Integrated SERvices supporting a sustainable AGROecological transition

Project Information

AgroServ

Grant agreement ID: 101058020

DOI

10.3030/101058020

EC signature date 17 June 2022

Start date 1 September 2022

End date 31 August 2027

Funded under

• Research infrastructures

Total cost

€ 14 252 873,35

EU contribution

€ 14 252 873,35

Coordinated by

ANALYSIS AND EXPERIMENTATION ON ECOSYSTEMS ERIC
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - AgroServ (Integrated SERvices supporting a sustainable AGROecological transition)

Reporting period: 2023-09-01 to 2024-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Agricultural systems including agroforestry, aquaculture, pastoralism, horticulture, and husbandry are facing a number of complex challenges. The world's population is expected to reach 9.7 billion people by 2050 and is predicted to peak at almost 11.2 billion in 2100. In this case “the equivalent of almost three planets could be required to provide the necessary resources needed to sustain our current lifestyles ” (FAO 2025). Arable and pastureland will continue to deplete due to urban expansion and emerging infrastructure demands, 33% of the Earth's soils are already degraded and over 90% could become degraded by 2050 . In parallel, extreme weather situations (e.g. heat waves, desertification, droughts and floods, etc.), are increasing because of climate change, which agriculture is also responsible for, representing 10% GHGs emissions in Europe. These tensions on agricultural production are exacerbated by the growing scarcity of natural resources and loss of biodiversity. Adapting our current agricultural production methods has become unavoidable, in order to not only produce agricultural goods, but also to maintain other ecosystem services . A more balanced and sustainable agroecosystem will contribute to the well-being and security of the human-animal-plant capitals (“one health”) while increasing the capacity of handling and managing their complex system of interdependencies . This transition towards a sustainable and resilient agriculture, and agroecological transitions, can’t be achieved without the active involvement of the practitioners, i.e. farmers, SMEs, industry, at all levels from research to policy making.
The overarching mission of AgroServ is to support inter- and trans-disciplinary research and innovation by providing customised and integrated RI services in view of achieving a sustainable and resilient agriculture and supporting agroecological transitions. This aim takes place in line with the One-Health approach, with particular regard to threats and risks on agroecosystems and to enhance new agroecological practices and their socio-economic benefits.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The first year of AgroServ has been devoted mostly to the preparation of the integrated offer of services, leading to the first call for services released at the very end of the period. AgroServ gathers a wide consortium of 11 research infrastructures spanning many disciplines and scales, from chemistry and molecules, biology and microorganisms, to the plants, animals and ecosystems, to the biotechs, to the social and economic aspects. Providing a coherent offer of services to the community has needed a large effort in finding a common language, and focussing on a common offer which should be easily understandable and useful for the user. We have designed a catalogue of installations and associated services, compatible with the EOSC and CATRIS, which present in a unique format this wide offer of services.
As we require that proposals should be interdisciplinary in nature, it is important to guide the user across this large and diverse offer of services. Proposals will be elaborated in a two step procedure. The first step is an expression of interest (EoI), where the user (or user team) describes its needs, requested services, and outlines the scientific proposal. During this step, after an eligibility check, a feasibility study is performed at the RI level. RI managers have been appointed in each of the 11 RI involved, to guide the user in this forest of services, and to provide advice. The goal is to have a dialog with the user in order to enhance the technical and scientific quality of its proposal. The call for this first step (EoI) is now released.
In the second step, the user (user team), is invited to write the full proposal, which will be evaluated by an independent review committee for ranking and recommendation for scheduling the requested services in our RIs..
We have dealt with the potential ethical issues, which can be diverse and complex given the wide range of disciplines, and full guidelines have been released.
In parallel, we have started to design the 3 Living Labs (LLs) that will enable a true collaboration with the practitioners, mostly farmers. These LLs are in the Mediterranean region, Central Eastern Europe, and Northern regions.
Because of the novelty of the approach it is necessary to have strong community building actions, directed to both the AgroServ consortium participants, and the potential user communities. Webinars, training events, and a conference have been organised. Communication actions have been progressing in parallel with the web site, digital presence on social media, etc.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

At this stage, the main result has been the release of an integrated catalogue of installations and services, which goes beyond what has been achieved so far. This catalogue provides a unique access to the integrated services, both transnational and virtual access, with a compatibility to the EOSC and CATRIS. This catalogue will be a tool that has been already selected by other EU INFRA-SERV projects as the base solution,, and it will be used beyond the end of the project, with an enhanced collaboration between RIs.
The design of living labs in the domain of agricultural sciences will allow an unprecedented collaboration between scientists, the industry, and farmers. As for the rest of the project we have an integrated approach between disciplines, and we span the main regions in Europe, expecting results well beyond the end of the project.
Last but not least, building a community of users coming from such a large span of disciplines will result in new ideas, which will be relevant for other programs in the EU, such as the partnership (e.g. agroecology), and missions.

The AgroServ consortium

The 1st AgroServ conference