VISION4FOOD aims to enhance the sustainability and resilience of EU food systems through the development of innovative governance models that contribute to better informed decision-making processes while promoting social engagement and innovation in 5 European regions (Finland, Spain, Italy, Greece, Poland) with different innovation ecosystem maturity levels. Through the project, our regions will be supported to strengthen their role in the creation of Food Innovation Platforms (FIPs), fostering collaboration among Quadruple Helix stakeholders and facilitating the identification, and scaling of innovations for food system transformation. The methodology involves co-creating R&I strategies, emphasizing open science, and Responsible Research Innovation (RRI). Through VISION4FOOD multi-stakeholder approach and the integration of tools and services we will provide them all the necessary support for knowledge exchange, networking and priority setting in the form of an acceleration agenda tailored to each region’s priorities and needs while facilitating the transition to an innovative and inclusive food system. We will closely monitor and evaluate the performance of the governance models’ operation, providing evidence of its impacts.

ESIRA acknowledges that innovative social economy initiatives, focusing on local networks, competences, and resources, are able to recognise the important role of citizen-led activities to fulfil the needs of rural areas, especially marginalised ones. Nevertheless, many policies and initiatives fail to effectively support them and/or engage the more vulnerable groups of population. The main objective of ESIRA is to contribute to the rollout of place-based innovative social economy initiatives for rural inclusion and development in (marginalised) rural areas by supporting enabling frameworks, well-interconnected policy architecture and directly piloting innovative solutions which ultimately build more inclusive, resilient and prosperous rural areas. To achieve it, ESIRA will implement a work plan focused on (i) the research of community-led rural innovation spaces able to connect and empower actors, reinforce the social capital and sense of community, considering the great diversity of rural areas within Europe, and eventually (ii) nurturing and piloting social economy initiatives that strengthen the inclusiveness and living conditions of different groups of population in vulnerable situation, from the improvement in the provision of (social) services, economic diversification, and sustainable management of the natural capital. This will enable to (iii) stocktake and formulate recommendations for policymakers to better support the third sector and local communities, increasing the understanding of the needs and challenges of vulnerable groups of population and social economy, and (iv) boost the knowledge-exchange among local actors, building up their capacities and facilitating the scale up and replication of social economy initiatives across Rural Europe. 9 regions in 7 European countries will be involved in the project. The exploitation and dissemination activities will aim at expanding those regional spaces and replicating our concept in new regions.

The New Delivery Model established in Regulation EU 2115/2021 entails significant changes to Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) governance with the introduction of Strategic Plans and new monitoring, review and evaluation requirements. The CAP is expected to contribute significantly to the Green Deals ambitions, securing the achievement of sustainability and resilience goals for the EUs Agri-food systems. Innovative governance models are essential to enable result-based policymaking to deliver the best policy pathways to facilitate the green transition. Tools4CAP will (1) support the implementation of National Strategic Plans 2023-2027, and (2) lay the foundations for sound preparation of Post-2027 Strategic Plans. Accordingly, Tools4CAP establishes a flexible and participatory Coordination & Support Action designed to boost learning, exchange processes, and adoption of innovative solutions and good practices for the design, monitoring and evaluation of CAP Strategic Plans. Tools4CAPs methods and tools will cover three key areas: (1) quantitative modelling tools for ex-ante and ex-post evaluations, (2) participatory and multi-governance decision tools, and (3) novel data and monitoring solutions. The project will deliver a comprehensive inventory of methods and tools used in the 27 Member States, methodological guidelines on innovative solutions and a Handbook of good practices. Results will be integrated in a Capacity Building Toolkit, designed to enhance science-policy interfaces. Tools4CAP utilises a Stakeholder Engagement Platform to boost bottom-up adaptation of innovative methods and tools. It will establish a Replication Lab to demonstrate their use in 10 Member States and to promote their uptake across the EU-27. The project will also set up a Capacity Building Hub to help end-users (ministries, management authorities, paying agencies, other stakeholders) reinforce their capacity to use innovative tools, including models used by the European Commission.

SOILSCAPE harnesses the power of Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs), artists, and civil society organisations (CSOs) to promote soil preservation across Europe and beyond. Working with experts from the worlds of soil sciences, arts, decision-making, and humanities, this project coordinated by AFES seeks to cultivate soil literacy and celebrate soils through creative approaches, engaging citizens & professionals on this journey. SOILSCAPE's objectives include understanding human-soil relations, building a network of more than 120 relevant actors in 8 countries, onboarding at least 320 individuals from the society, providing 1,850,000 € as financial and technical support to CSOs, CCIs, schools, artists, and institutions, distributing 375,000 € as awards and 80 soil literacy certifications to inspiring initiatives, and reaching international scales through UNESCO and Coalition of Action for 4 Soil Health. To achieve these objectives, SOILSCAPE uses a multilingual and multi-actor approach, focusing on cultivating artistic soil intelligence, promoting context-based soil literacy, enhancing awareness through innovative communication strategies and a soil literacy portal, organising 2 editions of national soil festivals across Europe, and extending its actions to 30 regions by 2028. The project unfolds through 4 key stages: (1) Contemplation: Consulting stakeholders to understand individual perception on soils, arts, and links with societal values; Investigating soil narratives and the potential of arts and arts-based methodologies to engage in soils; (2) Preparation: Developing people-centric transformative strategies, including an artistic and creative international soil network; (3) Action: Conducting and monitoring the SOILSCAPE creative activities, including the support to 28 arts-soils initiatives led by third parties; (4) Sustainability: Validating and replicating the SOILSCAPE initiatives at large scale.

The overall objective of SHERPA is to gather relevant knowledge and opinions that contribute to the formulation of recommendations for future policies relevant to EU rural areas. It will use results of on-going and past research projects (from FP6, FP7, H2020 and other EU and national funding streams) to engage citizens, stakeholders, policy makers and scientists in the development of strategic thinking and practical recommendations for the formulation of modern rural policies. The project will: i) take stock of scientific evidence relevant to future rural policy and research activities; ii) use this evidence to engage citizens, researchers and policy makers at local and EU levels in debates about options for policy and priorities for research, iii) use the outcomes of engagement to formulate recommendations for rural policies relevant the period post-2020, and future agendas for research. SHERPA aims to develop a science-society-policy interface that will continue after the end of the project. It will use a suite of approaches to science-society-policy interactions in 40 Multi-Actor Platforms covering 20 EU countries and at EU level, and state-of-the art multimedia tools for two-way communication with citizens and policy audiences. SHERPA’s implementation approach will follow four guiding principles: flexible programming of activities to enable timely and responsive contributions to policy making, impartiality and transparency; recognition of the diversity of EU rural territories and multi-level interactions; and co-construction. SHERPA will contribute to policy development in three main areas: i) provision of inputs for the design of future research policies, with a focus on preparation of work programmes under Horizon Europe; ii) support for implementation of policies relevant to rural areas in the programming period 2021-2027; iii) support for setting the direction of rural policy in the next programming period (after 2027).