Project description
Microbial resources for growing agricultural productivity
Agricultural microbial resources are becoming increasingly attractive amongst global actors seeking new solutions to improve crop productivity. A race to patent microbial-based products is already underway. However, rules to regulate the rights to benefits or sharing programmes have yet to be proposed for agricultural microorganisms that were developed from the farming system and managing practices. This creates an environment where mutually agreed contracts may disadvantage farmers. To address this issue, the EU-funded MICROB-COM project will present and prove the shortcomings and threats posed by the present multilateral trade agreements. MICROB-COM will also develop a Microbial Commons, a legal instrument to incorporate systems of commons in sharing benefits from agricultural microorganisms.
Objective
Farm management practices have been shown to drive the evolution of specific consortia of agricultural microbial resources that contribute to increased agricultural productivity. The ecological traits of agricultural micro-organisms have made them an important target for patenting. Farmers' rights are an outcome of the recognition of the role of farmer communities in the evolution of crop varieties. Indigenous farmers have acted as selection agents in the development of crop as well as agricultural microbial resources by increasing reproductive fitness of particular genotypes. However, unlike with crop selection, no formal recognition of farmers' rights or potential benefit sharing programme has been proposed for agricultural micro-organisms that evolved from farming regimes. The central thesis that this project seeks to prove is that multilateral trade and environmental agreements have failed in protecting the rights of indigenous farmers for their intellectual contribution in selection of beneficial agricultural biodiversity. The coming into force of TRIPS agreement and the Convention on Biological diversity has concretized the patenting regime of micro-organisms. In the absence of effective international and national legal enforcement, benefits are shared through mutually agreed contract arrangements which are invariably skewed against indigenous farmers. A commons approach to micro-organisms has potential to align farmers' rights on agricultural microbial resources with legal instruments developed for plant genetic resource collections. Microbial commons is conceptualized and builds on other work that is done in the areas of genetic resource commons and networked information commons in digitized environments in the field of genetic resources. This project aims to analyse deficiencies and barriers in multilateral agreements and develop a legal instrument for the incorporation of a commons regime for sharing of benefits from agricultural micro-organisms.
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.
- social sciences economics and business economics production economics productivity
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
- social sciences economics and business business and management
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology
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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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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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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.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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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) H2020-MSCA-IF-2019
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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.
G1 1XQ Glasgow
United Kingdom
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.