Smart Crop Farming technologies allow farmers to optimize inputs and tailor cultivation practices to specific crop requirements. Despite the potential of these technologies to enhance agriculture, their adoption remains surprisingly low in Europe. Well-organized, farmer-focused, multi-actor advisory systems and networks can play a crucial role for farmers to understand and implement Smart Crop Farming technologies. These advisory systems involve multiple stakeholders and prioritize farmers' needs, while enabling knowledge exchange among diverse players. Operational Groups (OGs) provide a strong platform for this, but many lack the required capabilities. TechCoach's main objective is to strengthen farmers’ ability to assess, adopt, and integrate Smart Crop Farming technologies at the farm level, by facilitating collaborative innovation and multi-actor advisory in Operational Groups and AKIS. This will be achieved through the mobilization of OG’s and AKIS actors, as well as the utilization of existing and new thematic networks and Multi-Actor Approach projects, to gather and disseminate knowledge and experience for application in local contexts across Europe. TechCoach will serve a dual purpose: (1) strengthening the results of Operational Groups, and (2) accelerating these results through networks at the national and EU level. The approach includes 3 levels of interventions. Firstly, we learn how EIP Operational Groups facilitate their members in the adoption of Smart Farming technologies. Good practices are described, and gaps are identified. At the start of the project, TechCoach will work with 10 OG’s in 5 countries. Secondly, we connect project OGs, other OGs and AKIS actors in national networks to share knowledge and experience on the theme of facilitating Smart Crop Farming adoption and to narrow the identified gaps. And thirdly, we connect OGs and national networks across borders and enhance pan-European learning and collaboration in Smart Crop Farming.

The objective of ATTRACTISS is to improve & embed competencies, approaches, instruments & governance models for Member States (MS) AKIS and specifically for Innovation Support Services (ISS) as a crucial AKIS actor, to enable them accelerating individual grassroots innovative ideas to come to fruition & to generate solutions for the transition process to more sustainable agriculture & forestry. ATTRACTISS has the goals to (1) empower ISS & all AKIS actors, through capacity building & provision of effective methods & supportive tools, to discover innovative ideas & enable uptake in a co-creative way thereby fostering AKIS ecosystem building to support the transition to sustainable and circular agriculture & forestry systems (2) support Managing Authorities (MA) in all EU MS to organise & monitor efficient support for ISS; & (3) provide support for new actors in AKIS processes to better facilitate co-creation approaches involving farming, practitioners & research centres. ATTRACTISS achieves these goals by (1) setting up an EU wide network for ISSs that allows to connect, develop common understanding, vision & capacities about their roles & functions within the AKIS. This ultimately leads to the development of an ecosystem in favor of Multi-Actor Approaches (MAA) & innovative projects; (2) building upon and giving continuity to other previous initiatives to focus on ISSs & broaden the networks; (3) systematizing the current databases & tools for ISSs to provide a unique virtual location for tools & guidelines to support best practice; (4) providing a step change in the provision of support & training for key actors in MAA & ISS across MS which builds knowledge, understanding & confidence in the practical delivery & benefits of these approaches; & (5) enabling institutional dialogue among ISSs & MAs based on enhanced understanding of the potential to organize ISS in a way that will lead to targeted CAP interventions for the integration of ISS within the AKIS.

The EU Farm to Fork strategy, which is at the heart of the European Green Deal, aims to make food systems fair, healthy, and environmentally friendly. Sustainable Livestock Production must play a substantial role to engage the EU in green transition while ensuring farmers’ incomes and quality of life. The main objective of LIVENET is to establish and build capacity of a network of advisory services across the EU, increasing the knowledge sharing between advisors, and among the whole AKIS, and the adoption of innovative solutions for Sustainable Livestock Production by farmers. The project will achieve this through: 1) the establishment and development of an EU network of livestock advisors, based on existing networks and national AKIS, covering the 27 EU Members States, the UK and Switzerland. To cover all MSs, the project will adopt a twinning approach: 10+1 National Networks will be created by the project partners and will engage with 18 Associated Networks through a twining program. The network will cover all European pedo-climatic areas, integrating 10 EU regional clusters, the major livestock sectors and the main thematic challenges faced by breeders; 2) the collection, selection, evaluation, adaptation and validation of context-based Innovative Advisory Practices (IAPs), which are technically, economically, socially, and environmentally viable and will be replicated across the EU, 3) the wide scaling of solutions through trainings, demo-events and other activities towards advisors, students and value chain actors to promote the adoption of the IAPs. 4) the connection with other regional, national and EU projects, initiatives and policy makers for better integration of livestock advisory organisations in the AKISs. The project embrace a multi-actor approach, gathering 20 organisations with a vast experience in advisory and sustainable livestock production representing a diversity of AKIS stakeholders (farmers, advisors, researchers, value chain actors).

EcoStack will provide European farmers with the knowledge and tools needed to maximise ecosystem services for the production of crops, while minimising environmental impacts of agriculture and ensuring the profitability of farming. The objectives will be achieved by stacking ecosystem services to enhance synergistically the effective interplay of the service providers. Previous attempts at achieving this have been ineffective due to uncertainty of pollinator and natural enemy exchange between crop types and habitats, as well as the reluctance of growers to establish refugia for natural enemies and pollinators. In EcoStack we will focus on the management of beneficial organisms within the field, rather than trying to manage the external influx. We will make full use of increased knowledge of interactions between trophic levels (microbe-plant-herbivore-natural enemy / pollinator), and will manage and assess functional biodiversity benefits at different levels (within and between species, fields, landscapes), and stack them for maximizing farmer benefits and system resilience. Our research covers: conventional and organic cropping systems; arable, horticultural and permanent crops; pastoral and mixed systems, and all pedoclimatic production zones of Europe. Specific focus is on oilseed rape, wheat, and potato; field tomato; orchards (olive, fruit trees) and vineyards, and grassland/pastures. Advanced molecular and other technical tools are used to determine source populations of beneficial organisms, and to monitor and record movements and interactions. A comprehensive work-package will address relevant socio-economic questions including farmer uptake, and a specific tool will be developed based on precision agriculture data to allow farmers to link inputs (including functional biodiversity) to output (yield maps), based on data from their own fields. We have access to comprehensive farm networks covering all of Europe, for implementing and demonstrating our results.

The i2connect project aims to fuel the competencies of advisors who will support and facilitate interactive innovation processes responding to multiple challenges in European agriculture and forestry. The strategy in i2connect is to use the existing advisor networks and the experiences of success in different contexts to create a broader network and momentum of change enabling a new culture of bottom-up led innovation support. This resource of over 40,000 advisors are critical actors supporting agriculture and forestry on the ground and must be influenced in this project to support interactively innovation with particular emphasis on EIP-AGRI 2020 target of 3,500 operational groups and beyond. An inventory will be made of the current state of advisory practices in Europe. Best Practices throughout Europe will be analysed in an interactive way to guide the development of approaches and tools, and to be studied as part of the training program for advisors. A pool of trainers will be trained to work with these materials in training and coaching advisors. Some advisors may join cross visit teams for studying interesting cases abroad. Attention will also be given to the ‘enabling environment’: ways in which managers of advisory services, research actors, policy makers and others can create conditions. These activities feed into a professional network with many local branches, supported by the project through a moderated on line platform for mutual coaching, sharing experiences. i2connect brings together 32 organisations (beneficiaries and third parties).