Fishing has a strong social presence in the Mediterranean, with a largely fleet of predominantly artisanal character. The activity has remained in equilibrium with the marine environment for centuries, but soaring effort and technological advances in recent decades, plus multiple other human impacts on the marine environment, has led to a severe social, economic and environmental crisis. Finding solutions goes through a paradigm shift in which the environment ceases to be seen as a side issue and is understood as part of the solution, seeking a recovery of fish stocks and the marine ecosystem as a whole (principle of ecosystem based management). New European policies are increasingly aware of this need, and altogether seek for an integrated approach to environmental sustainability. These include the 2014 Community Fisheries Policy, The Framework Directive to the Marine Strategy, Birds and Habitats Directives, and the future directive on marine spatial planning.All these policies promoting the sustainable use of the marine environment have not to date been incorporated into the training programs of fishermen, and there is a lack of training tools aimed at professionals for their implementation in the sector. This project aims to facilitate the adaptation of fishermen to these new policies, and ultimately overcome the current crisis, by developing training materials focused on sustainability. To address this issue from a Mediterranean perspective, the consortium includes three NGOs representing BirdLife International in Greece (HOS), France (LP) and Spain (SEO/BirdLife), all with experience in dealing with fishermen and fisheries, and two of them (SEO/BirdLife and HOS) with previous experience in training projects (ecological farming and bird tourism). The fourth member of the consortium is the Fisheries Nautical Training School of Catalunya (ECNPC), which is the official body in charge of fishermen training (both regular formation and modules for professionals).The project aims to develop a series of training products: training course on sustainable fisheries in the Mediterranean (on-line, but contents to be also incorporated into presential training courses), and other training materials to support the fishing sector. Besides contemplating a set of actions for the dissemination of intellectual products, and training activities to form the basis of a training sector reform in France, Spain and Greece, and that may be transferable to other countries.The consortium created to develop the project has a strong precedent relationship, and share an interest in the development of sustainable fisheries, ensuring future continuity of the results. The impact associated with this project through the advocacy capacity of the partners, will be high across sectors and geographically, both short and long term.

European Union (EU) water resources are increasingly coming under pressure from climate change and inefficient management, with the agri-food sector exerting a 40-60% of water use. Despite recognising the need for resource optimisation, integrating sustainable innovative solutions into farming practices remain vague. AQUAGRI-KNOW, led by a multi-actor consortium of 12 partners from 5 EU countries, aims to tackle efficient water management on-farm by broadening EIP-AGRI OGs outcomes. AQUAGRI-KNOW’s endeavour has been thoughtfully chosen to address water scarcity and water quality concerns focusing on four strategies ensuring a circular water value chain (S1. Water Use, S2. Water Smart Crops, S3. Water-Soil Interface, and S4. Water Reuse). AQUAGRI-KNOW systematically adapts, enhances and builds-up practical knowledge through a five-step methodology: (1) Knowledge collection & homogenisation to gather EIP-AGRI OGs outcomes and beyond; (2) Contextualisation & alignment to integrate the needs, barriers, challenges, and opportunities of end-users; (3) Translation & adaptation to create a clearinghouse of tailored knowledge for farmers and practitioners; (4) Sharing & exchange to facilitate knowledge flow; and (5) Interconnection & widening to boost impact across borders and increase the lifespan of generated knowledge. AQUAGRI-KNOW impact is transformative, by modernising the agri-food sectorthrough the improvement of practitioners' access to easy-to-understand and practice-oriented knowledge. AQUAGRI-KNOW empowers farmers to make informed decisions, foster cross-border collaboration, and develop a comprehensive and scalable framework applicable to similarly impacted regions globally. Furthermore, an Ambassador Program will be placed, transferring knowledge to enable the adoption of innovative solutions in new sites, expanding AQUAGRI-KNOW’s impact. Through these efforts, AQUAGRI-KNOW envisions a collaborative, informed, sustainable future for EU agriculture.

Over the past years, a great amount of knowledge on managing practices, technologies, products and recommendations in the primary sector has been developed by several EU funded projects. Despite the continuous flow of information, new or improved managing choices have not been appropriated by practitioners as expected. The main objective of NUTRI-KNOW is to broaden EIP-AGRI Operational Group (OG) outcomes on the thematic of nutrient management across borders to modernise and dynamise the agricultural sector by collecting, translating and sharing easy-to-understand and practice-oriented knowledge. NUTRI-KNOW will assure the appropriate adoption of the OGs results and experience by farmers, practitioners and other relevant end-users. To reach this ambitious goal, NUTRI-KNOW is built considering 12 EIP-AGRI OGs from 4 Member States (Spain, Italy, Belgium and Ireland), ensuring that at least one partner of the consortium has been involved in each OG. The engaged projects cover the whole value chain of nutrient management (livestock farming, storage systems, processing technologies, fertiliser production, transport and application). NUTRI-KNOW methodology is divided in 5 different steps: (1) Data collection and analysis of all the outcomes of the engaged OGs, (2) Multi-approach analysis to establish a solid baseline of the current situation (policies, farming practices, needs and challenges), (3) Consolidation and translation of the knowledge in a language that can be easy to understand for farmers and practitioners, (4) Delivery and transfer of the practice-oriented material created in the communication channels most consulted by farmers and (5) Interconnection of actors and territories with the creation of a Community of Practice. Finally, with all the knowledge gained during NUTRI-KNOW execution, the project will develop a Results Amplification Methodology that will serve as a guideline to upscale and broaden project outcomes effectively in any thematic of interest.

Air pollution in European cities is still threatening human health, even though EU emission directives have been sharpened over the last 25 years. Adverse health effects of airborne particles are strongly linked to their size. A major fraction of outdoor ultrafine particles is traffic generated from road, rail, air, and sea transportation. The story that nPETS aims to communicate is the life of the sub 100 nm emissions from its creation to its potential path to human beings and animals. The nPETS consortium aims to improve the knowledge of transport generated exhaust and non-exhaust nanoparticle emissions and their impacts on health and new public policies. It aims to monitor and sample with state-of-the-art particle instruments the sub 100 nm transport generated emissions from shipping, road, rail, and aviation both in field and controlled laboratory environments. Both aged and fresh aerosols will be considered, including primary and secondary volatile and non-volatile particles. Characterising the emissions will be done from shipping, road, rail, and aviation by linking their sizes, chemical compositions, and morphologies to its specific emission sources such as engines, brakes, clutches, and tyres to increase the understanding of the mechanisms behind adverse risks posed by different types and sources of the identified sub 100 nm particles. The effects of nanoparticles from various transport modes and fuels, as well as specific emission sources, will be compared with a focus on markers of relevance for carcinogenesis and inflammation. Living cells will be exposed to collected and real-world primary and aged aerosols as well as primary and aged aerosols generated in the laboratory. Furthermore, it also aims to evaluate the possible future impact of new policies in this area on public health and linking the impacts with specific emission sources. This should lead to an understanding and quantification of the risks posed by different types and sources.

The Societal Challenges addressed by European Union (EU) strategies such as the Green Deal and Farm-to-Form require innovative solutions in agriculture, forestry and rural areas. The Multi-Actor-Approach (MAA) is a promising instrument to speed up innovation. However, the H2020 RIA LIAISON (2018-2022) has identified some deficits and inconsistencies in the interpretation of the MAA by both current and potential MA consortia and Member States’ (MS) authorities. PREMIERE will therefore foster the development of sound, coherent and well-prepared MA projects in two ways. Firstly, it will contribute to the building of project consortia that make best use of the complementary knowledge of their members during proposal writing, project activities and beyond, in particular by improving the connection between Horizon Europe (HE) MA projects and Operational Groups (OG). Secondly, through insights and tools, it will support the implementation of innovative governance and sound decision making in policy and administration for the green transition. By using the results from LIAISON and capturing ‘grass roots’ ideas from project participants, policy makers and executive agencies through stakeholder dialogue across all 27 EU MS (including with the SCAR AKIS SWG, National Contact Points and other relevant HE projects), PREMIERE will develop tools as well as training and networking events for capacity development. These will include a Serious Game, an Online Academy and a MOOC. The project will test out the effect of providing seed funding to at least eight MA organisations (mainly OGs) and prepare a handbook of good practices. This user-focused workplan, with its open science outputs, will lead to more effective EU and national AKIS. It will be implemented by a very experienced, competent and genuinely MA consortium of policy makers, executive agencies, advisors for co-innovation partnerships, AKIS actors and/or and current and potential MA project partners.