INCREDIBLE is coordinated by EUROPEAN FOREST INSTITUTE

Mediterranean forests play a pivotal role for local economies by providing a large array of ecosystem services and goods. Despite its potential, the sector is facing significant challenges at many levels, including: low profitability of slow-growing timber, niche markets for Non-Wood Forest Products (NWFPs), and a wider context of aging rural population, farmland abandonment and scrub encroachment, leading to an increase in the occurrence of megafires, which is further aggravated by climate change. A sustainable, inclusive, smart bio-based economy centred on multipurpose trees and NWFPs can be part of the solution, if triggered by an improvement in knowledge exchange channels between NWFP practitioners and scientists, and among regions.

BIOFRUITNET is coordinated by NATURLAND - VERBAND FUR OKOLOGISCHEN LANDBAU EV

The EU is the leading region for the production of organic fruits, with a rapidly expanding production and a demand for organic products which grows every year. However, at the same time, the amount and value of organic imports from outside the EU is increasing. For organic fruit farmers in the EU this poses a challenge to succeed in an increasingly competitive market. In addition, organic fruit growing is a very demanding farming activity. This is because, the sector faces specific problems that cannot be solved using conventional approaches based on the use of synthetics substances. As organic fruit growers cannot rely on synthetic inputs, many of them have, on a local level, developed competitive strategies to improve plant health. Moreover, there is considerable research on improving organic fruit growing systems. The problem, however, is that this knowledge is not easily accessible to farmers all over Europe and remains either locally known or only available in the scientific sphere.

PANACEA is coordinated by CENTRE FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES AND SAVING FONDATION

Non-food Crops (NFC) are used to produce a wide range of bio-products and bioenergy. In spite of considerable investment in R&D and the increasing need of bio-based industries for feedstock, NFCs are not widespread in EU agriculture, mainly due to challenges in supply chains and gaps in policy framework and investment incentives. PANACEA aims to set up a thematic network to foster the effective exchange between research, industry and the farming community so that direct applicable solutions are widely disseminated and grassroots-level needs and innovative ideas thoroughly captured in order to design the penetration path of NFC into European agriculture.

SMARTPROTECT is coordinated by INAGRO, PROVINCIAAL EXTERN VERZELFSTANDIGD AGENTSCHAP IN PRIVAATRECHTELIJKE VORM VZW

SMARTPROTECT is a thematic network focusing on cross regional knowledge sharing of SMART IPM solutions for farmers and advisors. The aim is to stimulate knowledge flow in the regional AKISs across the EU and connect these on the innovative potential of advanced methodologies for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in vegetable production, integrating precision farming technologies and data analytics. Through a well-balanced consortium and an emphasis on multi-actor approach the outcome of the project and exploitation of its results will stimulate an increased adaptation of IPM methodologies, taking the specific regional needs of farmers across Europe into account. The EU-wide concern for environmental sustainability and economic competitiveness for agriculture requires the entire agriculture sector to grow under IPM conditions.