Instruments under direct management

The main sources of funding for agricultural innovation are the EU’s Framework Programmes (currently Horizon 2020) and rural development policy, including mainly the European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability (EIP-AGRI), but also LEADER (Liaison Entre Actions de Développement de l'Economie Rurale). Table 4 provides a comparative overview of different public funding sources for innovation in agriculture, illustrating their aims and objectives as well as their spatial orientation or set-up. EU-level instruments for agricultural innovation can broadly be divided into directly managed ones and those under shared management between EU and Member States. The table, together with xx below, illustrates how the different instruments cover the full innovation chain, from capacity building to research and then to market.

6.1.4 Instruments under direct management

The financially most important instrument under direct management is Horizon 2020 (80 billion euro in total 2014-2020), which covers the full innovation chain. Horizon 2020 addresses agricultural themes under the Societal Challenge “Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy”, to which 5% or 3,85 billion euro of the 2014-2020 budget have been dedicated.

Horizon 2020 specifically supports Multi-Actor Approach and by the end of 2017, over 50 MAA projects had been approved. An example of a Multi-Actor Project funded under Horizon 2020 is provided in the box about LIVESEED. A special form of MAA projects are so-called Thematic Networks (TNs)⁵⁰. TNs collect existing scientific knowledge and best practices and translate this knowledge into easily understandable end-user material. By summer 2018, there were 29 thematic networks and more are expected until 2020. They are funded under Horizon 2020 and supported by EIP-AGRI. By November 2018, 29 TNs had been set up. Examples for TNs include Smart AKIS, which offers a Smart Farming Platform where smart farming technologies and best practices are collected and shared, and Hennovation, which focused on innovation led by farmers and industry in the areas of injurious pecking and the transport and use of hens that no longer lay any eggs (see Annex).⁵¹

Related to Horizon 2020 is the instrument European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST), which stimulates research cooperation. With a budget of 300 million euro for 2014-20, COST provides international research funding for researchers and innovators to set up interdisciplinary research networks. In practice, a financial contribution is provided for organising meetings, training schools, short-term scientific missions and other

50 https://ec.europa.eu/eip/agriculture/sites/agri-eip/files/eip-agri_brochure_

thematic_ networks_2016_en_web.pdf

51 https://www.smart-akis.com and http://www.hennovation.eu

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working activities. Until early 2019, COST has supported 162 actions in the area of food and agriculture alone.⁵²

LIVESEED (Horizon 2020; Source: www.liveseed.eu)

The Horizon 2020 project LIVESEED (Boosting organic seed and plant breeding across Europe) involves 49 partners

in 18 countries (EU Member States and Switzerland) and runs from 2017 to 2021. It benefits from EU funding under Horizon 2020 of 7,4 million and 1,5 million euro from Switzerland. LIVESEED aims at developing cultivars adapted to organic system. It will:

 foster harmonised implementation of the EU organic regulation on organic seed

and strengthen organic seed databases in the whole EU;

 widen the choice of organic cultivars meeting the demand of farmers, processors, retailers and consumers;

 investigate socio-economic aspects related to production and use of organic seed;

 improve availability and quality of organic seed and develop guidelines for organic cultivar testing and registration.

The project consortium includes research insti-tutes, breeding compa-nies, seed compacompa-nies, organic associations (farmers, processors, retailers) and national authorities.

52 https://www.cost.eu

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Also the directly-managed LIFE programme (L’Instrument Financier pour l’Environnement) plays an important role in agricultural innovation. It focuses on demonstration projects, supporting environmental, nature conservation and climate action interventions. These three Priority Areas are strongly linked to agricultural themes. The current LIFE+ has a budget of 3,5 billion euro for seven years. An example of a LIFE project linking environmental and agricultural innovation is shown in the box on Coop 2020.

The Erasmus programme (EuRopean Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students), currently Erasmus+, is an EU student ex-change programme established in 1987. With a budget of 14,7 billion euro for 2014-20, Erasmus+ supports cooperation for innovation and exchange of good practices under its Action 2. There are several examples for projects related to agriculture, for instance SKIFF (Skills for Future Farmers), which provides training in seven languages, including specialised apps for smart phones.⁵³

Coop 2020 (LIFE+; Source: www.coop2020.eu/en)

Coop 2020 is a LIFE+ project involving five partners in Spain and one in Greece. It ran between 2014 and 2018 and benefitted from EU funding of 1.228.535 euro under LIFE+. Coop 2020 demonstrated the viability of business models for agricultural cooperatives that integrate energy savings and renewable energy.

Coop 2020 aimed to inspire the implementation and expansion of rural smart grids. It focused on:

 the realisation of energy savings and

 the generation of energy from different renewable sources.

For instance, the participating part-ners faced the challenge of having to

deal with organic waste in the form of olive pits. These will be used in biomass boilers in order to generate thermal power.

The project provided evidence that decentre-lised, distributed power generation is econo-mically feasible and desirable.

53 www.future-farmer.eu

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