Dramatic migrations in the third millennium BC re-shaped Europe, modifying its economy, society, ethnicity and ideological structure for ever. The best incentive proxy are populations that moved from the steppes of Russia, spreading as far west as Hungary, implanting a pastoral economy with widespread innovations. These dynamic people covered thousands of kilometres within a few centuries, and organised direct physical relations over the steppes for the first time. This synchronism is promoted by a society organised to fit to this lifestyle, with new herding techniques, likely use of wagons and domesticated horses, and a protein-rich diet, whose adaptive advantages are evident from the physical record in human skeletons and territorial extensions. This is the Yamnaya complex, whose impact remains visible today in the European gene pool and apparently the propagation of Indo-European languages. This international and interdisciplinary project examines the data from 320 excavated burial mounds and c.1350 burials to calibrate these changes, also against a control sample of supposedly local and neighbouring populations. The archaeological, biological and environmental information allows large, new datasets to be built, whose systematic interrogation and modelling should reveal the formative processes behind these changes. Assessing funeral archaeology, material culture, and exchange pattern defines their culture and impact. Scientific analyses of skeletons expose relations of origin, degrees of consanguinity, diet, and histories of individual mobility over single lifetimes with new precision and replicability. They should also act as proxy datasets for environmental changes using further analytical techniques in a context of landscape evolution. Diachronic patterns within these sets should link with aspects of the internal social dynamics, such as the creation of new status positions, visible later in the Pan-European Corded Ware and Bell Beaker groups.

Aquaculture is the fastest growing food sector since the 1970s and its most important purpose is to provide healthy and safe food adapted to consumer preferences. At the same time there are fundamental concerns about the ways we farm and transport food across the world, which are related to negative environmental impacts. Hence, sustainable aquaculture has been identified as the “greatest and most feasible” way to obtain adequate seafood for human consumption and achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2, 4, 13 and 14 on food security, quality education, climate action and use of the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. The objective of EATFish is a sustainable and profitable European aquaculture sector to secure healthy seafood for our growing society. With a truly multidisciplinary consortium composed of universities, research institutes and private sector partners we propose cutting-edge research related to the biology and technical aspects of aquaculture and have a similarly large effort directed towards socio-economic and governance aspects of aquaculture. Through this overarching approach we aim to: 1. Optimise resource economy in European aquaculture, such that it contributes to a circular bioeconomy 2. Ensure animal health and welfare 3. Develop novel aquaculture products targeted to specific market segments 4. Refine aquaculture governance to facilitate sustainable development of the sector 5. Enhance the skills and competences of future aquaculture professionals By addressing these issues, we intend to aid European aquaculture to address current and future challenges related to competition in the market place, sustainability, disease in aquaculture systems and governance.

Poultry sector is one of the main agricultural production in Europe, providing 15.2M tonnes of poultry meat and over 7.5 M tonnes of eggs in 2018, with a 21.2 billion € turnover in poultry meat in 2015 and 960 M€ worth of eggs in 2016.It is also a very sensitive sector regarding epidemics, that can impact the sector economics (e.g. 2015 and 2017 episodes of Avian Influenza). and also foodborne pathogens (Salmonella, Campylobacter…) that may have an impact on public health. Biosecurity is acknowledged as the appropriate answer for preventing diseases spread and safeguarding competitive and sustainable poultry farms. Best practices are known all over Europe but compliance of farmers and other operators (e.g. transport, hatcheries…) to biosecurity may not be optimum. Stakeholders need to be supported for effectively implement biosecurity practices. NETPOULSAFE aims to improve biosecurity compliance in poultry farming by compiling, validating and sharing supporting measures implemented or close to being into practice in 7 large poultry producing countries, thanks to a network of 7 National Poultry AKIS. These multi-actor groups, gathering around 500 people, will be chaired and interconnected through Network Facilitators who will stimulate knowledge cross-fertilisation and exchange both at National and EU scales. Supporting measures will be collected from field and literature and analysed from technical and socio-economic point of view to be either validated in pilot farms or directly disseminated to farmers, operators and advisors (incl. vets). In-depth analysis of National contexts will enable to define tailored dissemination strategies. Material (incl. audio-visuals, factsheets, Practice Abstracts, e-learning modules) will be co-constructed with the National Poultry AKIS to ensure its acceptance and shared through most consulted channels and dedicated platform. Synergies with on-going activities, especially EIP-AGRI Operational Groups, will increase project impacts.

Research infrastructures (RI) play a key role in identifying levers that can be used to attain the goals of the Green Deal and the “Farm to Fork” strategy, to which PIGWEB can contribute by a “From Pig to Pork” approach. The aims of PIGWEB are to strengthen the pig research community by providing and facilitating access to RI, reinforce a culture of cooperation between the research community and industrial and societal stakeholders, and improve and integrate the services provided by the RI. This will contribute to develop innovative and ethical solutions for sustainable pig production systems. To attain these aims, the project will: - Ensure easy and transparent access to experimental pig RI and associated laboratories. - Create a community of pig RI by mapping installations beyond partners of the project and identifying future research needs in pig production sector. - Harmonise protocols, best practices, and promote the use of standards to ensure high level of expertise and ethics. - Organise the collection, management, and accessibility of data generated by the project. - Ensure dissemination, exploitation, and technology transfer of results generated by the project. - Provide graduate and post-graduate training opportunities to young researchers to ensure the succession of a new generation of highly-trained experts in the fields of pig production. - Develop non- or minimally invasive methods for digestion studies and blood sampling to replace current procedures requiring surgery and invasive sampling, isolation, fixation and/or spatial restrictions of pigs. - Develop novel methods, tools and technologies that provide indicators of welfare, behaviour, and body composition. - Develop a research toolbox (based data obtained through non- or minimally invasive measurements and model algorithms) to phenotype pigs for traits relevant for sustainable pig production.

The aim of Soils4Africa is to provide an open-access soil information system with a set of key indicators and underpinning data, accompanied with a methodology for repeated soil monitoring across the African continent. The soil information system will become part of the knowledge and information system of FNSSA and will be hosted by an African institute. Activities are: (i) define use cases and indicators in consultation with stakeholders; (ii) make a functional design of the soil information system; (iii) develop detailed procedures and tools for the field activities based on the LUCAS methodology and collect 20000 soil samples; (iv) develop detailed procedures for laboratory work and analyse the collected soil samples at one reference laboratory located in Africa; and (v) develop the technical infrastructure for the soil information system and serve the results as open data linked with open EO data. The project addresses the work programme of SC 2 in the following ways. First, it contributes to priority 2 (Fostering functional ecosystems) because the soil information system is a tool to target interventions that improve soil quality and provides insight in the impact of these interventions. Secondly, it contributes to priority 1 (Addressing climate change and resilience on land and sea), as the soil information system will contribute to the assessment of carbon losses from soil and the identification of areas with high potential for soil carbon sequestration. Finally, the soil information system provides a platform for the development of sustainable business models by service companies aiming at the development of sustainable food systems, contributing to priority 3 (Boosting major innovations on land and sea). Soils4Africa is linking with relevant H2020 projects and Copernicus on EO data use. It actively connects organizations across Africa and Europe for synergies and promotes an open science approach.