The Know4Nano project aims to unlock synergetic research and innovation potential between EU-partner institutions and Biosense Institute (BIOS) to enhance the research and management capacity of BIOS staff in the field of bionanotechnology (BnT), project management and technology transfer to perform research activities toward the development of innovative and user-friendly personalized point-of-care diagnostic tests for food safety applications along the farm-to-fork food chain and unlock existing research potential and applicability of research results. Good practice, innovation, and scientific excellence from the leading European research institutions in the field of BnT: Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Barcelona, Spain, with expertise in nanotechnology and nanoscience-based biosensors, and microfluidics, National Research Council, Rome, Italy, an expert in molecular biology, optical biosensors, biosensors testing and validation, and food safety, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Czech Republic, an expert in materials science, materials synthesis, functionalization, and characterization of materials, will be transferred to BIOS by establishing a knowledge transfer platform based on carefully designed mobilities, trainings and novel approaches in mutual collaboration to increase research excellence and innovation potential for all partners in bio-nanotechnology, with a principal focus on BIOS. Know4Nano will enable researchers from BIOS to acquire essential expertise, competencies, and skills in the field of nanomaterials, biosensors, microfluidics, and food safety, and enhance BIOS research management capacities and administrative skills for further commercialization, exploitation, and dissemination of results with the goal to increase its attractiveness in the region and EU as a potential collaboration in future project capable to generate new breakthrough results and marker-ready products.

WaysTUP! aims to demonstrate the establishment of new value chains for urban biowaste utilisation to produce higher value purpose products (i.e. biobased products, including food and feed ingredients), through a multi-stakeholder approach in line with circular economy. The project will showcase a portfolio of new ‘urban biowaste to biobased products' processes starting from different feedstocks i.e. fish and meat waste, spent coffee grounds, household source separated biowaste, used cooking oils, cellulosic waste derived from municipal wastewater and waste treatment plants and sewage sludge. Pilot demonstration will take place in several European cities i.e. Valencia (Spain), London (UK), Alicante (Spain), Prague (Czech Republic), Athens (Greece), L'Alcúdia (Spain), Terni (Italy) and Crete (Greece). The processes will result in the production of food and feed additives, flavours, insect protein, coffee oil, bioethanol, biosolvents, polyxydroxyalkanoates, ethyl lactate, long chain dicarboxylic acid, bioplastics and biochar. End-product characterisation and safety assessment will be implemented. Life Cycle Assessment of the value chains will be conducted to assess their environmental impact. WaysTUP! will develop and implement a behavioural change approach with citizens and local communities by improving the current perception of citizens and local communities on urban biowaste as a local resource; enhancing the active participation of citizens in the separate collection of urban biowaste; and improving customer acceptance of urban bio-waste derived products. New profitable business models will be developed preparing market entry of the technology solutions demonstrated as well as of the end-products resulting from them. Finally, the project will provide guidance for city managers on adopting new organisational models supporting the valorisation of urban biowaste, as well as evidence-based EU level policy recommendations for decision makers.

Nearly 50% of the European Union (EU) land area is agricultural. However, the ecosystem services (ESS) provided by these agro-ecosystems – including food, bioenergy, water, carbon storage and biodiversity – are threatened by processes such as land-use intensification and changing climate. European, national and regional policy makers must hence rethink and redesign rural policy to enhance the sustainability of agricultural landscapes while ensuring farmers’ livelihoods at the same time. However, the policy impact assessment models currently used by the European Commission (EC) ignore the complexity of farmers’ decision making, potentially leading to incorrect predictions of policy outcomes. Furthermore, existing models focus on narrow aspects of agricultural economics (e.g. income), ignoring policy impacts on rural natural, social and cultural assets. BESTMAP will develop a new modelling framework using insights from behavioural theory, linking existing economic modelling with individual-farm Agent-Based Models. Using these new modular and customizable tools BESTMAP will quantitatively model, map and monitor co-designed policy scenarios’ impacts on the environment, climate system, delivery of ESS, as well as socio-economic metrics (e.g. jobs). BESTMAP outputs will improve and contribute to existing tools used by the EC such as the Modular Applied GeNeral Equilibrium Tool (MAGNET) and Common Agricultural Policy Regionalised Impact model (CAPRI). Finally, BESTMAP will use a range of external communication and dissemination methods, including online policy dashboard, workshops and training, to help build capacity for EC staff and policy makers at EU institutions, national, regional and local decision makers and expert personnel, as well as other researchers.

Progress in understanding, managing and securing current and future ecosystem functions and services is challenged by fragmented and dispersed ecosystem research, operated using narrow disciplinary perspectives that prevent a holistic understanding of complex eco- and socio-ecological systems. The emerging European Long-Term Ecosystem, critical zone and socio-ecological systems Research Infrastructure (eLTER RI) was evaluated by the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) as having high potential for closing this gap in the European RI landscape. The primary objective of eLTER PLUS is to open and expand the research capacities and impact of eLTER by engaging current and new users and developing the operations of cross- and transdisciplinary research, exemplified in eLTER Site and Platform design and the RI’s Standard Observation framework. eLTER PLUS will execute a performance test of the emerging RI and assess and strengthen its operations in real time. It will further advance community building and provisioning of services as pursued by the H2020-funded eLTER INFRAIA Starting Community project and related projects. Its focus is on making intensive use of 35 selected sites and platforms in terrestrial, freshwater and coastal ecosystems, combined with observational data from an additional 50 sites, for studying ecosystem and socio-ecological responses to globally-relevant environmental challenges in terms of ecosystem integrity and ecosystem services. Its Whole-Systems approach will derive meaningful scientific and policy-relevant information via co-designed, transdisciplinary research in collaboration with diverse stakeholders at local, regional and EU-scales. Concerted actions also focus on collaboration with peer RIs to maximize synergies, increase efficiencies and catalyze holistic understanding of ecosystem function, and on development of virtual laboratories where in-situ site data are linked with other data sources, e.g. Copernicus.

ClimateSmartAdvisors is a pan-European multi-actor network covering 27 countries. Its aim is to boost the EU agricultural advisory community, leading to an acceleration of the adoption of climate smart (CS) farming practices by the wider farming community within and across EU AKISs. To reach this objective, ClimateSmartAdvisors focuses on the crucial role of advisors in the development and dissemination of CS innovations and practices. The project will organize activities focusing on strengthening the advisors’ capacity in providing CS advice and boosting the advisors’ role in the transition towards CS farming through their involvement in innovation projects, CS-AKIS, and EU projects and initiatives. A number of complementary activities are developed to strengthen the CS advisory capacity of the EU advisory community: 1) an EU-wide network of 260 advisory Communities of Practice (CoP) to support the development of 1500 advisors will form the core of CS knowledge exchange; 2) 140 advisors will receive expert training on selected topics, relevant for their context and for facilitating a CoP; 3) CoPs will internationally exchange knowledge on 12 thematic areas; 4) a knowledge repository will provide advisors with CS tools, practices and approaches developed in the ClimateFarmDemo project and further expanded in ClimateSmartAdvisors, 5) monitoring, evaluation and learning activities will capitalize lessons learned in and outside the project. Activities to boost the advisors role in the CS transition include: 1) connecting to local and EU (multi-actor innovation) projects, initiatives, AKIS actors, and policy makers to clarify and address joint needs, challenges and lessons learned, 2) the set-up of Co-Design Innovation Experiments to learn on how to strengthen the advisors’ role in innovation processes. Finally, to accelerate the wide spread of results, an ambitious dissemination, exploitation and communication strategy will be deployed at EU and national levels.