The continuous increase of the scope and the scale of the anthropogenic activities in which agriculture plays a significant role contributes to a rapid negative impact on the carbon cycle. The impact of agriculture on CO2 emissions will be further increased, considering that the world population will reach 9.7 billion by 2050 . EU has committed to mitigate the carbon footprint from agriculture as described in the CAP (Objective 4), the European Green Deal and its flagship strategies, the Farm to Fork and the Biodiversity strategies. The efficiency of these carbon footprint from agriculture strategies will be mainly determined by the synergy amongst all stakeholders (policy, industry, academia, civil society) in the quadruple helix within the place-based innovation ecosystems. The widening countries involved in this project, Cyprus, Greece and North Macedonia, as part of the Balkan-Mediterranean region, are heavily impacted by climate change. To achieve these targets an inter- and transdisciplinary approach is required to integrate the expertise and knowledge of all relevant stakeholders and a place-based perspective and design needs-based carbon farming solutions (practices and technologies) as well as strict policies to foster shifts towards a Climate-resilient Agriculture. The main objective of this project is to establish CARBONICA Excellence Hub by connecting the innovation ecosystems of Cyprus, Greece and North Macedonia, while enhancing their TRL as service providers, based on cutting-edge technologies (Earth Observation – EO; in situ data; digital agriculture etc.) in carbon farming. The main scope is to establish access to excellence to all relevant stakeholders in the QH of the WC, as well as strengthen regional innovation capacity guided by long-term joint R&I strategy in the carbon farming field.

EIFFEL will offer the EO-based community the ground-breaking capacity of exploiting existing GEOSS and external datasets, with minimal new data collection activities. Added-value services interoperable with GEOSS will be designed, using cognitive search and metadata augmentation tools based on Artificial Intelligence (AI), including Natural Language Processing. These tools will leverage advanced cognitive features to extract meaningful information from and enrich GEOSS metadata. Moreover, novel methods (super resolution, data fusion) for augmenting the spatiotemporal resolution of explored EO data will be proposed, in order to address the needs of the diverse EIFFEL CC adaptation and mitigation applications. The latter will cover: (i) a set of five different GEO Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs), namely in Water and Land Use Management, Sustainable Agriculture, Transport Management, Sustainable Urban Development and Disaster Resilience domains; (ii) various EU geographical and climatic regions, at local, regional, national, cross-border and pan-European scales. Further, the value of using explainable AI techniques for improving the credibility and comprehensiveness of such CC applications, so that they can offer actionable insights to the decision makers, will be showcased. EIFFEL will foster the co-design of CC adaptation policies and mitigation strategies and monitor CC effects in the respective regions. The project, in line with EuroGEO’s emphasis on early engagement with stakeholders and their participation in the application design, has ensured that they are active consortium members. EIFFEL complies with the framework of results-Oriented GEOSS, to improve the delivery of applications tailored to decision making centres and will actively participate in the GEO Work Programme post-2019. Last, it provides tangible proof of the value of GEOSS data for creating CC applications and encourages projects and initiatives to offer their data through the portal.

DIONE proposes a close-to-market (TRL7) area-based direct payments monitoring toolbox that will address the forthcoming Modernised CAP regulation of using automated technologies to ensure more frequent, accurate and inexpensive compliance checks. In particular, DIONE will: (i) Capitalise on recent results of ESA’s SEN4CAP project that showcased the capability of Sentinel data to monitor the crop diversification rules. DIONE shall further integrate generated crop-type maps in a way directly exploitable by the paying agencies; (ii) Include in the analysis the so far neglected EFA types (fallow land of all sizes, buffer strips, hedges, trees), by making use of super-resolution technology that improves the 10-20m Sentinel resolution to an improved resolution range (5-10m). This is enabled through Machine-Learning (ML) based post-processing and data fusion of Copernicus DIAS-sourced data with targeted drone-obtained data. This aims to motivate the use of such EFAs over the –of ambiguous environmental impact- use of productive areas (nitrogen-fixing crops and catch crops). (iii) Complement the use of EO data with a system of reliable, ground-based geo-tagged photos, captured by the farmers that exploits (a) advances that allow for improved positional accuracy, (ii) low-footprint encryption techniques for improved data security and reliability and (iii) image detecting manipulation techniques (image forensics). The system will allow for an improved LC/LU annotation and ensure the process is untampered. (iv) Implement a Green Compliance toolbox, integrated with the paying agencies’ aforementioned tools. This will benefit from (a) low-cost spectral sensors measuring soil quality and assessing the status of land-degradation in the land parcels and (b) an ML-based inferencing system deployed on a larger scale (regional, national) to quantify the levels of some of the monitored parameters and consequently extract tangible environmental performance metrics for an entire region

Nemesis strategically establishes five autonomous yet interconnected user-oriented, sustainable Living Labs (LLs) in Cyprus, France, Italy, North Africa (Tunisia/Algeria), and Spain, to combat desertification and improve soil health across the Mediterranean. These LLs will evolve into a multi-disciplinary virtual LL, with primary goal to incorporate all relevant soil health descriptors across a spectrum of heterogeneous real-life environments. The Nemesis community envisions itself as a potent hub of innovative solutions addressing adverse soil degradation issues in the region and beyond, and supporting the Soil Monitoring Law at multiple levels. Nemesis seeks to promote effective, sustainable land management practices and tackle the various societal challenges associated with soil health deterioration in the region. A comprehensive set of tools and frameworks will be established. These are designed to secure the long-term viability and optimal functionality of the LLs, with the aim to advance LLs’ pilot sites (60 already identified at the proposal stage) into Lighthouses where they can showcase solutions and exemplary achievements. A core principle guiding Nemesis is its commitment to co-creation and co-development. Nemesis will also emphasize the active engagement of local communities and citizens, with a special focus on representing future generations to build a foundation of environmentally conscious citizens. Nemesis facilitates the exchange of knowledge and fosters the development of novel and adaptable tools that are essential for informed decision-making and policy shaping. The project recognizes the importance of policy creation in addressing the complex challenges it seeks to tackle. This ensures that the innovative solutions generated within the Nemesis LL network will influence broader policy frameworks, fostering a more comprehensive and coordinated approach to combating desertification, among other objectives.

The E-SHAPE proposal is driven by the need to develop operational EO services with and for the users and to create a conducive environment whereby the strengths of Europe are exploited towards addressing societal challenges, fostering entrepreneurship and supporting sustainable development. The proposal objectives are 1) to develop operational EO services with and for users active in key societal sectors; 2) to demonstrate the benefits of the EO pilots through the coordinated downstream exploitation of EO data and the utilization of existing EO resources; 3) to promote the uptake of pilots at national and international scale, across vertical markets (private and public) and amongst key user communities; 4) to enable the long-term sustainability of the numerous pilots, their penetration in public and private markets and support their upscaling; 5) to increase uptake by raising awareness on the solutions developed through tailored and well-targeted communication, dissemination and outreach activities. The proposal aims at setting-up and promoting a sustainable organization dedicated to users’ uptake of European EO resources, building on Copernicus and GEOSS through the development of co-design pilots (i.e. application-oriented products, services or solutions) built on a user-centric approach and delivering economic, social and policy value to European citizens. It has also the ambition through the development of 27 pilots organized in 7 showcases to deliver information that will also contribute to the three GEO engagements (SDGs, Paris Agreement and Sendai Framework).