The aim of this network is to set-up a self-sustainable Thematic Network on Spraying Equipment, Training and Advising designed for the effective exchange between researchers, industry, extension services and farming community. This network will link directly applicable research and commercial solutions and grassroots level needs and innovative ideas thoroughly captured, thus contributing to close the research and innovation divide in this area. The proposed network will be organized to cover spraying application needs in the most commonly used crops in Europe: cereals, vegetables, orchards, vineyards and greenhouses organized in seven national innovation hubs linked with international interactive workshops. This Thematic Network will address important and timely issues that are critical to improve crop productivity and reduce environmental impact. These include spraying equipment, technologies and practical methods to estimate and reduce spray drift and environmental contamination; information and procedures on the benefits of following regular inspections of sprayers in use; new spraying equipment and components to increase the efficacy of the application; practical information and advice on the dose expression dilemma especially for orchard and bush crops; calibration and operation procedures using lively videos and developed interactive training and learning material; classification schemes for sprayers and nozzles to enable farmers and pesticide companies to decide on the most suitable to them nozzle/sprayer/technology combination for certain pesticide application; environmental requirements for new sprayers following ISO 16119; and best management practices acquired over the years from several EU projects and research publications.

The EU Farm to Fork strategy, which is at the heart of the European Green Deal, aims to make food systems fair, healthy, and environmentally friendly. Sustainable Livestock Production must play a substantial role to engage the EU in green transition while ensuring farmers’ incomes and quality of life. The main objective of LIVENET is to establish and build capacity of a network of advisory services across the EU, increasing the knowledge sharing between advisors, and among the whole AKIS, and the adoption of innovative solutions for Sustainable Livestock Production by farmers. The project will achieve this through: 1) the establishment and development of an EU network of livestock advisors, based on existing networks and national AKIS, covering the 27 EU Members States, the UK and Switzerland. To cover all MSs, the project will adopt a twinning approach: 10+1 National Networks will be created by the project partners and will engage with 18 Associated Networks through a twining program. The network will cover all European pedo-climatic areas, integrating 10 EU regional clusters, the major livestock sectors and the main thematic challenges faced by breeders; 2) the collection, selection, evaluation, adaptation and validation of context-based Innovative Advisory Practices (IAPs), which are technically, economically, socially, and environmentally viable and will be replicated across the EU, 3) the wide scaling of solutions through trainings, demo-events and other activities towards advisors, students and value chain actors to promote the adoption of the IAPs. 4) the connection with other regional, national and EU projects, initiatives and policy makers for better integration of livestock advisory organisations in the AKISs. The project embrace a multi-actor approach, gathering 20 organisations with a vast experience in advisory and sustainable livestock production representing a diversity of AKIS stakeholders (farmers, advisors, researchers, value chain actors).

Smart-AKIS was submitted to the 2014 call, remaining on the reserve list (12/15). For resubmission, all items in the ESR have been carefully addressed: i) more focused approach, addressing only Smart Farming Technology for crop production and using more concrete methodologies; ii) stronger involvement of the machinery industry, with specific support from national Associations and a dedicated working group within CEMA; iii) a Data Management Plan ensuring compliance with H2020 Open Access Policy and inclusion in different thematic aggregators. The project aims at setting up a self-sustainable Thematic Network on Smart Farming Technology designed for the effective exchange between research, industry, extension and the farming community in order to disseminate direct applicable research and commercial solutions and capture grassroots level needs and innovative ideas. Smart Farming Technology (SFT) encompasses Farm Management Information Systems, Precision Agriculture and Agriculture automation and robotics. Smart AKIS will collect existing knowledge related to SFT and will produce easily accessible end-user material under the EIP-Agri common format. The project will also integrate the socio-economic aspects involved in the innovation processes and will generate interactive and innovation-based collaborations among researchers, advisors and farmers through the use of open innovation in multi-actor workshops. Knowledge flow will be facilitated through the implementation of the Smart Farming Community Platform, which will be compatible with the EIP-SP in order to ensure long term accessibility of results. Smart-AKIS will build on results from five flagship EU projects (VALERIE, SOLINSA, PRO-AKIS, FRACTALS, AGRISPIN), through the participation in the project of their core partners. The project will establish direct communication with EIP-Agri to maximize impact of project activities and stakeholder mobilization.

The aim of the project is to create a framework under which critical stakeholders will cooperate to evaluate and promote currently available fossil-energy-free strategies and technologies (FEFTS) in EU agriculture to diminish in the short term and eliminate in the long run fossil fuels use in any farming process from cradle to farm gate, while maintaining yield and quality of the end-product. Such a framework will contribute in closing the gap between the available FEFTS either commercial or from applicable research results with the everyday EU agricultural practices by promoting effective exchange of novel ideas and information between research, industry, extension and the farming community so that existing research and commercial solutions can be widely communicated, while capturing grassroots level needs and innovative ideas from the farming and related industry communities. Financing opportunities for de-fossilizing EU agriculture will be investigated and highlighted. The specific objectives are to: -consider and evaluate the current status in EU agriculture regarding energy use and assess existing needs and interests for the future farm energy profile -identify and register currently available and directly applicable FEFTS, spanning from applied research results to market solutions and investigate available financing tools for de-fossilizing activities -create an online platform containing all available FEFTS to be assessed and provide a Decision Support Toolkit to provide proposed interventions based on user inputs as well as links for those interventions financing -collaborate with all relative stakeholders in thematic groups using interactive physical and online methodologies to produce community-based ideas for FEFTS integration in agricultural systems in a regional and EU-basis -Create policy recommendations and communicate them to increase visibility and promote the proposed strategies and technologies in real agricultural activities in the near future.

Continuing population and consumption growth are driving global food demand, with agricultural activity increasing to keep pace. Europe has a major agricultural waste problem, generating some 700 million tonnes of waste annually. There is an urgent need and huge opportunity to address the efficient use of agricultural wastes, co-products and by-products (AWCB) towards delivering sustainable value chains in the farming and processing sectors. As such, AgroCycle will convert low value agricultural waste into highly valuable products, achieving a 10% increase in waste recycling and valorisation by 2020. This will be achieved by developing a detailed and holistic understanding of the waste streams and piloting a key number of waste utilisation/valorisation pathways. It will bring technologies and systems from ~TRL4 to ~TRL7 within the 3 years of the project. A post-project commercialisation plan will bring commercially promising technologies/systems to TRL8 and TRL9, ensuring AgroCycle will have an enduring impact by achieving sustainable use of AWCB both inside and outside the agricultural sector, leading to the realisation of a Circular Economy. AgroCycle addresses wastes from several agricultural sectors: wine, olive oil, horticulture, fruit, grassland, swine, dairy and poultry. The AgroCycle consortium is a large (25) multi-national group (including China) comprising the necessary and relevant multi-actors (i.e. researchers; companies in the technical, manufacturing, advisory, retail sectors (Large and SMEs); lead users; end users; and trade/producer associations) for achieving the project’s ambitions goals. Farming’s unique regional (rural) location means that AgroCycle will help reduce the EU’s Innovation Divide and address the Regional Smart Specialisation Strategies for each partner country: impact will be Regional with National and International dimensions. The presence of three partners from China ensures international synergies and a global impact.