Crucially, AgriLink builds on insights and experiences from both research and practice. The consortium consists of researchers from different disciplines (institutional economics, innovation studies, AKIS studies, sociology of networks), as well as of advisors (from public, private and farmer-based organisations) from across the EU. Actors from advisory services and AKIS will be active in the validation and dissemination of results, to ensure that all project findings are both scientifically sound and practically useful.

The consortium includes a wide range of actors (farmers and farmers’ organisations, advisory services, cooperatives, logistic providers, scientists, industry, representatives of civil society and of rural areas). DiverIMPACTS will, through a multi-actor approach, accompany and support innovation groups in their dynamic process to develop sustainable value chain systems characterised by a high level of crop diversification and new market products. The consortium involves pioneer actors of crop diversification and has great experience in both the design and multi-criteria assessment of innovative systems and the analysis of barriers that may lock-in the transition towards sustainable diversified systems that would contribute to the Rural Renaissance objectives.

EUCLEG aims to reduce Europe and China’s dependency on protein imports by developing efficient breeding strategies for the legume crops of major economic importance in human food and animal feed. The objective is to improve diversification, crop productivity, yield stability and protein quality of both forage (alfalfa and red clover) and grain (pea, faba bean and soybean) legumes. Using diverse and extensive genetic resources and taking advantage of advanced molecular tools, EUCLEG aims to identify and develop the best genetic resources, phenotyping methods and molecular tools to breed legume varieties with improved performance under biotic and abiotic stresses in the representative European and Chinese agro-ecological areas. The potential for new uses of forage species for human nutrition will be explored. Searchable databases will be developed or built to host passport, agronomic and genetic data facilitating exchanges and use of genetic resources. The evaluation of genetic resources in multi-site trials will give keys to broaden the breeding material and extend agro-ecological adaptation. The genetic architecture of key breeding traits will be analysed using association studies in order to identify molecular markers related to phenotypic traits. Finally, genomic selection strategies will be assessed for their potential to improve genetic progress. Practical tools for genotyping, data management and calculation will be provided to breeders to implement marker-assisted selection and genomic selection leading to the creation of new varieties in the long-term. The partnership gathered in EUCLEG, combining public institutes and private companies of Europe and China, guaranties the transfer of knowledge from research to seed industry.

The objective of GenTORE is to develop innovative genome-enabled selection and management tools to optimise cattle resilience and efficiency (R&E) in widely varying environments. These tools, incorporating both genetic and non-genetic variables, will be applicable across the full range of systems (beef, milk and mixed), and will thereby increase the economic, environmental and social sustainability of European cattle meat and milk production systems. To achieve this, GenTORE brings together: i) multidisciplinary scientific expertise in genomics, environmental assessment, nutritional physiology, health management, precision livestock farming, mathematical modelling, and socio-economics; ii) partners and stakeholders representing breeding organisations, farm technology companies, farm and veterinary advisory services, and farm sectors (organic, grazing, etc.); iii) a unique data basis including more than 1 million genotypes. This multi-actor team will develop tools for: multi-breed selection for R&E, characterisation of diverse farm environments, large-scale phenotyping of R&E using on-farm technology, on-farm management of breeding and culling decisions, and predicting the consequences for farm resilience of changing breeding and management. These tools are designed to be applicable under commercial conditions at the end of the project. They will allow increased use of the genomic diversity in cattle breeds, e.g. use of selective cross-breeding to best exploit the local production environment. They will also allow farm managers, their advisors, and policy-makers, to assess the relative importance of breeding for animal resilience vs breeding for efficiency, with respect to system resilience. As such GenTORE will not only enable the use of genomic information to facilitate predictive biology of efficiency- and resilience-related traits, but will also increase resilience of livestock production in the face of current and future challenges of climate change and food security.

ReMIX will exploit the benefits of species mixtures to design more diversified and resilient agro-ecological arable cropping systems less dependent on external inputs. Based on a multi-actor approach, ReMIX will produce new knowledge that is both scientifically credible and socially valuable in conventional and organic agriculture. It will tackle practical questions and co-design ready-to-use practical solutions adapted to producing mainly grain cash crops in diverse EU pedo-climatic conditions. ReMIX will: 1) overcome barriers to stimulate the adoption of species mixtures by farmers and in agri-food chains, 2) unravel mechanisms of plant-plant interactions to maximise resource use efficiency, 3) determine the role of species mixtures in controlling diseases, pests and weeds and alleviating yield damages, 4) demonstrate the role of species mixtures in improving ecosystem service provision and development of resilience to biotic stress, 5) identify key traits and create novel breeding and phenotyping methods and tools adapted to species mixtures, 6) generate novel breeding material adapted to grain legume/cereal mixtures, 7) develop generic rules for assembling species for efficient cash crop production using process-based simulation models, 8) develop new management techniques to optimise species mixtures performance, 9) optimise settings and specifications for agricultural machines for harvesting and separating grains, and 10) develop a tool box, an educational serious game and technical booklets for farmers and advisors. The project will span from the specification of end-user needs and the co-design of in-field and on-farm experiments to demonstrations with evaluation of new varieties and practices. ReMIX will contribute to the adoption of productive and resilient agricultural systems based on plants diversity, to increase legume production and competitiveness in EU and to healthier diets based on plant proteins from cereals and legumes.

SolACE's overarching goal is to help European agriculture facing the challenge to deal with more frequent combined limitations of water and nutrients in the coming decades, through the design of novel crop genotypes and agroecosystem management innovations to improve water and nutrient (i.e. N and P) use efficiency. To achieve this goal, SolACE will focus its activities on three major European crops - potato, bread and durum wheat - and will identify the (i) optimum combinations of above- and below-ground traits for improving resource use efficiency, (ii) best-performing genotypes under combined water and N or P stresses and (iii) novel practices that make better use of plant-plant and plant-microbe interactions to access water, N and P resources in conventional, organic and conservation agriculture. SolACE will implement a double interactive innovation loop, based on agroecosystem management and breeding strategies, and will imply the engagement of diverse end-users, across the production chain, from farmers and farm advisors to NGOs, SMEs and larger industries in the agri-business sector, through the SolACE consortium and a range of stakeholders' events. The tested innovations will include crop genotype mixtures, legume-based crop rotations and cover crops, microbial inoculants, as well as improved decision support systems and hybrids or products from genomic selection and participatory evolutionary breeding schemes. SolACE will implement complementary approaches, from data mining, modelling, phenotyping in high throughput platforms and field conditions, to experiments in research stations and farmers' networks in contrasted pedo-climatic zones. Through the co-design and co-assessment with the end-users of the selected novel breeding and management strategies to increase the overall system resource use efficiency, the findings of SolACE will be deemed acceptable and readily available for dissemination to a broad spectrum of stakeholders, including policy-makers.