Gathering partners of different origins and activity from university to grassroots organization, the AE4EU project delivered a diversity of results and outputs.
Understanding the current realities of agroecology in different European countries is a key step to build on existing initiatives and upscale agroecology. For this, the AE4EU project mapped agroecology in 33 European countries. A unique overview documenting agroecology initiatives, regarding practice, research, education and training, movement and living labs was achieved. Results shows that agroecology is still not very much recognized by different categories of stakeholders; there are only few education programmes on agroecology; the existence of research team/departments working on agroecology remain scarce; and movements linked to agroecology were found in most countries whereas living labs calls as such were extremely rare. All country results are published in an open access book.
An analysis of current and past agroecology-related research projects, and institutions working on agroecology was carried out, allowing to see how agroecology is understood and applied. In parallel perceived barriers to the development of agroecology and research needs associated to it were identified. Results clearly highlight the existence of different research approaches regarding agroecology, from more specific research to very few research using a broader holistic approach, the needs for transdisciplinary approach as well as the need to further involve a variety of stakeholders in research. Key lessons learnt from this work were shared through the form of deliverables, a webinar and academic articles.
Funding is key to support and enhance the development of agroecology. The consortium provided an overview of existing public and private funding schemes dedicated to agroecology. Also, the project initiated exchange between private and public funders. Public funding schemes were investigated through the analysis of existing databases at the national and European level, and interviews of stakeholders linked with public funding. This has provided insights regarding existing schemes and their evolution. The work on private funding through desktop research, interviews and workshops with foundations highlight the willingness of a group of foundations already engaged directly or indirectly to fund agroecology to enlarge their engagement or complement existing funding.
Living labs and research infrastructures are key instruments and can be important initiatives to foster the agroecological transition. Using an original approach, the project defined a grid of indicators to characterize existing living labs and provide materials on how to cluster them and analyse differences between living labs regarding type of stakeholders involved as well as how to monitor and evaluate existing living labs. In parallel, three living labs in Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom were developed.
Fostering the training of farmers fore agroecology is one of the key steps to up-scale its development. Training guidelines were developed by AE4EU partners to disseminate and exchange knowledge around the approach and implementation of agroecology. Finally, to increase connection among existing and future actors of agroecology, the project has set the basis of two important initiatives: (i) the development of a European Agroecology Exchange Hub, and (ii) the creation of ENAF European Network for Agroecological Food Systems.
