Co-creating Behavioural Change Towards Climate-Smart Food Systems

Project Information

BEATLES

Grant agreement ID: 101060645

DOI

10.3030/101060645

Project closed

EC signature date 7 June 2022

Start date 1 July 2022

End date 30 June 2026

Funded under

• Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

Total cost

€ 3 911 528,75

EU contribution

€ 3 911 528,25

Coordinated by

GEOPONIKO PANEPISTIMION ATHINON
Greece

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BEATLES (Co-creating Behavioural Change Towards Climate-Smart Food Systems)

Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2025-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The global food system is currently facing a number of interlinked challenges associated with environmental, social and economic sustainability. While climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is embraced globally as the integrated approach securing the triple win of increased productivity, enhanced resilience, and reduced emissions, adoption of CSA practices remains low. Hence, behavioural shifts are needed to foster the transition to CSA.
BEATLES aspires to change the way agri-food systems currently operate and accelerate the systemic and systematic transition to CSA. Through targeted selection of agri-food value chains across the European Union and by engaging multiple stakeholders in the co-creation of systemic innovations, in the context of appropriate behavioural and experimental settings, the project provides an integrative inventory of behavioural insights about the full range of “lock-ins” and levers that hinder or motivate behavioural change, including individual, systemic and policy factors. Five different food systems representing the major crop and livestock farming systems in Europe (cereals, dairy, stone fruits, livestock, vegetables) in various EU regions (Western, Eastern, Southern and Northern Europe), are studied to account for the diversity in agri-food systems and conditions in the EU. The behavioural insights are used to develop transformative pathways, via business strategies and policy recommendations, to encourage transition to fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food systems.
The project has set four key objectives (KO):
KO#1: Deepen understanding of the full range of decision-making factors that facilitate or hinder transition of entire food systems towards CSA practices and behaviours and build capacity for behavioural and experimental research and systems thinking
KO#2: Develop transformation pathways for sustainable, productive, climate-smart agri-food systems via improved farm advice and business strategies
KO#3: Formulate and widely disseminate policy recommendations and innovative policy options to foster large-scale and long-term behavioural shifts
KO#4: Mainstream and scale up solutions via dedicated dissemination activities and by building an ecosystem of related projects, networks and initiatives

The work is planned in 7 Work Packages.
• WP1: Understanding of the full range of individual, systemic and policy factors that affect the transition to CSA. Moreover, the multi-actor approach is established with the involvement of various value chain stakeholders in the co-creation of the project's results
• WP2: A set of lab and field experiments are conducted in the 5 UCs to identify effective behavioural interventions that could foster the transition to CSA
• WP3: Sustainability assessment of CSA practices with respect to their environmental, social and economic impact is done to assess their effectiveness
• WP4: A portfolio of fair value propositions and business models are identified and validated to enable the fair transition to CSA
• WP5: Key actionable and fair policy recommendations and tools are produced along with an advisor's guide
• WP6: Communication and dissemination activities to reach a wide audience are designed, synergies with other projects and initiatives are established and EU agri-food stakeholders are involved in the climate-smart agriculture network of interest
• WP7: Project management, data management and ethics

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

• In the first 36 months of the project, 29 deliverables have been submitted on time and 7 milestones achieved
• Understanding of decision making factors affecting stakeholder behavioural shifts to CSA through 5 systematic reviews, 2 surveys (targeting farmers and consumers), 78 interviews with industry stakeholders
• Two segmentation analyses have identified farmer and consumer segments for CSA practices and environmentally-friendly products respectively
• 6 lab experiments and 1 field experiment have tested effective behavioural interventions that could foster transition to CSA. These have targeted farmers, consumers, advisors and related stakeholders
• 25 CSA practices (5 per UC) were assessed for their environmental, social and economic impact and compared with the baseline scenarios
• Understanding of fairness perceptions across the value chain and identification of fair value propositions and business models
• Development of 10 policy recommendations and tools for policy makers and organisation of annual multi-actor working groups for knowledge transfer
• Development of an advisory guide gathering key project findings and organisation of two workshops to build advisors’ capacity
• 15 co-creation activities, three per UC, brought together representatives from various parts of the value chain (e.g. farmers, advisors, industry stakeholders, researchers, policy advisors, consumers) to co-decide i) the most important lock-ins and levers, ii) sustainability indicators, iii) fair value propositions and business models, iv) fair policy recommendations and tools
• 7 academic publications

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)

• Behavioural Research and Innovation: the project adopted a food systems approach and examined the full range of decision-making factors affecting transition to CSA examining not only individual but also systemic and policy factors. The integrated framework of decision-making factors was co-developed with the participation of various stakeholders from five selected food systems across the EU, in multi-actor workshops

• Sustainability impact framework: the project provides a step-based holistic methodology to assess the environmental, economic and social implications of behavioural change towards CSA, based on the Integrated Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) and Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) to assess trade-offs between the three pillars of sustainability. A bottom-up approach is employed, by engaging multiple stakeholders in the co-definition of the sustainability indicators and validation of sustainability framework

• Business model innovation: by employing participatory and design research methodologies as well as various tools, including surveys, interviews and focus groups, the project examines the longitudinal business model innovation process towards transition. The multi-actor approach uncovers the negotiated meanings of fairness and creates shared understanding of what constitutes a fair value proposition and business model for all value chain stakeholders

• Policy innovation: the formulation of practice-oriented policy recommendations is focused on improving fairness in value chains as core behavioural trigger towards sustainable practices. Policy recommendations and tools derive from co-creation activities, involving stakeholders from the whole agri-food value chain, to encourage behavioural changes and support the adoption of more sustainable practices. Final policy recommendations and tools are tailored to the needs of identified target groups to achieve effective formulation and implementation

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