Food System and Climate (FOSC): Assessing the impact of climate change on food and nutrition security and designing more sustainable and resilient food systems in Europe and beyond

Project Information

FOSC

Grant agreement ID: 862555

DOI

10.3030/862555

Project closed

EC signature date 23 September 2019

Start date 1 October 2019

End date 30 September 2025

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Total cost

€ 16 088 186,81

EU contribution

€ 4 999 999,95

Coordinated by

AGENCE NATIONALE DE LA RECHERCHE
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FOSC (Food System and Climate (FOSC): Assessing the impact of climate change on food and nutrition security and designing more sustainable and resilient food systems in Europe and beyond)

Reporting period: 2019-10-01 to 2021-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

One of the most complex societal challenges is to achieve food and nutrition security and, sustainable agriculture. In order to support research that will contribute to meet this challenge, the ERA-NET co-fund Food Systems and Climate (FOSC) was formed. Its foundations were set by exploratory scoping among members of the JPI on agriculture, food security and climate change (FACCE-JPI) and of the ERA-Net co-fund LEAP-Agri to address one of their common research areas: food security under climate change. Supported by these programmes, FOSC started on the 1st of October 2019 for five years with a consortium of 28 international partners from Europe and Africa and Latin America and a budget of about 16 M€. It aims to implement a range of joint activities, contributing to the creation of a strong transnational, European-African research and innovation network and a better synergising of national, international and EU research programmes for food security under climate change.
The agriculture and forestry sectors, currently account for about a quarter of the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. If the current trends are maintained, a further increase of GHG emissions by 80% could occur by 2050. Ensuring food and nutrition security in the long‐term while containing global warming, will require changes on a societal‐level and a systemic transformation of food systems. This cannot be done without a deep modification of our consumption patterns and citizen’s behaviour.
All three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, social and economic) are important for the systemic transformation of food systems. To tackle this complex societal challenge, FOSC focuses on regional food systems within a global perspective by assessing climate change-related risks for food value chains, including impacts on prices, international trade and food security, and resulting changes in consumer behaviours; improving resilience and reducing volatility in agri-food production and food markets to sustainably improve food security; reducing food losses under climate change including through the valorisation of side streams and reduce food waste.
In addition to the programme activities in the frame of the co-funded call, FOSC initiates and organises joint activities to foster collaborations and enhance impact of research on the societal and systemic transition for the development of sustainable and climate-resilient food systems in Europe and beyond. Such activities will contribute to the creation of a strong and effective global Research, Development and Innovation (R&D&I) flagship on ‘Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture’ (FNSSA) that will raise the coordination and synergism of national, European and global research programmes relevant to food security under climate change.

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

FOSC planned to undertake joint calls for proposals for collaborative R&D&I between partners from different regions of Europe and Africa, and to undertake complementary activities such as the identification and test of innovative instruments for alignment and collaboration in R&D&I, capacity strengthening, infrastructure development and dissemination of the results. These tasks were organized in seven Work Packages (WP). WP1 serves the overall project’s coordination and management, WP2 to WP5 and WP7 are directly linked to the implementation, evaluation and valuation of the R&I co-funded projects while WP6 focuses on developing “additional activities”.

The 1st call of FOSC was co-funded by EC and was launched on 20th of December 2019. 71 pre-proposals were submitted, 43 were invited for the 2nd step, 36 remained eligible after the general and national eligibility assessments of the full proposals. All eligible proposals were evaluated by the International Evaluation Panel (IEP) of FOSC the 9th February 2021. The IEP established a ranking list, recommending 28 projects for funding. Based on this list, the 24th of February 2021, the Call Steering Committee (CSC) selected 17 proposals, for a total of 14.032 M€. These proposals aim at studying and proposing solutions for food, crop and farming systems submitted to climate change and its consequences. The topics include adaptation and improvement of agricultural practices, studies on adapted crops and varieties, solutions for mitigate foot print of farming in terms of practices, recycling wastes and bioeconomy. For food systems special attention is put on circularity, local markets but also trades at different levels.

From 16th of March 2021 when applicants were notified of the selection results, national negotiations between projects' partners and funders started.

The process allowed the projects to start from January to June 2021. In relation to those projects, a mapping of the global and European policy, research landscape and stakeholder relevant to food systems was carried out to explore possible collaboration and prepare the set-up of a Knowledge Platform for further efficient valorization. Twelve organisations with overlapping interests in R&D&I were contacted. Eight are now sharing information with the FOSC consortium to explore new collaborations ideas. Thanks to these mapping and networking activities, a joint call on Innovative solutions for resilient climate-smart and sustainable food systems, with the ERA-Net co-fund SUSFOOD2 was launched the 17th of May and is open until the 16th of August 2021. The collaboration with LEAP4FNSSA is another outcome of the networking activities. FOSC organized a workshop during the FNSSA Stakeholder Engagement Week on “The landscape of knowledge platforms on agri-food systems and climate change” the 1st of June 2021.

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)

The expected impacts of FOSC are the production of an effective transnational, European and transcontinental R&I networking and better synergies between national, international and EU research programmes for food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture under climate change.
The main expected impact of the ERA-Net FOSC is to elucidate patterns regarding the economical and societal impacts of climate change at regional and at global levels. FOSC analyses the risk assessment and risk management approaches for the extreme events and propose mitigation and adaptation solutions fostering resilience of food systems to protect human health through the provision of enough safe foods, while preserving environment and climate. The project results should contribute to quantify and reduce risks for the local authorities. The existing challenges are tackled in a transdisciplinary way by implementing the UNSDG objectives, in line with the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) from FACCEJPI. The activities of FOSC involve stakeholders and the general public in all aspects related to sustainable food systems under climate change.

FOSC in brief