Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) is an arena populated by different and composite players. Acknowledging the diversity of the stakeholders involved in the conservation of wild and cultivated biodiversity, DYNAVERSITY will propose a dynamic management and governance aiming at enhancing interactions, complementarities and synergies. DYNAVERSITY will facilitate co-construction between actors (e.g. farmers, gardeners, natural parks, seed craftsmen, community seed banks, researchers, ex situ actors, consumers) and establish new forms of seed networking, socio-environmental knowledge and practices. By creating the Sharing Knowledge and Experience Platform (SKEP), representing stakeholders coming from research, ex situ networks and communities of practice, and taking into account the respect of the singularities of each of the actors, DYNAVERSITY will facilitate exchange and integration of scientific as well as practical knowledge on how to best manage diversity in agriculture and in the entire food chain, restoring evolutionary and adaptation processes. To achieve the above, DYNAVERSITY will integrate Crop Wild Relatives (CWRs) world represented by natural parks to on farm and on garden communities. Specific attention will be paid to map stakeholders, actors and sites and through in depth case study analysis suggesting new sustainable links and partnerships for in situ conservation. DYNAVERSITY will also promote an enabling institutional framework that will allow the creation of new dynamic seed systems. Raising public awareness will be a crucial issue for DYNAVERSITY addressed with specific and targeted communication products adapted to different target groups. DYNAVERSITY will also support seed fairs and Let’ Liberate Diversity communities in order to promote knowledge and seed sharing between stakeholders.

Agricultural production largely depends on external inputs both for plant nutrition and crop In order to ensure food security while protecting the environment and mitigate climate effect agricultural production methods, including the use of chemical-synthetic pesticides, needs to be revised. Lined out in the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork strategy, the reduction of pesticide use by 50 % until 2030 should be one element to reach the expected goals. In the recent years several scientific studies has been performed to develop strategies and techniques to enable a reduction of chemical-synthetic pesticides use. Next to methods like organic farming, which omits the use of mineral fertilisers and chemical-synthetic pesticides, but result in lower yields, Integrated Pest management (IPM) has gained a lot of attention and was subject of national and international research activities. Advanced IPM is characterised by implementing a high degree of preventive measures to avoid establishment of pests and only resorting to chemical pesticides when there is no other option to avoid severe yield loss. However, the implementation of IPM at a multidisciplinary level is still lacking due to economic reasons and a low acceptance by farmers. Therefore, a key element of FORTUNA is to identify and analyse the available methods, tools and mechanisms from a biological/ecological, technological, socio-/economic perspective that unlocks a substantial reduction in use and risk of chemical pesticides and ultimately novel pesticide-free farming practices. Results and strategies will be discussed with stakeholders along the food- and supply-chain, which could contribute to a transition to a reduce reliance on chemical pesticides while supporting successful yields and enable food security. One major point in this process is to identify strategies that have a lower risk of productivity and profitability and profitability losses than other strategies and target the long-term perspectives.

B-FERST’s main objective is to integrate the valorisation of bio-wastes in agriculture management plans creating anew circular and bio-based value chains considering a bilateral interaction between farming and fertiliser sectors focused on a paradigm shift in the fertiliser value chain with 8 specialised fertilisers. Specialised nutrient mixes are required to achieve a more sustainable management of resources by tailor-made nutrient dosing adapted to farmer systems. The SUSTAINABILITY of B-FERST is based on the reuse of bio-waste to replace non-renewable, non-domestic and energy intensive raw materials: 1) Bio-based solid fertilisers including renewable sources of macronutrients (N,P,K) obtained from 3 by-products streams: i) ashes, as source of P & K from: Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTP) (sewage sludges), & agri-food such as: slaughterhouse waste, olive & livestock wastes; ii) struvite as source of P & N from WWTP & agro waste (pig slurries), and; iii) compost as source of organic carbon compound, N, P & K from Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste) OFMSW, WWTP & agro waste (manure -livestock-). 2) Biostimulants for soil nutrient improvement from two approaches: selected microbiological strains as Microbial Plant Biostimulant (MPB) or Non-Microbial Plant Biostimulant (NMPB) from cardoon oil meal processing (agricultural by-products) and compost extracts. Bio-degradable coatings based on biopolymers will be used when MPB is added to the fertiliser products to protect the beneficial microorganisms and guaranty their performance. The VIABILITY is based on previous R&D from other RIA projects. The manufacturing process will be demonstrated at a demonstrative industrial scale. Then specialised fertilisers will be performed and validated in 5 crops tests (Spain, Italy, France, Poland and Ukraine) comparing their functionality to that of traditional fertilisers in terms of: sustainable sourcing, logistics, soil and growing conditions, reaching a TRL6

The continuous stream of invasive agricultural pests and chronic re-emergence of key ones prompt for implementation of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) tools, but often main management methods rely largely on chemical pesticides. However, their widespread use is highlighted as a key threat to human health and wildlife. Much progress made in the conception of IPM tools in the past decade however, despite EU and Chinese policies prompting use of IPM, widespread adoption by farmers is slowed down by key barriers, notably because many available non-chemical IPM tools (a) have not been optimized (lack reliability or effectiveness), (b) are sub-optimal when combined together in IPM packages as not developed via an integrated approach, and (c) are missing for particular key pests. In this context the project will exploit the thorough knowledge accumulated on pest management methods to adapt and optimize IPM tools and practices which did not reach the field/market yet, or that are currently not efficient enough. In addition, ADOPT-IPM will work on the further development of high potential IPM tools, and will design optimized cost-effective environment-sound IPM packages. The choice of crops and pests in ADOPT-IPM (tomato, leafy vegetables, wheat, and maize) is based on their economic importance in Europe and China and for their current pest management methods relying largely on chemical pesticides. The project is structured in 3 R&D WPs, one for field demonstrations, one for dissemination and one for project management. The consortium has been selected to integrate early in the research process the main end-users of the project’s results (farmers associations, SMEs and key stakeholders). The EU-China consortium also has a strong coverage of experts (and based on many long-term collaborations), to take advantage of the experience of each region and to more efficiently adapt the IPM tools, practices and packages to the specific problems of European and Chinese farmers.