The Agroecology Partnership, funded by Horizon Europe

The Agroecology Partnership started on January 1, 2024, and will continue until December 31, 2030

Coordinator: Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH (Germany) ptj-agroecology-secretariat@fz-juelich.de 

The Agroecology Partnership is funded by Horizon Europe and unites the European Commission and 72 partners across 26 Member States, Associated Countries, and Third Countries 

• It supports an agriculture sector that is fit to meet the targets and challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, food security and sovereignty, and the environment, while ensuring a profitable and attractive activity for farmers. 
• The Partnership in particular pools the resources of the EC and the states involved to fund high-level research generating appropriate knowledge and technologies aligned with the core themes described below and in the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda.

Living Labs

1. Belgium - LLAEBIO (Living Lab Agroecology and Organic Agriculture)
2. Denmark - CarbonFarm
3. Denmark - DKOOF (The Danish Organic on-farm Living Lab)
4. France - Occitanum
5. Germany - PFN HESSEN (Practical research for organic agriculture and vegetable farming)
6. Greece - InoFa (Internet of Food Alliance Support Office)
7. Hungary - ÖMKi (On-Farm Living Lab)
8. Italy - Valle Varaita Living Lab
9. The Netherlands - Dutch National Agroecology Network
10. United Kingdom - Innovative Farmers
11. United Kingdom - CALL (Coventry Agroecological Living Lab)
12. Serbia - PA4ALL (Precision Agriculture for All at BioSense)
13. Switzerland - FiBL LL (FiBL On-Farm Network)

Research Infrastructures

• Denmark - BIOBASE (Aarhus University research framework for agricultural biomass production)
• France - LTSER ZAPVS (Long-Term Social-Ecological Research platform - Zone Atelier Plaine & Val de Sèvre)
• France - Oasys
• Germany - EMPHASIS (Emphasis on plant phenomics)
• Spain - LifeWatch-ERIC

Upcoming webinar:

26 March 2025.  10:00 am CET. Agroecology - SOILS 2!

• By AGROECOLOGY Partnership 
• This is a series of morning webinars open to anyone interested in exploring topics related to Agroecology. Each session offers insights from experts on practices, innovations, and sustainable approaches shaping the future of this field.

Previous webinar:

29 Jan 2025. Seeking the integration of soil-based principles in agroecological systems

• Multi-actor solutions to facilitate the adoption of Sustainable Agricultural landscapes
• Dr. Sabina Asins-Velis, introduced her project Into-DIALOGUE. 
• Into-DIALOGUE understands that the adoption of Sustainable Agroecological Systems as a whole is difficult to be achieved in European and Turkish agricultural landscapes in the short term, given the complexity of holistically adopting their assumptions. 
• Into-DIALOGUE provides an integrative multi-actor approach for the integration of soil-based systems, the ecological identity of farmers, the design of political measures, and the possibilities of collaboration offered by citizen participation to facilitate the transition.  

Other Horizon Europe Research projects

European Partnership on Animal Health and Welfare

The European Partnership on Animal Health and Welfare (represented by the abbreviation EUP AH&W or its acronym EUPAHW) is by far the most ambitious research and innovation initiative the European Commission (EC) has funded to control infectious diseases of animals, and to promote animal welfare. Launched this year (2024), the innovative Partnership is anticipated to invest €360 million over seven years to boost research and facilitate cooperation between all actors. The scope goes beyond the animal health and welfare actors to enhance cross sector collaboration and, through a One Health and One Welfare approach, to provide societal impact. The objectives of the EUP AH&W align with the European Green Deal and its associated Farm to Fork strategy for a fair, healthy, and environmentally friendly food system.

PRO-WILD - Protect and promote Crop Wild Relatives

PRO-WILD protects and promotes wild relatives of wheat, sugar beet, and oilseed rape, harnessing their valuable traits to improve nutritional quality and resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses. The project involves 19 partners from 11 countries and is co-funded by the EU, UK and Switzerland.

1. ARO, Israel
2. BOKU, Austria
3. CREA, Italy
4. CUK, Türkiye
5. ELGO, Greece
6. FiBL, Switzerland
7. HCC, Romania
8. IfZ, Germany
9. Innolea, France
10. INRAE, France
11. IAM, France
12. IPK, Germany
13. IT, France
14. JIC, United Kingdom
15. KWS, Germany
16. SV, Belgium
17. UNIPA, Italy
18. UNIPG, Italy
19. Weizmann, Israel

FruitDiv consortium

FruitDiv is a European research project launched on the 1st of January 2024. The project is funded under the Horizon Europe framework for a period of five years (January 2024-December 2028). FruitDiv aims to monitor, characterise, use, and conserve the diversity of fruit tree Crop Wild Relatives (CWR), with a particular emphasis on pome (Malus, Pyrus) and stone (Prunus) fruits.

The FruitDiv consortium is coordinated by INRAE. It includes 26 multi-disciplinary partners from 10 EU Member States and four other European countries.

Cousin project

On January 1 2024 began Cousin, the project on the use and conservation of Crop Wild Relatives (CWRs) for sustainable agriculture, funded by Horizon Europe and coordinated by Universidad Rey Juan Carlos of Madrid.

1. Università di Catania – UNICT
2. Nordic Seeds AS – NOS
3. Agrártudományi Kutatoòközpont – ATK
4. Federal Office for Agriculture – FOAG
5. Formica Blu – FB
6. Institut de l’Agriculture et de l’Alimentation Biologiques ITAB
7. The James Hutton Institute – JHI
8. Universidade Católica Portuguesa – UCP
9. Rete Semi Rurali ETS – RSR
10. Ceratium BV
11. Forschungsinstitut für Biologischen Landbau – FiBL
12. Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics – CRAG
13. Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research – IPK
14. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas – CSIC
15. BioCrop Innovations – BCROP
16. BETA Technological Centre (UVic-UCC)
17. Getreidezüchtung Peter Kunz – gzpk
18. European Plant Science Organisation – EPSO
19. Cybiome – CYBI
20. Environmental Social Science Research Group – ESSRG
21. Wageningen University & Research – WUR
22. University of Lausanne – UNIL
23. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki – AUTH
24. Universidad Rey Juan Carlos – URJC
25. Asociación Aprisco – APRI

Other: 31 May 2023 - 1 June 2023. The 2023 EU Agri Research Conference

This 2023 edition gathered over 500 participants in Brussels engaging scientists, farmers, rural communities, industry, advisors, policymakers, citizens and NGO representatives. Many more followed online. The conference brought critical thinking on how research and innovation can tackle the challenges faced by agriculture, forestry and rural areas, and building on current activities and achievements, what new opportunities should be explored.

See the 22 MARCH 2024, 2023 AgriResearch Conference Report

BIO4Africa is a project to contribute to food and nutritional security and combat poverty in rural Africa through inclusive and sustainable development. It focuses on transferring simple, small-scale and robust bio-based technologies to smallholder farmers, with testing sites in Uganda, Ghana, Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire. The project is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and is composed of a balanced mix of 13 African and 12 EU partners.