Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ECO-READY (Achieving Ecological Resilient Dynamism for the European food system through consumer-driven policies, socio-ecological challenges, biodiversity, data-driven policy, sustainable futures)
Reporting period: 2022-12-01 to 2024-05-31
ECO-READY is a European project with the mission of “achieving Ecological Resilient Dynamism for the European food system through consumer-driven policies, socio-ecological challenges, biodiversity, data-driven policy, sustainable futures”. ECO-READY recognizes the profound effects of climate change and biological factors on the food system, and subsequently on food security at regional and European levels. To this end, the project will develop a real-time surveillance system, also known as the Observatory platform. This platform will act as a concentrated source of information and data regarding climate change and biodiversity-induced drivers of food security. The Observatory aims to assess, monitor, and manage these vital drivers, and together with the network of 10 Living Labs, to support decision-makers with appropriate data, scenarios, and strategies.
In the first 18 months of the project, key activities have focused on understanding the drivers affecting food security in Europe (D1.1) identifying gaps in data and knowledge and mapping relevant policies (D1.2) and developing scenarios for resilience strategies, in collaboration with the established network of 10 Living Labs that cover all bioclimatic zones in Europe. To prepare for the co-creation of scenarios with the Living Labs, a preliminary workshop has taken place to discuss the modeling and design frameworks for scenario development. Stakeholder engagement, including consumers, farmers, policymakers, and industry representatives, is a central part of the project to ensure alignment with their needs and perceptions. This has been achived during the first Reporting Period (RP) through activities such as the policy workshop that took place in the context of the fist Annual Project Meeting, the Delphi survey that was conducted in the context of D2.1 and a series of dissemination activities. The project has established a network of Living Labs across European regions to co-create and test outputs, policies, and contingency plans (D3.1 and D3.3). In the Living Labs kick-off meeting, all Living Labs selected for funding presented their proposed projects, and an extensive discussion took place on the regional challenges in the context of the climate change-food security-biodiversity nexus. Clarifications and guidelines were given to all Living Labs on how to proceed with scene development, which was also reflected in the template of the first deliverable that is expected to be submitted in Month 6 of the Living Labs project. The project will leverage innovative technologies and models, such as Artificial Intelligence and early warning systems, to support evidence-based policy recommendations for building a resilient European food system. In this context, an online co-creation workshop and a mockup review of the Observatory took place during the first reporting period. The online co-creation workshop aimed at defining user requirements for the ECO-READY Observatory Platform/App, and obtained interesting and valuable feedback and insights around four thematic sessions (User needs and cases, Data, Features and functionalities, Community interaction). Further to that, mockups of the Observatory interface have been designed to determine user needs and preferences. The mockups served not only as a tool for visualizing potential solutions but also as a crucial medium for getting direct feedback from users. As a result, they were initially given feedback to the partners of ECO-READY and to all attendees (focus groups) of the second ECO-READY meeting that took place in Rome. After that, the mockups were integrated into the co-creation workshop.
During the first reporting period of the project (M1-18) there are no results that qualify as "beyond state of the art" achievements.