The CROPINNO establishes collaboration network between Institut za ratarstvo i povrtarstvo, Institut od nacionalnog značaja za Republiku Srbiju (IFVCNS), Novi Sad, Serbia and internationally-recognized research institutions from Spain (CSIC-IAS, Cordoba), Italy (UNIPD, Padova), and Germany (FZJ, Juelich and UROS, Rostock). IFVCNS is the National Institute of the Republic of Serbia and world-wide recognized institution in plant breeding. However, it still lacks in technology and innovation capacity in multi-omics and modern phenotyping, as well as in international visibility and project management and administration skills. The main objective of CROPINNO project is to step up and stimulate scientific excellence and innovation capacity of IFVCNS in the field of climate-smart crop improvement and production and enhance its ability to respond and create innovative solutions for the challenges that agriculture faces - climate changes and need to feed the increasing population. The other CROPINNO objectives are strengthening of the research management and administration skills of the IFVCNS and creating the conditions for positioning of IFVCNS as a regional hub of R&I in the area of agriculture and creation of Climate Crops Centre. These objectives will be achieved through a set of training, networking and dissemination activities, including short-term scientific missions, workshops, international summer schools, national and international conferences, as well as Field days. The expected impacts of CROPPINO include improved excellence capacity, enhanced strategic networking activities, raised reputation, research profile and attractiveness of IFVCNS and the research profile of its staff, strengthened research management capacities and administrative skills of IFVCNS staff, as well as improved creativity supported by the development of new research activities and collaborations and increased mobility of qualified scientists.

Plant production is central in agriculture, food systems, and in bio-economy applications, which is essential to address future challenges related to growing population, climate change, scarcity of agricultural land, loss of biodiversity etc. Integrated solutions and new technologies are needed to improve plant production, based on knowledge-driven innovation to the farming sector, agricultural and seed industries. Therein, the analysis of crop performance with respect to structure, function, quality and interaction with the environment (“phenotyping”) is key for the exploitation of crop genetic diversity required for the enhancement of plant productivity and progress in plant breeding. This requires substantial and concerted action to develop and to increase the availability of phenotyping infrastructures. The European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructure (ESFRI) has thus identified “Plant Phenotyping” as a priority for the European research area and EMPHASIS has been listed on the ESFRI ROADMAP, addressing primary plant production as the key step in future European agro-food-systems and bio-economy transformation. The Preparatory Phase project (EMPHASIS-PREP, 2017-2021) paved the way towards implementation and subsequent operation. It developed a business plan and established the Interim General Assembly, as main decision-making body, comprising high-level representation from policy and science. EMPHASIS-GO will build on the successful work in the Preparatory Phase, extend the membership with partners from eleven countries fully committed to support EMPHASIS and bring EMPHASIS into operation to fully explore the potential European plant phenotyping by i) developing and deploying services, ii) implement the legal, financial and organisational framework and iii) consolidating the business plan for future operations.

Climate-resilient sunflower crops can help to reduce the EU dependency on imports of vegetable oils and proteins shifting towards sustainable alternatives, to mitigate the impact of agricultural production on water use and greenhouse gas emissions, to grow resources for pollinators, and to promote biodiversity. HelEx will generate the knowledge and use innovative tools to accelerate the breeding of sunflower varieties adapted to extreme drought and heat stresses, while improving their environmental impact and assessing their socio-economic value of the resulting innovations along the value chains. HelEx will thereby consider two related groups of traits increasingly impacted by climate change, i.e. the eco-systemic service to pollinators and seed quality. For this, HelEx brings together scientists, SMEs, and industries representing an international consortium of experts in sunflower ecology, physiology and genomics; plant biotechnology and breeding; pollinator biology and ecology; environmental impact assessment and feedstock processing; and socioeconomic assessment at different scales. This HelEx multi-disciplinary consortium will explore the genetic and molecular processes involved in tolerance to drought and heat in wild extremophile Helianthus species, and identify favorable wild alleles introgressed into cultivated sunflower, for seed quality and pollinator attractiveness resilience (WP1). These processes will be transfered using classical marker-assisted selection and innovative genome editing approaches (WP2), and the environmental and biodiversity impact of these new climate-smart sunflowers assessed (WP3). HelEx will investigate the socio-economic impact and benefits in relevant value chains for different feedstock (WP4). Our communication strategy (WP5) will engage a variety of societal stakeholders to ensure feedback and enhance project progress and outcomes, and make transparent the broader dimensions of plant biotechnology, biodiversity, and benefit sharing

VALERECO target is to promote adoption and understanding the value of legume crops towards transition to sustainable, productive, climate-neutral, environment-friendly and resilient farming systems. The project aims to quantify and enhance the environmental and economic value of ES provided by 4 minor or underutilized and 8 major legume crops. It seeks to encourage diversification of farming practices throughout the EU and Associated Countries, which can contribute to healthier and sustainable diets and climate change resilience. The identification will be achieved through: (1) a thorough analysis on the ecosystem-services legacy and (2) the investigation of gateways for penetration of legumes and their associated ES to the new CAP. The valorization will be implemented through the establishment of nine Living Labs (LLs) to conduct: (1) behavioural design strategies to promote the adoption of legumes in production and consumption, (2) on-station participatory trials to assess the performance of major and minor-underutilised legume crops in diversified farming systems, (3) to demonstrate and co-create technical economically and environmentally assessed solutions for legumes inclusion in cropping systems. The dissemination will be realized through: (1) the development of a Digital Legume Information Hub (DLIH) to upscale and maximize the uptake of VALERECO’s results, (2) the development of a Decision Support System (DSS) to support the decision-making of farmers and advisors for legumes adoption, and (3) the generation of capacity building material made available to the public through an E-learning Platform.

The objective of LEGENDARY is to remove the barriers that hamper a significant and stable increase of the growing area of legumes in Europe. LEGENDARY has the ambition to develop tools and methods going considerably beyond the state-of-the-art to quantify Ecosystem Services (ESs) of perennial and of annual legumes in different agro-climatic zones. Based on co-creation, LEGENDARY aligns its research strategy with the actual needs. Field experiments will be monitored by a combination of traditional observation methods and advanced sensing technologies whose sensor reads are translated to ES trait values by means of dedicated statistical and machine learning models. These data will be fortified with results from past/ongoing projects. Valuation of the provisioning ESs will mainly be based on historical data, as the focus is to develop tools/methods for the valuation of the regulating services as well as for the valuation of cultural/social services including recreation, education and aesthetic values. These tools/methods will provide ready-to-use indicators to better equip farmers/advisors to evaluate and appreciate the benefits of legumes, including enhanced fertilising regimes, management of noxious organisms as well as recommendations to strengthen crop diversification and longer rotation cycles with crops beneficial for the environment, the farmer and the consumer. A user-friendly Collaborative Multicriteria Decision Support System will be developed, to assist farmers in the choice of legume species and cropping systems suitable for their farm. LEGENDARY’s results will contribute to develop guidelines for science-policies bodies. Consequently, the results and implementation actions provided will ultimately contribute to achieve five of the 17 UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and to accelerate the transition required by the European Green Deal. LEGENDARY’s legumes have the ability to promote soil health and will thus contribute to the Soil Deal for Europe.