"Our Project called ""Rationalization"" will be carried out by a total of 7 institutions, including KFAU (Coordinating Institution), KONTOM and BDUTAE from Turkey, ASAJ from Spain, DEULA from Germany, DTC from the Netherlands and VITECO from Italy. The studies will start on 01.04.2021 and will be completed in 24 months. Instructors, researchers, academicians, experts and technicians from the project partner institutions will participate in the studies. During the Project, international meetings including 2 in Turkey, one each in Spain and the Netherlands will be held. LTTs will be held in Germany and Italy. Activities will be carried out in each partner's own country as multiplier events. The first 3 months of the project were planned as preparation, the following 12 months as academic studies and completion of the intellectual outputs, and the remaining 9 months as the implementation of these outputs and the elimination of the defects. The target audience of our project will be veterinarians and agricultural engineers nationally and internationally, and stakeholders will be NGOs dealing with animal husbandry, animal feed producing companies, sector stakeholders and farmers.At the end of the project, the training curriculum and online training platform will be obtained as concrete intellectual outputs, including feeding dairy cows, calves-heifers, dry cows and male cattle, ration preparation, nutritional diseases, forage crop farming and storage, and animal welfare. The prepared training curriculum will be uploaded to the online training platform in English and Turkish. Project partner countries will be able to upload the training curriculum to the platform in their own language. KFAU will act as the coordinator institution in the creation of the training curriculum and VITECO in the creation of the online training platform. Other institutions will contribute to every stage of the project with a multidisciplinary approach.In order to promote and disseminate the project, leaflets will be prepared and social media accounts will be created. The web-based and mobile-compatible online training platform will be available to the target audience free of charge for 10 years. The intellectual outputs of our project will be open to everyone. Our project will be offered not only to the target group but also to the stakeholders of the sector in order to create a multiplier effect. The domain and hosting costs and usage and encryption rights of the online training platform will be purchased by KFAU for 10 years by making an official contract and all necessary legal measures will be provided for the protection of the platform. At the end of the study, we will obtain concrete intellectual outputs (training curriculum, online training platform), which we call ""Rationalization"" and all rights belong to the financial sponsor of the project. During the project and in the next 10 years; dissemination and public ownership of the project, increasing professional, scientific and institutional capacity, increasing language skills, contributing to the promotion of project partner countries, cultural exchange, production of new projects are expected. In addition, it is thought that care and nutrition in cattle will improve, animal welfare and cattle production will increase through training of technical personnel, training of producers.As a result, we think that open and distance learning and training increase the quality and effectiveness of education. Innovative information sharing, strategic use of information and communication technologies (ICT), open educational resources, open and flexible learning via our project ""Rationalization"" will affect an effective, sustainable and inclusive growth nationally and internationally. We hope that our ""rationalization"" project will add an effective added value to our target audience and parallel to the issue of ""ration-feed"", which is one of the biggest expenses of livestock enterprises, with a ""rational"" approach. In addition, considering the pandemics we have experienced in the last century (from the Spanish flu to Covid-19), the importance of e-education applications in all areas of life has become very important for all countries. In short, e-education will be more in our lives from now on.The tables and documents described in our project can be accessed from the following link: https://www.kisa.link/Nhwh"

CITRUSBUSTERS proposes an ambitious and efficient R&I initiative aimed at developing solutions tailored to address Citrus pests with devastating impacts worldwide: Candidatus Liberibacter (CL), its associated insect vector (T. erytreae) and Phyllostycta citricarpa (PC), considered priority and quarantine pest in the EU. With an approach prioritising prevention, CITRUSBUSTERS will enlarge the IPM toolbox for high-value citrus crops by: (i) demonstrating the feasibility and benefits of smart tools for pathogen observation and early detection, enabling the prediction of future outbreak risks, based on co-culture models for CL and PC to provide solid knowledge on their spatiotemporal dynamics, technologies based on hyperspectral and LIDAR imaging, and predictive models through MLA linking soil health, vectors and plant parameters; ii) developing innovative tools, substances and agroecological practices to enhance plant resilience against biotic stresses by means of DNA-free and genetic changes for breeding purposes and innovative extraction technologies for active molecules triggering immune responses in plants; and (iii) developing sustainable and safe biocontrol active formulations for improving crop health during cultivation, by means of encapsulated endolysins for CL, microbial antifungal substances for PC and dsRNA targeting T.erytreae. CITRUSBUSTERS will strenghten the abilities of stakeholders to respond to pest outbreaks relying on a solid multiactor approach for the co-creation of solutions and the assessment of environmental, social and economic impacts of the pests of the solutions, developing policy recommendations and best practices guidelines. This will ensure the adequacy of the proposed solutions and the wider acceptance of IPM strategies contributing to promote fair, healthy and environment-friendly food systems from primary production to consumption and to restoring Europe’s ecosystems and biodiversity.

BIOVEXO demonstrates a set of new and innovative biopesticides targeting the plant-pathogenic Xylella bacterium and its transmitting spittlebug vector, to fight a disease that seriously threatens olive and almond production in the European Mediterranean region. BIOVEXO’s biopesticides will reduce the input of chemical insecticides and will sustainably increase and secure European olive cultivation in its valuable socio-economic context. The biopesticides will be tested for use in curative and preventive approaches. We introduce six promising candidate biocontrol solutions acting either against Xylella or its vector, which include two bacterial strains, a microbial metabolite, two plant extracts, and an entomopathogenic fungus. Following small-scale on-field validation and improved formulation, BIOVEXO will upscale production of best-performing biopesticides (minimum two Xylella- and two vector-targeting ones) to large pilot scale for real-life evaluation in two major Xylella outbreak regions in Europe (Apulia, Italy and Mallorca, Spain) representing distinct pedoclimatic conditions. Then, BIOVEXO’s biopesticides will be demonstrated in a combined and integrated approach (IPM) on traditional and newly planted olive orchards in the two areas. Additional testing is done on almond trees in mainland Spain and Mallorca. The BIOVEXO consortium coming from academia, large industry, SMEs and associations contributes complementary expertise all along the value chain including practical knowledge and hands-on experience by participating olive growers and farmer associations. BIOVEXO will provide a mechanistic understanding of the biopesticides’ mode of action to support final product development and will ensure environmental and economic sustainability by performing LCA and risk, toxicity, and pathogenicity analyses. Thorough evaluation regarding regulatory compliance will prepare BIOVEXO’s biopesticides for smooth market entry post project.

uP_running project aims to set the path for the development of the bioenergy utilisation of agrarian pruning and plantation removal (APPR) wood obtained from vineyards, olive groves and fruit tree plantations. uP_running vocation is the abatement of the current immobilism of the value chain actors for the utilization of APPR woody biomass. For that purpose uP_running incorporates a set of straight actions aimed to reshape the sectors perception, to provide evidences of real success and replicable models to follow, as well as to promote the take-off for the utilisation of APPR biomass residues. An intense communication campaign will address the varied target audience with tailored messages and materials to raise the awareness. An impact on policy barriers and on the legal framework currently setting limits for the utilisation of APPR wood will be carried out through direct advocacy and lobbying work at national and EU level. Once the awareness is raised and the sector is released of hindering barriers, a snowball effect will be triggered through multiplicative and dissemination actions. First part of uP_running multiplicative strategy is to create a permanent capacity in Europe, by empowering national and regional agrarian associations, extension services and/or private consultants with capacities to give support for decision making to farmers, cooperatives and agro-industries owing the APPR residues. A call for entrepreneurship will put into operation the newly created capacities in 7 EU countries to promote the decision making of pioneer entrepreneurs. Setting up and running new APPR biomass value chains is the key for a self-replication and to further contribute to the development of the bio-economy in Europe. The actions will be initiated in a set of 4 “demo” countries (that together account for 50% of EU potential), replicated in 3 relevant EU countries, and extended through precursor actions to 7 additional EU countries.

On-farm Renewable Energy Systems (RES) can provide agrarian communities with an extra source of stable income, while guaranteeing long term clean energy supply for society. Despite their enormous potential for RES, in practice many farmers are not capable of accessing the financial, technical and administrative resources required for installing RES capacity on their farms. This is caused by RES investments generally being restricted to project finance for large installations while RES types that can be installed on farms require bank loans. This limitation greatly restricts capital supply while raising overall cost. Most farms in the targeted countries have a low credit profile that disqualifies them for loans. To overcome this limitation and fully take advantage of the last few years´ cost reductions and performance advancements in RES, a tailored investment instrument is needed that can attract capital from capital markets and especially from institutional investors to on-farm RES. The recent appearance of innovative investment schemes, addressed to overcome similar challenges in other sectors, demonstrates that, by creating pools of RES, access to capital market resources can be realized. The proposed action is designed to initiate a structured dialogue among farmers, financiers and other relevant experts and stakeholders in order to develop and promote such an investment instrument, tailored for on-farm RES. The consortium that presents this proposal includes, among other key stakeholders, a leading European financial institution, a university as well as the largest farmers´ associations of Spain, Italy and Greece. The quality of the consortium and the relevance of the expected results mean that this proposal is a unique opportunity to increase the financeability of on-farm RES in Europe.