River networks are among Earth’s most threatened hot-spots of biodiversity and provide key ecosystem services (e.g. supply drinking water and food, climate regulation) essential to sustaining human well-being. Climate change and increased human water use are causing more rivers and streams to dry, with devastating impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Currently, over half the global river network consist of drying channels and these are expanding dramatically. However, drying river networks (DRNs) have received little attention from scientists and policy makers, and the public is unaware of their importance. Consequently, there is no effective integrated biodiversity conservation or ecosystem management strategy of DRNs facing climate change. A multidisciplinary team of 25 experts from 11 countries in Europe, South America, China and the USA will build on EU efforts to investigate how climate change, through changes in flow regimes and water use, has cascading impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem functions and ecosystem services of DRNs. DRYvER (DRYing riVER networks) will gather and upscale empirical and modelling data from nine focal DRNs (case studies) in the EU and CELAC to develop a meta-system framework applicable to Europe and worldwide. It will also generate crucial knowledge-based strategies, tools and guidelines for cost-effective adaptive management of DRNs. Working closely with stakeholders and end-users, DRYvER will co-develop strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate change effects in DRNs, integrating hydrological, ecological (including nature-based solutions), socio-economic and policy perspectives. The end results of DRYvER will contribute to reaching the objectives of the Paris Agreement and place Europe at the forefront of research on climate change.

The language of crisis has become ubiquitous in contemporary sustainability discourse, associated with the proliferation of terms such as 'climate emergency'; 'tipping points'; 'catastrophic threat' and 'societal collapse'. While the political effects, and governance implications of crisis framings in the context of specific sustainability issues have been long recognized and critiqued, there has been little systematic attention paid to the relationship between crisis and the collective imagination more broadly. In the absence of sufficient theorising of these dynamics, there is a risk that sustainability discourse and practice becomes complicit in closing down imaginative spaces of possibility through allowing crisis thinking to dominate the map of possibilities. Empirically grounded in the context of imaginaries of agricultural transformation in the Galapagos Islands, the present project seeks to examine the ways in which crisis narratives shape imaginaries of sustainability, and with what implications. The project will bring together STS scholarship on sociotechnical imaginaries, feminist and decolonial scholarship on the politics of crisis, and insights from affect theory, with a view to deepening conceptual understanding of the relationship between narratives of crisis and imaginaries of possible futures, and contributing to academic and policy debates around 'transformations to sustainability' in Galapagos and beyond. In the tradition of sustainability action-research, the proposed project sets out to learn from and intervene in Galapagos context: to build theoretical insights with broad academic and societal relevance 'from the ground up' through detailed ethnographic fieldwork with diverse actors working to re-imagine agriculture in Galapagos at the confluence of multiple narratives of crisis; and to open up 'spaces of possibility' for imagining sustainable food futures in the archipelago.

Coast-Scapes (rethinking COASTal landSCAPES with climate-resilient interventions: systemic land-to-sea solutions) proposes to rethink land-coast-sea systems under climate change for enhanced resilience and biodiversity gains. We shall co-design systemic resilience solutions for coastal landscapes using transdisciplinary indicators, early and climatic warnings, business models and knowledge-based maintenance to reduce climatic risks and improve land to sea environments. We propose nature-based-solutions (NbS) suited to a broad range of coastal archetypes, governance, climates and resilience deficits, sequenced along resilience-through-adaptation pathways. Such solutions, supported by governance transformation and cross-sectoral engagement, will be applied by regions and communities empowered by an unprecedented combination of technical tools, financial models and social commitment. Coast-Scapes will promote NbS for a climatic resilience compatible with biodiversity gains and existing infrastructure constraints, seeking a reduced environmental footprint under natural resources that are scarce in quantity and quality. Social and technical innovation, associated to a governance shift, will make systemic resilience operational and fill the implementation gap at a pace commensurate with climate change acceleration. The selected Core Pilot regions/communities feature climate sensitive natural/human assets, controlled by land-coast-sea interactions and acting as large-scale demonstrators of scalable resilience plans for replication and export. These plans aggregate Science, Policy, Industry, Society and Environment actors with administrations responsible for local implementation, organised as resilience platforms and linked in a Regions and Communities Board. Resilience solutions will be monitored/maintained/marketed with the project, new standards and business models, for a resilience build up commensurate with unfavourable climate/human stressors.

The Solanaceae family, encompassing economically significant genera like Solanum, plays a vital role in global agriculture, particularly through crops. The Solanaceae family, encompassing economically significant genera like Solanum, plays a vital role in global agriculture, particularly through crops like potatoes and tomatoes. These crops, crucial for human consumption and nutrition, face significant threats from pest diseases, with annual losses amounting to billions of euros. Notably, the bacteria Clavibacter sepedonicus – Cs (ring rot in potato) and Ralstonia solanacearum - Rs (bacterial wilt in potato and tomato) pose severe economic and environmental risks, warranting stringent regulatory measures in EU and globally being included in Part B Annex of the Regulation 2019/2072 and are classified as EPPO A2 quarantine pests. In response, the POMATO project aims to safeguard potato and tomato health by focusing on four key pillars: isolation and molecular characterization of resistance genes of potato and tomato native and wild varieties against Cs and Rs, early detection using advanced technologies like AI and digital predictive platforms, development of natural bio-control solutions, and field validation at TRL 5 of the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies. This collaborative 48-month initiative involves a multi-actor approach of the potato/tomato value chain, including academic research institutions, agrochemical companies, farmers, and international partners from affected regions like Latin America. By leveraging expertise and resources, POMATO seeks to mitigate the spread of these quarantine pests and enhance food security sustainably by aiming to decrease between 40-60% the incidence of Cs/Rs. Sharing IPM POMATO’s strategies among relevant stakeholders in the policy and decision-making cycle will ensure economic sustainability of EU potato/tomato production, increase farm competitiveness as well as replicate the outcomes of the project to other crops.

The primary objective of the Latin-american Alliance for Capacity buildiNG in Advanced Physics (LA-CoNGA Physics) proposal is to modernize the educational platform in eight Latin-American higher education institutions (HEI) from the four countries in the Andean region (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela), using high-energy physics (HEP) as a model. The aimed modernization relies strongly on the development of an innovative e-learning platform based on low-cost open-access tools, installing connected instrumentation laboratories, a flexible problem-solving-oriented syllabus structured on modules for a one year master program and on the strengthening of cross-institutional relations among the target HEI's.We propose to build capacity in the Andean region by teaching advanced physics during a one year master/specialisation and creating a Virtual Research and Learning Community (VRLC), complemented by training opportunities at 3 leading European research centers, start-up and technology companies in the Andes and Europe, support to career development from the US. HEP is the science of understanding the smallest components of matter and the origin of the universe, looking for answers to key questions of our age. Impressive machines and detectors are needed to achieve the goals of HEP. They are based on breakthrough technologies with the potential to contribute in key areas like healthcare, big data, electronics, open-access collaborative tools, and solid ground for innovative entrepreneurs.In the past, voluntary crowdfunded efforts have been set up to have remote teaching of HEP in some of these HEI from researchers/professors at the beneficiary, i.e. the CEVALE2VE (Centro Virtual de Altos Estudios de Altas Energías in Spanish).This project proposes to create a VRLC by leveraging networks which already exist (CEVALE2VE, LatAm-EU-CERN, RedCLARA) and inexpensive, online teaching technologies. These will be made available to the country HEIs to be used in other fields.