BIN2BEAN will support cities in their transition towards regenerative soil systems by promoting innovations for soil improvement from bio-waste with a value-based approach. The project will implement 3 Living Labs, as pilot city-regions, to follow a multi-actor and participative approach. In each LL, after mapping local contexts in terms of material and monetary flows, a tailored evaluation framework to demonstrate the safety, environmental and socio-economic performance of soil improvers will be co-designed and implemented, through field testing on experimental sites, feasibility studies and choice experiments. The data obtained will feed into a pilot scoring system, that will be co-developed and validated during the project, to help cities selecting the most effective solutions adapted to the geo-spatial context, i.e. inner city, urban-rural fringe and the wider market. The highest scored solutions will be selected for the development of innovative and tailored business models. The latter will match to stakeholders’ willingness-to-adopt (circular) implementation packages, e.g. collection schemes, cooperation networks, infrastructures and fee structures. The pre-market processes will be monitored through Techno-Economic Assessment (TEA). Finally, based on all previous results, local, national and EU policy roadmaps will be drafted, including waste charging policies and citizen awareness campaigns in the city-region, that will be piloted in LLs. All this will feed into a PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) approach, enabling cities to create a continuous value-based improvement loop towards regenerative soil systems. BIN2BEAN will support local waste management with the creation of 40 start-ups specialising in the soil improvers value chains. This will help to reach Europe's 2035 objectives of reducing landfill to 10% of total waste while reinjecting nearly 135,000 tonnes of nitrogen and 45,000 tonnes of phosphorus into soils in an environmental, human and sustainable way.

EU Data Governance Act and recent advances in technology provide a unique momentum to automate and expand livestock data collection, integration and exploitation by strengthening the coordination of efforts of science and industry. The ultimate goal of Digi4Live is to increase the capacity of livestock sector actors across Europe to benefit from data generating and digital technologies. By using a strong multi-actor and co-creation approach, which brings together livestock sector actors from farm to fork, from science to livestock and technology industries, competent authorities, and other key actors, and engages them in co-creation of digital & data concepts, Digi4Live enables greater use of current and new data & digital technologies in livestock tracking. Digi4Live is a 4.5 years coordination and support action that is reaching out to over 1000 organisations and initiatives across Europe to make an impact towards economically, environmentally and socially sustainable, digitalised livestock business that meets consumers’ expectations, more effective public administration and impactful policy. Digi4Live boosts the creation of standards and harmonised regulations, thus eliminating technical barriers for data and new data-generating technologies, and provides evidence on economic, social and environmental impacts of data-driven solutions in the livestock sector and boosts collaboration between R&I initiatives across all EU member states and beyond. It will point out how public administration and policy monitoring & assessment, businesses and consumers can benefit from digital technologies. Concepts for greater exploitation of data will be co-developed and examined in six thematic case study hubs and brought to the attention of end users to. Such an integrated approach can really make a difference by enabling substantially improved use of data for the benefit of science, policy and business. The project will provide policy and business conclusions.

DeliSoil will adopt a multi-actor, transdisciplinary approach to co-design processes that minimise food processing waste and valorise its by-products. We will apply a circular bioeconomy approach to the waste hierarchy, creating sustainable soil improvers in support of soil health in Europe. DeliSoil’s 5 regional Living Labs (LLs), with actors along the entire food value chain, will use innovative technologies to convert residues from food processing and production industries into tailored soil improvers. Research partners and companies will evaluate the soil improvers in state-of-the-art laboratories, and landowners will test the project’s solutions. The tailored soil improvers will be tested for stability, biosafety and molecular parameters, and their impacts on soil health, agronomical performance, and environmental risks will be evaluated. Environmental footprints will also be measured for selected products. We will identify technological, legislative, financial, and social barriers and enablers for the conversion of food processing residue streams into organic soil improvers and fertilising products, and use these results to analyse fairness throughout the LL value chains. Together with stakeholders, we will build communities and create networks to facilitate knowledge sharing of DeliSoil’s key exploitable results, empower interdisciplinary design processes to improve soil health through the valorisation of food by-products, and increase societal soil literacy. The Living Labs will share their solutions for using side-streams from vegetable, meat, insect cultivation, mixed food, tomato, olive oil, and wine industry actors. Our proposed Lighthouses will allow inter-European partnering and demonstrate improved waste management sites integrating optimal practices in a circular bioeconomy framework. We will work in close cooperation with other EU projects and the European Soil Observatory (EUSO) to ensure coordinated delivery of Soil Mission goals.

METROFOOD-RI – Infrastructure for Promoting Metrology in Food and Nutrition - is a pan-European Research Infrastructure (RI) aimed to promote scientific excellence in the field of food quality and safety. It provides high-quality metrology services in food and nutrition, comprising an important cross-section of highly interdisciplinary and interconnected fields throughout the food value chain, including agrifood, sustainable development, food safety, quality, traceability and authenticity, environmental safety, and human health. METROFOOD-RI has been selected to the ESFRI Roadmap2018 as mature enough to be implemented within the next ten years. The Action is aimed to support METROFOOD-RI to grow from its current status (research-based network of facilities and skills) to a mature, centrally-coordinated, integrated RI, with the legal, financial and technical maturity required for implementing it. The main objective is to develop the organizational, operational and strategic framework of METROFOOD-RI. Activities include legal, governance, financial, technical, strategic and administrative aspects carried out in 15 work packages, organised in 3 blocks dedicated respectively to: the organisation of the legal entity that will manage the future RI, i.e. ERIC; define the operation and the operational standards at the level of the whole RI and for the National Nodes, as well as the role of the RI as service-oriented organisation; define the long term activities for the future RI and update the Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda, in response to the actual and future challenges in the agrifood sector and for the Society. The main outcome will be the establishment of legal and financial commitment for the future ERIC, ensuring long-term common commitment, decision-making and funding engagement. Continuous relations with stakeholders and the user community will be kept in order to ensure the addressing of their needs at the best, and to focus strategies and planned services

The CATALYSE project will create a network of food safety actors with the aim to support adoption of knowledge and innovative solutions along the value chain. The network will foster collaboration and food safety knowledge sharing in a model that COLLECTS and then TRANSLATES knowledge and practices across our community through active EDUCATION and FACILITATION. The project aims to bridge the gap between end users, innovators, practitioners, trainers, and regulators by facilitating communication among these parties while matching practical needs with innovative solutions. During network activities we will set priorities for future work, provide food safety education and training, and support food business start-ups and SMEs. Data on inventions and practices related to food safety will be made available on an open access platform to support broad communication. Education and facilitation will be cornerstone activities to support innovation and change management to ensure the successful implementation of newly designed solutions and adoption by member states food safety authorities. CATALYSE will establish a community of practice to connect stakeholders from the complete value chain and promote cross-fertilization of ideas to create a more resilient, sustainable, and equitable community.