Periodic Reporting for period 2 - AE4EU (Agroecology for Europe)
Reporting period: 2022-07-01 to 2023-12-31
The world is facing a large number of challenges - degradation of soils, water quality due to high nutrients concentrations and occurrence of pesticide residues impacting food quality and human health, biodiversity loss, high food loss during processing and storage, food waste and access to food - which many are strongly impacting agriculture, food production and food systems. The recent pandemic Covid19 crisis as well as the war in Ukraine has stressed even more clearly the necessity to promote a drastic change of agricultural and food systems in Europe. In this respect, agroecology is increasingly seen as an important pathway as it designs, develops and promotes the transition towards sustainable farming and food systems.
Although a certain development of agroecology and its different facets in Europe can be stated (Nicot et al. 2018, Wezel et al. 2018b), it remains so far too limited to allow a successful transition to sustainable agriculture and food systems. Therefore, a strong development with ambitious and longer-term joint actions at European level is needed in research, innovation, training and education as well as in the funding domain. In order to foster and support the development of agroecology, the AE4EU project aimed to fulfil six key strategic objectives (shortened):
(i) Increase connections between relevant actors through the mapping of agroecology in Europe aiming to describe and analyse the different context, realities and state of development of agroecology.
(ii) Develop skills and methods for developing research infrastructure and living labs.
(iii) Prepare funders for increased and complementary funding of agroecology through the analysis of public and private funding schemes to identify potential adaptation to enhance cooperation and coordination of funders.
(iv) Improve human and social capital with the set-up of a European Agroecology Exchange Hub as an online space to facilitate and foster exchange of knowledge at the European level.
(v) Improve capacity to tailor policy interventions to specific situations to enhance the understanding of current policy that could favour the development of agroecology and provide recommendations for future policies
(vi) Provide in the medium and long term for research, innovation projects, initiatives as well as enhanced knowledge and good practice.
Although a certain development of agroecology and its different facets in Europe can be stated (Nicot et al. 2018, Wezel et al. 2018b), it remains so far too limited to allow a successful transition to sustainable agriculture and food systems. Therefore, a strong development with ambitious and longer-term joint actions at European level is needed in research, innovation, training and education as well as in the funding domain. In order to foster and support the development of agroecology, the AE4EU project aimed to fulfil six key strategic objectives (shortened):
(i) Increase connections between relevant actors through the mapping of agroecology in Europe aiming to describe and analyse the different context, realities and state of development of agroecology.
(ii) Develop skills and methods for developing research infrastructure and living labs.
(iii) Prepare funders for increased and complementary funding of agroecology through the analysis of public and private funding schemes to identify potential adaptation to enhance cooperation and coordination of funders.
(iv) Improve human and social capital with the set-up of a European Agroecology Exchange Hub as an online space to facilitate and foster exchange of knowledge at the European level.
(v) Improve capacity to tailor policy interventions to specific situations to enhance the understanding of current policy that could favour the development of agroecology and provide recommendations for future policies
(vi) Provide in the medium and long term for research, innovation projects, initiatives as well as enhanced knowledge and good practice.
Gathering partners of different origins and activity from university to grassroots organization, the AE4EU project delivered a diversity of results and outputs.
Understanding the current realities of agroecology in different European countries is a key step to build on existing initiatives and upscale agroecology. For this, the AE4EU project mapped agroecology in 33 European countries. A unique overview documenting agroecology initiatives, regarding practice, research, education and training, movement and living labs was achieved. Results shows that agroecology is still not very much recognized by different categories of stakeholders; there are only few education programmes on agroecology; the existence of research team/departments working on agroecology remain scarce; and movements linked to agroecology were found in most countries whereas living labs calls as such were extremely rare. All country results are published in an open access book.
An analysis of current and past agroecology-related research projects, and institutions working on agroecology was carried out, allowing to see how agroecology is understood and applied. In parallel perceived barriers to the development of agroecology and research needs associated to it were identified. Results clearly highlight the existence of different research approaches regarding agroecology, from more specific research to very few research using a broader holistic approach, the needs for transdisciplinary approach as well as the need to further involve a variety of stakeholders in research. Key lessons learnt from this work were shared through the form of deliverables, a webinar and academic articles.
Funding is key to support and enhance the development of agroecology. The consortium provided an overview of existing public and private funding schemes dedicated to agroecology. Also, the project initiated exchange between private and public funders. Public funding schemes were investigated through the analysis of existing databases at the national and European level, and interviews of stakeholders linked with public funding. This has provided insights regarding existing schemes and their evolution. The work on private funding through desktop research, interviews and workshops with foundations highlight the willingness of a group of foundations already engaged directly or indirectly to fund agroecology to enlarge their engagement or complement existing funding.
Living labs and research infrastructures are key instruments and can be important initiatives to foster the agroecological transition. Using an original approach, the project defined a grid of indicators to characterize existing living labs and provide materials on how to cluster them and analyse differences between living labs regarding type of stakeholders involved as well as how to monitor and evaluate existing living labs. In parallel, three living labs in Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom were developed.
Fostering the training of farmers fore agroecology is one of the key steps to up-scale its development. Training guidelines were developed by AE4EU partners to disseminate and exchange knowledge around the approach and implementation of agroecology. Finally, to increase connection among existing and future actors of agroecology, the project has set the basis of two important initiatives: (i) the development of a European Agroecology Exchange Hub, and (ii) the creation of ENAF European Network for Agroecological Food Systems.
Understanding the current realities of agroecology in different European countries is a key step to build on existing initiatives and upscale agroecology. For this, the AE4EU project mapped agroecology in 33 European countries. A unique overview documenting agroecology initiatives, regarding practice, research, education and training, movement and living labs was achieved. Results shows that agroecology is still not very much recognized by different categories of stakeholders; there are only few education programmes on agroecology; the existence of research team/departments working on agroecology remain scarce; and movements linked to agroecology were found in most countries whereas living labs calls as such were extremely rare. All country results are published in an open access book.
An analysis of current and past agroecology-related research projects, and institutions working on agroecology was carried out, allowing to see how agroecology is understood and applied. In parallel perceived barriers to the development of agroecology and research needs associated to it were identified. Results clearly highlight the existence of different research approaches regarding agroecology, from more specific research to very few research using a broader holistic approach, the needs for transdisciplinary approach as well as the need to further involve a variety of stakeholders in research. Key lessons learnt from this work were shared through the form of deliverables, a webinar and academic articles.
Funding is key to support and enhance the development of agroecology. The consortium provided an overview of existing public and private funding schemes dedicated to agroecology. Also, the project initiated exchange between private and public funders. Public funding schemes were investigated through the analysis of existing databases at the national and European level, and interviews of stakeholders linked with public funding. This has provided insights regarding existing schemes and their evolution. The work on private funding through desktop research, interviews and workshops with foundations highlight the willingness of a group of foundations already engaged directly or indirectly to fund agroecology to enlarge their engagement or complement existing funding.
Living labs and research infrastructures are key instruments and can be important initiatives to foster the agroecological transition. Using an original approach, the project defined a grid of indicators to characterize existing living labs and provide materials on how to cluster them and analyse differences between living labs regarding type of stakeholders involved as well as how to monitor and evaluate existing living labs. In parallel, three living labs in Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom were developed.
Fostering the training of farmers fore agroecology is one of the key steps to up-scale its development. Training guidelines were developed by AE4EU partners to disseminate and exchange knowledge around the approach and implementation of agroecology. Finally, to increase connection among existing and future actors of agroecology, the project has set the basis of two important initiatives: (i) the development of a European Agroecology Exchange Hub, and (ii) the creation of ENAF European Network for Agroecological Food Systems.
Agroecology is gaining momentum in different European countries and through the development of the European partnership on agroecology living labs and research infrastructures. Those dynamics reinforce the need to analyze the current state of agroecology in European countries, opportunities to foster its development, but also identify barriers and hindering forces. Toward this aim, AE4EU played a key role by achieving different tasks such as the mapping of agroecology in different European countries and dissemination of results and outcome through webinars, open access publications, brochures, and policy briefs.
The European Agroecology Exchange Hub constitute an important legacy of the project as a platform for dissemination and connecting stakeholders. In complement, the creation of ENAF (European Network for Agroecological Food Systems) was initiated to foster the connection and exchange among stakeholders in Europe. Moreover, the development of a road map, propositions to improved funding schemes and research programmes as well as the analyses of past and ongoing living labs and research infrastructures provide the foundation to enhance the development of agroecology in Europe and facilitate its implementation and successful transition in different countries.
The European Agroecology Exchange Hub constitute an important legacy of the project as a platform for dissemination and connecting stakeholders. In complement, the creation of ENAF (European Network for Agroecological Food Systems) was initiated to foster the connection and exchange among stakeholders in Europe. Moreover, the development of a road map, propositions to improved funding schemes and research programmes as well as the analyses of past and ongoing living labs and research infrastructures provide the foundation to enhance the development of agroecology in Europe and facilitate its implementation and successful transition in different countries.