Objective
Current farming practices are driving environmental degradation, yet fall short of ensuring nutritious food. Thus, by transforming how we produce food, we can address multiple sustainability challenges concurrently. This project quantifies where and how farming system transformation with ‘opportunity crops’ can simultaneously tackle pressing health, poverty, and environmental challenges. Opportunity crops are forgotten foods: plant species that were once embedded in local cultures but have since fallen out of favour due to neglect from policy and research. Transforming farming systems with opportunity crops is thus revolutionary in the traditional sense of the word: returning to something from the past to change the system for a better future.
I will apply a cutting-edge multi-scale and multi-crop approach. First, I will take a broad-scale view across Africa to identify where we already see benefits of opportunity crops (‘bright spots’) – with the goal of learning from these real-world cases. To do so, I will use longitudinal household data on crops grown and food intake. Second, I will uncover how opportunity crops affect human health, poverty, and the environment using three signature cases: 1) Common crop portfolios, 2) Baobab (The tree of life) and 3) Moringa (The miracle tree). The three cases progressively integrate health, poverty, and biodiversity surveys with state-of-the-art satellite-based tree mapping and environmental DNA methods. Together, the cases represent original and innovative integration of methods to unlock the potential of opportunity crops by placing food at the nexus between human health, environmental sustainability, and social justice.
This project will break new ground by providing empirical evidence to lay the foundation for a new theoretical framework and a truly interdisciplinary research field on farming transformation that can simultaneously tackle interdependent health, poverty and environmental challenges around the world.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
- social sciences law human rights
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
1165 KOBENHAVN
Denmark
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.