentally harmful agrochemicals have been applied to manage RKN and PCN. The increasing awareness about their negative impact prompted the phasing out of most nematicides. Consequently, there is an urgent need for novel, durable control strategies that enable adequate responses by stakeholders to prevent crop losses in the EU and beyond. NEM-EMERGE will provide a spectrum of sustainable, science-based solutions for both the conventional and organic farming sector based on the principles of IPM, including (1) optimized crop rotations schemes including cover crops, (2) tailored host plant resistances, and (3) optimal use of the native antagonistic potential of soils. Moreover, monitoring and risk assessment tools will be generated to support Plant Health Authorities in decision and policy making. To ensure the adoption and implementation of NEM-EMERGE tools in the sector, a bottom-up co-creation process and multi-actor approach will be used based on stakeholder demands from both the conventional and organic sector. This makes NEM-EMERGE a key driver for the transition to sustainable farming in line with the Farm to Fork Strategy thereby contributing to the challenging targets set by the Green Deal.

LIVESEEDING contributes to the upscaling of organic production in Europe through (i) improving availability of organic plant reproductive material of organic cultivars (Organic Heterogeneous Material, Organic Varieties, landraces) of a large range of crops, bred for improved diversity and adaptation to local conditions, and (ii) strengthening and diversifying the organic seed sector informed by market demands. LIVESEEDING contributes to the transition towards environmentally-friendly, climate-neutral, healthy and fair food systems through further developing (i) cultivars suited for organic and low external input production, (ii) novel governance models linking breeders with value chain actors and citizens with local food production, and (iii) awareness around the importance of biodiversity for our food and health. LIVESEEDING focuses on the main drivers for (i) the supply and demand of organic seed and cultivars, (ii) the supply and demand of food products derived from them, and (iii) enabling frameworks and roadmaps through active policy dialogue with national and European authorities and policymakers by providing science-based evidence and best practice solutions to achieve 100% organic seed. LIVESEEDING addresses the topics in a holistic multi-actor, multi-stakeholder participatory approach involving organic and public research institutes (with proven competencies in breeding, seed multiplication and health, socio-economics, extension and outreach), variety examination offices, private breeders and seed companies, organic production and civil society associations. Additional stakeholders along the value chain are involved in the local Living Labs (LLs) and the established networks of organic breeders (ECO-PB), seed savers (ECLLD) and Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP). 15 European countries cover the different pedoclimatic zones and socio-economic contexts, including countries with a low level of development in organic seed and breeding in East and South Europe

In Slovenia Sustainable food production and Ecology are now key priorities of all national strategies. However as a small country it faces lack of financial and human resources which are moreover dispersed along different research institutions. A justified model for governmental investment in a top research CoE is to horizontally unite the research capacities around existing infrastructure. KIS being the only public research institute in the field of agriculture with its mission and research facilities and experimental stations across Slovenia, has the potential to integrate RDI efforts in the field. The goal of the project is to establish a Slovenian Center of Excellence in Agricultural Sciences (SLO-ACE) as a joint initiative of Agricultural Institute of Slovenia - KIS (supported by five top research Slovenian institutes) and two world-class institutes i.e. Aarhus University (AU), Denmark and Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), France. The Teaming project will aim to: • improve research and innovation performance of KIS and capacity of Slovenian agriculture to achieve a competitive position on the national, regional and global level • increase the Slovenian scientific capabilities and enable agriculture sector to engage in a strategic growth path for economic development • establish links with innovative clusters • provide access to foreign knowledge flanked with technological modernizations and increased mobility of qualified scientists The expected impact is to achieve significant improvement of research in agriculture and food and innovation culture in Slovenia and to create a development model transferable within the South East European regions. Benefits will also accrue to the partners’ institutions from the more intensive R&I performers, in terms of access to new research avenues, increased creativity and development of new approaches as basis for innovation, as well as a source for increased mobility of scientists.