SmartCow: an integrated infrastructure for increased research capability and innovation in the European cattle sector

Objectives

Although livestock production is vitally important for Europe’s future (€130 billion to the EU economy - 48% of the agricultural sector, employment for ~ 30 million people), it receives much criticism due to environmental concerns and issues on animal health and welfare. Ruminant production systems have been singled out, with red meat in particular targeted as being environmentally unfriendly. Thus, research in animal agriculture is challenged to find solutions to improve resource use efficiency, reduce anthropogenic GHG emissions and improve animal health and welfare of livestock. At the same time, livestock research infrastructures (RIs) are notoriously expensive to equip and maintain. One of the obstacles to research and innovation in the European cattle sector is the lack of coordination and integration of RIs despite several recommendations already published (ESFRI roadmap 2016, Animal Task Force 2016). Coordination, harmonisation, and access to European research infrastructures are essential to support research and innovation for the cattle sector, and to contribute to a sustainable, smart, and competitive animal agriculture in Europe.

The SmartCow project started on 1^st February 2018 for 4 years. It gathers 14 partners across Europe. SmartCow integrates key European cattle research infrastructures, to promote their coordinated use and development and thereby help the European cattle sector face the challenge of sustainable production. Covering all the relevant scientific fields and the diversity of cattle types and production systems, SmartCow will provide the academic and private research communities with easy access to 11 major research infrastructures from 7 countries (18 installations) of high quality services and resources. It will develop innovative and ethical solutions for efficient use of animal and feed resources that promote animal welfare and healthy livestock, as well as sustainable competitiveness.

SmartCow combines strong scientific and technical skills in animal nutrition and physiology (in vivo methods for evaluating nutrient utilisation, excretion and emissions), genetics (genotyped animals, phenotyping capabilities), health and welfare (sensors and automatic recordings of physiological and behavioural traits) and ethics in animal experimentation. Joint research activities will be carried out to refine reference methods in ruminant nutrition and proxies (biomarkers measured on milk, blood, feces…) to evaluate feed efficiency and its biological determinants, develop new protocols and guidelines to reduce the use of animals, and produce new methods to exploit sensor data for cattle husbandry. It will contribute to the implementation of 3R principles (reduce, refine, replace) in cattle experimentation. Networking activities will make it possible to harmonise and standardise procedures especially in animal care and measurements, design of experiments, data recording and analysis. The data generated will be shared in a cloud-based data-platform dedicated to the project. Thanks to a transnational access to the SmartCow infrastructures, the project will provide free access to around 10,000 “cow.weeks” of experiment to researchers all around Europe and will thus facilitate around 30 research projects. Promotion of transnational access and dissemination of SmartCow outcomes and innovations will be supported by a Stakeholder Platform composed of pre- and post-farm gate industry, farmer organisations, NGOs, policy makers at national and EU levels for maximum impact.

SmartCow is a first step towards the integration of key research infrastructures for dairy and beef of European and worldwide interest. This could then be built upon to create an advanced European cattle infrastructure network, working towards the ultimate goal of an integrated European farm animal research infrastructure.

EC funding : 5 million euros

Duration : 4 years

Start : Febraury 1st 2018

Coordinator : René Baumont rene.baumont@inra.fr

Project manager : Léa Tourneur lea.tourneur@inra.fr

Website: http://www.smartcow.eu/

HOMED: HOlistic Management of Emerging forest pests and Diseases

Objectives

HOMED will provide a full set of science-based, innovative practical methods and tools to assess and control emerging or invasive pests and pathogens threatening European Union forests, following a holistic and multi-actor approach. Holistic because it will improve strategies of risk assessment and management by targeting the successive phases of invasion (transport, introduction, establishment, spread), and developing mitigation methods for each phase, i.e. prevention, detection and diagnosis, surveillance, eradication and control tools. Multi-actor because scientists will communicate with stakeholders all along the project; forest managers, biosecurity agencies, policy makers and environmental NGOs will be asked to express their needs and constrains and validate the tools as they develop.

Innovation will be central, as the new tools for pest management will benefit from the most advanced technology, e.g. electronic sensors, hyper spectral cameras, the latest satellite constellation, high-throughput sequencing, unmanned aerial vehicles and artificial intelligence. As it is impossible to foresee the next invasive or emerging pest or pathogen, the overall approach will be generic. However, the new tools will be tested on four main types of pests and pathogens, i.e. foliar moths and needle blights causing tree growth loss, wood boring beetles and dieback fungi causing tree mortality. Prominent experts from the main forested countries of EU and the main regions of origin of invasive pests, e.g. North America, Australasia, China and South Africa, will contribute to the project, and ensure continuity and complementarity with past and current Euphresco and EU projects. By developing cost-effective, environmentally friendly tools for the prevention, detection and control, the project will reduce the tremendous economic losses caused by invasive forest pests and pathogens and help to maintain the critical ecosystem services provided by EU forests, including climate change mitigation.

EC funding : 4 999 296 €

Duration : 4 years

Start : October 1st 2018

Coordinator : Hervé Jactel herve.jactel@inra.fr

Project manager : Oriana Rossi oriana.rossi@inra.fr

Website: http://homed-project.eu/contact

PPILOW: « Poultry and PIg Low-input and Organic production systems’ Welfare »

Objectives

The PPILOW project aims to co-construct through a multi-actor approach solutions to improve the welfare of poultry and pigs reared in organic and low-input outdoor farming systems. The first originality of PPILOW is the participatory approach, involving all actors of the production chain from farmers to consumers, citizens, scientists and policy makers, for proposing and studying welfare improvement levers.

The second originality of the project is to provide a combination of practical solutions for welfare improvement that can be applied on a pan-European basis with specific adjustments depending on citizen’s expectations and the target market (national legislation or consumer preferences). More precisely, PPILOW will cocreate with end-users welfare self-assessment tools, innovative breeding and rearing strategies and techniques for improving the welfare of animals by avoiding mutilations (piglet castration or beak trimming in poultry), the elimination of one day-old layer male chicks, favouring positive behaviours, and improving health and robustness in both species.

The innovative solutions will be investigated experimentally and the most promising ones will be tested on-farm. Multi-criteria analyses of the most effective breeding and rearing strategies will then be realised to evaluate their economic, social and environmental impacts based on the ‘One Welfare’ concept embracing sustainability goals with specific emphasis on animal and human welfare. Business models will be created for the use of high-quality products issued from the adoption of PPILOW strategies to improve welfare in organic and low-input outdoor farming systems for poultry and pigs. Finally, to ensure the rapid uptake of the project results by end-users, appropriate dissemination activities will be developed (such as training, digital videos from field partners, EIP abstracts…) and the close involvement of national practitioner groups throughout the EU will be managed to facilitate change.

EC funding : 10 000 000€

Duration : 5 years

Start : September 1st 2019

Coordinator : Anne Collin – anne.collin-chenot@inra.fr

Project manager : Joselle Latchoumia – joselle.latchoumia@inra.fr

Website : www.ppilow.eu

LIFT: « Low Input Farming and Territories - Intégrer les connaissances pour améliorer l'agriculture écosystémique »

Objectives

The LIFT: “Low-Input Farming and Territories – Integrating knowledge for improving ecosystem-based farming” is a research project funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research programme under the topic “SFS-29-2017 – Socio-eco-economics – socio-economics in ecological approaches”. LIFT brings together 17 partners from 12 Member States.

The overall objective of LIFT is to identify the potential benefits of the adoption of ecological farming in the European Union (EU) and to understand how socio-economic and policy factors impact the adoption, performance and sustainability of ecological farming at various scales, from the level of the single farm to that of a territory.

To meet this goal, LIFT will assess the determinants of adoption of ecological approaches, and evaluate the performance and overall sustainability of these approaches in comparison to more conventional agriculture across a range of farm systems and geographic scales.

EC funding : 5 000 000€

Duration : 4 years

Start : 1st of May 2018

Coordinator : Laure Latruffe - laure.latruffe@inra.fr

Project manager : Floriana Pondichie - Floriana-Alina.Pondichie@inra.fr

Website : https://www.lift-h2020.eu