IntercropValueES aims to exploit benefits of intercropping to design and manage productive, diversified, resilient, profitable, environmentally friendly cropping systems acceptable to farmers and actors in the agri-food chain. It will develop both a scientific research action for better understanding and modelling intimate intercrop functioning and a detailed analysis of lock-ins and levers at the value chain level to identify credible solutions that can be adopted by farmers and value chain actors. As a multi-disciplinary and multi-actor project, it brings together scientists and local actors representing food value chain. It includes 27 participants from 15 countries (3 continents) from a wide diversity of organizations and stakeholders. IntercropValuES organizes its activities in 6 objectives, to: 1) support the design of locally relevant, legitimate and innovative agri-food chains, through 13 Co-Innovation Case Studies; 2) understand the functioning and G*G*E*M interactions allowing the selection of compatible ideotypes and the optimization of machinery and management strategies for maximizing the productivity and delivery of ecosystem services with better soil health and mitigation of GHG (meta experiment 15 sites); 3) produce novel information, improved methods and tools for intercrop management and the assessment of their performance and profitability; 4) unravel intercropping performance by modelling; 5) analyze grain and sanitary quality of cereal-legume intercrops, functional qualities for food processing and new products, 6) uncover key barriers and levers at the value chain level to boost development, and identify new market avenues and solutions to increase economic added-value of intercrops. The Comms and Dissemination Plan is designed to diffuse outcomes widely by adapted channels to different end-users, such as farmers, advisors, food processing companies and machinery industries, retailers and citizens, academia, policymakers and influence bodies.

BEAMING aims to raise excellence by enhancing innovation and knowledge valorisation within the bioeconomy domain through cooperation between higher education institutions, with a particular focus on Widening countries in Central-Eastern (CEE) and South-Eastern European (SEE) EU Member States and the Western Balkans. Improved global competitiveness and visibility of higher education institutions (HEI) will be achieved through establishing effective technology and know-how transfer between Widening countries and EU14 member states with more developed bioeconomies and R&I ecosystems, exploring and adopting structural reforms, educational priorities, and a culture of excellence. The BEAMING Alliance works towards 7 Specific Objectives: 1) Build the capacity of early-career researchers in all aspects of bioeconomy research; 2) Facilitate the reform of institutional practices and policy frameworks towards excellence; 3) Foster networking, knowledge exchange, and cross-disciplinary collaboration by establishing sustainable Communities of Practice; 4) Design joint research and innovation strategies and launch joint research projects; 5) Design a complex portfolio of activities for adopting Open Science practices; 6) Strengthen the valorisation of research results by increasing tech transfer capacity; 7) Support the participating institutions to move towards inclusive institutional culture, including gender equality. We aim to foster the uptake of the Quadruple Helix innovation ecosystem approach to provide a framework for higher education institutions to work collaboratively with industry, government, and civil society. Thereby, we aim to enhance their innovation capacity and the applicability of research results. Local and regional implementation strategies and roadmaps will be developed regarding the relevant ERA Policy Agenda actions in the higher education sector, particularly in the domains of bioeconomy and circular economy.

Widening countries lag behind the European average in Research & Innovation investment and scientific excellence; the domain of Digital Agriculture (DA) is one prominent example. Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) of Widening countries, like Greece and Serbia, can play a central role in addressing this issue, but need support for achieving excellence in research and education in the DA domain. HEIs in Belgium have gained significant experience by establishing an ecosystem that fosters close collaboration among HEIs, competence centers, Digital Innovation Hubs, and industry, leveraging advanced digital technologies for the benefit of citizens, business, and scientific advancement. In this light, TALLHEDA will build a new long-term Alliance for DA between agricultural HEIs from Widening countries with leading non-widening agricultural universities, and local and international stakeholders. TALLHEDA Alliance will contribute to raising the critical mass of highly skilled scientists and to establishing liaisons with surrounding ecosystems, in order to foster the Quadruple Helix of innovation in Widening countries. The path to excellence will be paved with a portfolio of multi-actor, inter-sector and international complementary actions to support students, early-stage and experienced researchers, and academic staff of the Widening HEIs. This will be achieved through collaboration, complementary top-level expertise of all partners, access to cutting-edge infrastructure, staff mobility, and joint educational and research activities. The partners have an established scientific reputation in DA and are committed to making TALLHEDA a success. In the long term, Widening HEIs will be one step closer to reforming their institutions in terms of content and quality of educational courses, pedagogical and management practices, and research and innovation capacity, raising the critical mass of highly skilled scientists needed for digital transition in agriculture across Europe.

ClimaPannonia is the coordinated effort of key stakeholders of the Pannonian Biogeographical Area (PBS) towards strengthening the resilience of the agricultural sector and the region’s community against climate change disastrous effects. This will be achieved by enabling the widest possible uptake of tested and validated climate neutral solutions for four agriculture subsectors: (i) water-food nexus, (ii) agroforestry, (iii) organic crop production, (iv) cattle production. ClimaPannonia aims to support PBA agriculture sector in drastically improving its climate resilience. By implementing innovative systemic solutions and fostering collaboration among the six countries within the PBA – Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Czechia, and Slovakia – ClimaPannonia will pave the way for a more sustainable and resilient agriculture. By harnessing the knowledge and expertise of leading experts in PBA and leverage the knowledge of partners from countries such as Germany, Italy, and France, ClimaPannonia seeks to ensure that the solutions implemented are innovative not only at PBA level, but also at European scale.