Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AgroServ (Integrated SERvices supporting a sustainable AGROecological transition)
Période du rapport: 2022-09-01 au 2023-08-31
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.
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.
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.