Archives: Projects

Growing Climate Resilience in Remote rural Areas through Community Empowerment

Objectives: GRACE project focuses on addressing the needs of rural and small and medium communities localised in EU Remote Rural Areas (RRAs) to adapt and build resilience against Climate Change, by strengthening their capacities and empowering them to become actors of change and take transformative action. A consortium of 27 organizations from 16 countries implements the project, with 5 Demonstrator Regions (DRs) in Austria, Denmark, Italy, Portugal and Sweden co-developing innovative solutions centered on naturebased approaches. These solutions are designed to deliver  multifunctional, place-based social, environmental and economic benefits. In addition, circular economy principles will be embedded within these solutions to promote sustainable resource use, regenerative practices, and closed-loop systems, further enhancing local adaptation capacity. At the same time, the project will enhance local socio-economic activities, promote circular business models, maximize the value of natural capital, and help mitigate the challenges of depopulation and aging in RRAs. 5 Replicator Regions (RRs) in Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Slovakia and Ukraine will prepare for adopting the innovations developed by the DRs. Finally, GRACE will also engage Observer Regions (ORs) to follow and potentially replicate these solutions, fostering widespread CC adaptation across Europe’s rural areas. By integrating Nature-based Solutions (NBS), digital technologies, and inclusive community participation, GRACE will catalyze transformative adaptation in EU rural territories, ensuring that RRAs can successfully navigate climate challenges ahead and secure a sustainable, climate- resilient future.

Results expected

GRACE will elevate the ambition in demonstrating solutions tailored to European rural areas and small to medium sized local communities through the application of an interdisciplinary approach. It will go beyond the State of the Art across several interconnected key dimensions, including:
• Transformative CA: GRACE will strategically focus on the typology of rural areas that need the most support in CA to consider: i) how rural and small and medium-sized communities in the most remote areas of the EU can be empowered to become active actors of change, induce transformation and innovation in the enabling conditions, and protect the KCS from present and future climate risks ii) what solutions and adaptation pathways can be followed iii) and explore, if and how, the journey to achieve transformative climate resilient communities can represent an opportunity for the development of RRA communities and to reduce the urban-rural discontinuity.
• Advanced multi-hazard risk modelling and scenario analysis: GRACE will fill a current gap concerning the lack of availability of climate risk assessments in RRA. The gap significantly reduces the institutional capacity of public authorities to adapt to CC with integrated planning and the design of holistic measures able to account for multi-hazards risk scenarios. Using new data mapping and data generation techniques (WP1) GRACE will develop detailed climate risk analysis to accurately reflect and unravel the complex interactions between different hazards and their impacts across various rural landscapes, including scenario planning – Social innovation and community empowerment.

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Contacts

Coordination

• BERCHOUX Tristan, CIHEAM-IAMM Project Manager, berchoux@iamm.fr
• AVIGNON Virginie, CIHEAM-IAMM Project Assistant, avignon@iamm.fr

Partners

• CMCC – Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (Coordinator)
• INOVA+ – INNOVATION SERVICES, SA
• CIHEAM-IAMM (WP Leader)
• STICHTING VU
• EUROPEAN PUBLIC LAW ORGANIZATION
• ASSOCIATION EUROPEENNE POUR L’INNOVATION DANS LE DEVELOPPEMENT LOCAL (WP Leader)
• STOWARZYSZENIE CENTRUM ROZWIAZAN SYSTEMOWYCH
• EUROPEAN SCIENCE COMMUNICATION INSTITUTE (ESCI) GGMBH (WP Leader)
• BAB BUNDESANSTALT FUR AGRARWIRTSCHAFT UND BERGBAUERNFRAGEN (WP Leader)
• ACONIUM GMBH
• IfLS INSTITUT FUER LAENDLICHE STRUKTURFORSCHUNG EV (WP Leader)
• EUROPEAN RURAL DEVELOPMENT NETWORK
• Comunidade Intermunicipal do Baixo Alentejo
• Gemeinsame Region Bucklige Welt – Wechselland
• Comune di Cavallino Treporti
• PERIFEREIA THESSALIAS
• VIDZEMES PLANOSANAS REGIONS
• SVERIGES LANTBRUKSUNIVERSITET
• REGION VASTERBOTTEN
• AALBORG KOMMUNE
• DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET
• Zilina self-governing region
• Zalishchyky city council
• ASSOCIACAO ESTACAO BIOLOGICA DE MERTOLA
• INSTITUTO POLITECNICO DE BEJA
• MAYO COUNTY COUNCIL

Source of funding

Follow GRACE!

• Website: https://www.grace-project.eu/
• on LinkedIn -> GRACE

Green Transition Cooperation for the Integration of Rural Innovation-based Business and Production models

Objectives: GREENCOOP’s overall objective is to develop a set of 15 (EU) and 3 (China) LL communities to co-create mixed and digital innovations (ADIs) as 12 demos to promote social economy, enhancing farmers prosperity and rural entrepreneurs by optimizing the use of in- farm resources, reducing environmental damage, improving working conditions, and inclusion (i.e. youth, women, migrants.), fostering bioeconomy and circular economy, and increasing the number of high-quality jobs and competences. This will contribute to increase ecosystem services delivery and valorisation, improve food security, and mitigate and adapt farming systems to climate change increasing market resilience.

Context: The challenging EU socio-economic context for the near future (land abandonment, population aging, young farmers, rural low technology access, and entrepreneurs´ migration) imposes the need for developing new Rural Communities Business models (RCBM).
These models will improve current rural business allowing to overcome the current situation and adopt innovative and cost-effective agroecological and digital solutions while increasing the environmental ecosystem services delivery, farmers’ quality of life and rural areas revitalization. The GREENCOOP overall objective is to develop a set of 15 (EU) and 2 (China) LL communities to cocreate agroecological and digital innovations (ADIs) as 12 demos to promote social economy, enhancing farmers prosperity and rural entrepreneurs by optimizing the use of in-farm resources, reducing environmental damage, improving working conditions, and inclusion (i.e. youth, women.), fostering bioeconomy and circular economy, and increasing the number of high-quality jobs and competences. ADIs will be integrated into relevant types of farming systems (farm ideotypes) selected by GREENCOOP Living Labs (LLs) and the basis for the RCBM by promoting the farmers and rural entrepreneurs’ participation in the food systems. This will contribute to increase ecosystem services delivery and valorisation, improve food security, and mitigate and adapt farming systems to climate change increasing market resilience. GREENCOOP is a 4-year project that aspires to (i) create and evaluate, through a multimodal and multidisciplinary approach, a set of 12 ADIs (ii) analyse the integration of ADIs and industries interactions in EU relevant among rural business by developing RCBM and (iii) benchmark the current business models with the RCBM by assessing their economic, environment and social impacts and (iv) optimize the RCBM to enhance farming systems sustainability , productivity, rural/urban connectivity, and resilience against climate and market.

Results expected

• RIBC-Net: LLs community build in GREENCOOP and promoting collaboration actions beyond its lifespan to support sustainability and enlargement
• Harmonized guidelines for data collection and ADIs protocols for promotion of implementation of GREENCOOP strategies (ADIs), monitoring and verification efforts
• Business Database (BUS-DB)
• Rural Community Business Models (RCBM) Sustainability assessment: to analyse effects and long-term applicability and affordability of the ADIs
• Policy recommandations
• Multi-criteria Decision tool (BUSDST): decision support tool that can support land managers at the EU level in their optimal management planning in a way that is in line with EU related policy targets (ES, biodiversity, bioeconomy, climate mitigation and adaptation) while maintaining economic viability
• Knowledge Platform (BUS-PT): tailor-made platform including all tools developed and information from the implementation of GREENCOOP that will facilitate searching information through the website. Main components included are: (i) BUS KC (ii) MOOC; (iii) BUS-DST Tool; and (iv) RIBCM-Net
• Multi-lingual Open Course: MOOC

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Contacts

Coordination

• Project Manager: Georgios Kleftodimos – Contact: kleftodimos@iamm.fr
• Project assistant: Agathe Dupont – Contact: dupont@iamm.fr

CIHEAM-IAMM team

• Georgios Kleftodimos, Hatem Belhouchette, Amélie Bourceret

Coordinator: University of Santiago de Compostela
Participants:
– Fundacion empresa universidad gallega
– Carbone fertile centre national d’agroécologie
– Solutopus – recursos edesenvolvimento lda
– Helsingin yliopisto
– Panepistimio thessalias
– Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi
– Wageningen university
– Leibniz-zentrum fuer agrarlandschaftsforschunde
– Agroecology innovation advisory sl
– Geoponiko panepistimion athinon
– Region de murcia
– E-science european infrastructure for biodiversity
– Discovery center nonprofit korlatolt felelosseg
– University of east anglia
– Neiker-instituto vasco de investigacion y desarro
– Universitat de valencia
– Asociación de criadores de la raza porcina celta
– Universidade de coimbra
– Agricultural information institute of chinese academy of agricultural sciences

Sources of Funding: HORIZON-CL6-2024-COMMUNITIES-02-02

European Commission

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Let us cultivate the future with traceable, sustainable, supportive and inclusive agriculture.

Context:

Project to support the agroecological transition in Lebanon through the promotion of agroecology and the facilitation of access to national and international markets.

Lebanon has been facing a severe crisis since the end of 2019, on economic (with growing inflation), food (85% of food needs are imported), social (with increasing intercommunal tensions and 1.5 million Syrian refugees), and environmental levels (with anarchic exploitation of natural resources and unregulated use of agricultural inputs).
The agricultural sector in Lebanon represents almost 5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs around 12% of the active population. In the poorest regions of the country, such as Akkar and the Bekaa, agricultural-related activities can represent up to 80% of the local GDP.

ARADINA aims to support and accompany, in a context of climatic, security, and socioeconomic crises, the agroecological transition in Lebanon for a larger and healthier food production, a more efficient management of natural resources, and a more inclusive and sustainable economic development.
This transition seeks to develop sustainable, traceable, fair, and job-generating agricultural value chains, particularly benefiting vulnerable populations in rural areas.

The project includes three components:
1️⃣ Defining and implementing agroecological practices and providing the necessary support for their adoption at the household farming level;
2️⃣ Supporting SMEs and cooperatives to create jobs and facilitate access to markets for products derived from agroecology;
3️⃣ Capitalizing on knowledge and implementing advocacy for agroecology in Lebanon.

The project aims to support 2,500 farmers (at least 30% women) in the agroecological transition, increase the income of affected farming households, and support 145 SMEs/cooperatives.
It also aims to increase the share of agroecological products among consumers, reduce agricultural water consumption by 20%, and enhance climate resilience for at least 5,000 people.

The project’s funding recipient is CIHEAM Montpellier, which will act as project lead, in consortium with the NGOs Fair Trade Lebanon (FTL) and Action Against Hunger (ACF Spain).
CIHEAM Montpellier will ensure project coordination and the implementation of the first component, which will involve defining relevant agroecological practices and training farmers by incorporating socio-behavioral factors.
CIHEAM Montpellier will also establish community infrastructure (three nurseries, one composting unit, and three processing units), as well as install 20 hectares of drip irrigation networks.
FTL will lead the second component, which aims to strengthen the technical capacity of at least 100 SMEs and 45 cooperatives to market agricultural products.

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Contacts

• Project Manager: Hatem Bellouchette – Contact: belhouchette@iamm.fr
• Project assistant: Anne Cobacho- Contact: cobacho@iamm.fr

Partners: 

• Fair Trade Lebanon
• Action contre la Faim (ACF Spain)

Mainstreaming pollinator stewardship in view of cascading ecological, societal and economic impacts of pollinator decline

BUTTERFLY aims to significantly enhance society’s capacity to appraise, foresee, and respond to the threats posed by cascading impacts of pollinator decline. To reach that goal it will establish a test system of geographically well spread multi-actor communities across sectors for co-creating proactive pollinator restoration solutions and:

• (1) collect, integrate, manage and share ecological and spatial information on a wide range of known and lesser known pollinators and pollination services provided for wild and cultivated plants, across Europe and selected overseas territories;
• (2) advance the monetary and non-monetary valuation of marketed and not marketed direct and indirect ecosystem functions and services provided by pollinators, and advance ecosystem accounting;
• (3) comprehensively model and quantify the macro-economic implications of pollinator decline and country-specific economic butterfly effects of dependencies on pollinators, and assess policy options and scenarios;
• (4) assess how five key biomass supply chains (food/micronutrients, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, biomaterials, biomass energy) depend on pollination and co-create pollinator restoration options that increase resilience of these supply chains;
• (5) devise, co-create, test and implement transferable tools, interactive atlases and guidelines that enable systematic mainstreaming of proactive pollinator stewardship in vulnerable sectors;
• (6) conceive indicators for human dimensions and assess and exploit the sociocultural capacity of the concepts: ‘pollinator stewardship’, ‘eco-literacy’, ‘historical agency’ and ‘slow hope’ in reversing pollinator decline.

It will inform EU policy processes and build strategic alliances for high-level impact. The BUTTERFLY network of Living Labs will accelerate knowledge transfer and uptake of new business models and serve as breeding place for multi-actor co-creation of knowledge and sustainable solutions, paving the way to pollinator stewardship in all sectors.

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Contacts

• Project Manager: Kleftodimos Georgios – Contact: kleftodimos@iamm.fr 
• Project assistant: Nhien Nguyen – Contact: nguyen@iamm.fr 

Partners: 

• Coordinator: University of Bergen / Universitetet i Bergen (Norway)
• International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies / Centre International de Hautes études agronomiques méditerranéennes (France)
• Toulouse-Auzeville National College of Agricultural Education / Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Formation de l’Enseignement Agricole de Toulouse-Auzeville (France)
• Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research / Leibniz-Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF) e. V. Müncheberg (Germany)
• Technical University of Munich / Technische Universität München (Germany)
• University Of Thessaly / Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλίας (Greece)
• Aarhus University / Aarhus Universitet (Denmark)
• Teagasc – Agriculture and Food Development Authority of Ireland (Ireland)
• National Centre for Scientific Research / Centre national de la recherche Scientifique (France)
• University of Eastern Finland / Itä-Suomen yliopisto (Finland)
• Norwegian Institute for Nature Research / Norsk institutt for naturforskning (Norway)
• CLM Research and Advice / CLM Onderzoek en Advies BV (Netherlands)
• University of Agder / Universitetet i Agder (Norway)
• Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research / Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung GmbH – UFZ (Germany)
• Stiftinga Jærmuseet (Norway)
• Jagiellonian University in Kraków / Uniwersytet Jagielloński w Krakowie (Poland)
• French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development / Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (France)
• University of Milano-Bicocca / Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca (Italy)
• University of Murcia / Universidad de Murcia (Spain)
• Ghent University / Universiteit Gent (Belgium)
• Trier University / Universität Trier (Germany)
• University of Sussex (United Kingdom)
• BeeLife European Beekeeping Coordination (Belgium)
• Rifcon (Germany)
• Globi

Website: https://butterfly-europe.eu/

Social media:

• https://bsky.app/profile/butterfly-project.bsky.social
• https://www.facebook.com/Butterfly.EU/
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/butterfly-project-eu-horizon/
• https://www.youtube.com/@Butterfly-HorizonEU

Institutional, Sustainable and Innovative Strengthening of Vocational Agricultural Training in Albania

INSIST-VAT is a project coordinated by the CIHEAM-IAMM, co-funded by the European Union within the scope of the Erasmus+ programme “Capacity Building in the field of vocational education and training” (CB-VET).

Objectives

The national strategy of the Albanian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) for rural development and fisheries underlines the role of Agricultural Knowledge as the main pillar to improve sustainable food systems: ln January 2022, the MARD launched a strategy to strengthen producers’ capacity and enable them to adopt resilient practices by national training. In this context, the current offer in terms of agricultural advice -partly deployed via Technology Transfer Centers- has to strengthen its capacities.

The aim of this project is to set up a training offer at the Agricultural University of Tirana (AUT) which gathers and cooperates with national and regional actors, serving as a seed of the Albanian Agricultural Knowledge & Innovation Systems (AKIS).

The INSIST-VAT CB VET project will meet the missions entrusted to the AUT by the MARD for designing a “producers’ academy” and offering training courses to producers and extension workers.

Results expected

INSIST-VAT will participate in:

• The identification of the training needs of producers and extension workers;
• The design of a training offer to meet the needs of producers and extension workers;
• The organization, structuration and integration of a training center at the AUT, in connection with the departments & faculties concerned;
• The setting-up of an interactive online platform as a tool for producers’ training;
• The sustainability of the training center in terms of training offer, financing and national and international networking;
• The involvement of Kosovo in this process -a country that faces the same agricultural challenges and training needs so as to allow the future transferability of this training tools to Kosovo.

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Contacts

Coordination

• Christophe MUR, Head of project, mur@iamm.fr
• Virginie AVIGNON, Project manager

CIHEAM-IAMM team

• Anne COBACHO, Vocational Training Supervision
• Kitty PAPADOPOULOU, Administrative and Financial Management
• Teachers-researchers

Partners

• International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies-Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Montpellier (CIHEAM-IAMM), France
• Agriculture University of Tirana (AUT), Albania
• Agriculture Technology Transfer Centre (QTTB) Fushe Kruja, Albania
• University of Prishtina (UP), Kosovo
• Association de Coordination Technique Agricole – Les Instituts Techniques Agricoles (ACTA), France
• Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Zaragoza-International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (IAMZ-CIHEAM), Spain
• Agriculture Technology Transfer Centre (QTTB) Korca, Albania
• Association pour la Qualité en Recherche et en Enseignement Supérieur (QUARES), France

Source of funding

Follow INSIST-VAT!

Website: https://www.insist-vat.org/

on Facebook -> INSIST-VAT

on LinkedIn -> INSIST-VAT

on Instagram -> INSIST-VAT

Operational adaptation of WEFE (Water, Energy, Food and Ecosystems) Nexus-based systems solutions in Mediterranean

DIONYSUS is a PRIMA-funded project (2024-2026) on the Nexus approach in the Mediterranean Region, coordinated by CIHEAM-IAMM in Montpellier.

In common culture, Dionysus is often associated with being the god of wine. However, in Greek mythology, Dionysus symbolized the regeneration and the arrival of spring. According to ancient Greek beliefs, Dionysus was seen as the god who brought about the renewal of life in the springtime after a period of dormancy. Similarly, the objective of the DIONYSUS project is to bring about a new spring in WEFE (Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems) resources in the Mediterranean Basin

Based on 4 Demonstration Sites (Egypt, Greece, Morocco, and Italy) and 3 Replication Sites (Algeria, Tunisia, and Türkiye) that produce cornerstone agricultural products (i.e. cereal crops, fruits, vegetables, cotton, livestock, fodders, and other industrial crops), and by considering the main trends for the next 30 years of climate, natural resources (water, soil), urbanization (including migration and labor), markets (supply, demand, prices), and macroeconomic variables (i.e., GDP, interest rates, investment in agriculture), the project objective is to co-design, test and develop operational adaptation solutions and sustainable market solutions via innovative business-based models for the efficient and sustainable use of water-energy-food-ecosystem resources, that rely on local and regional initiatives, bring together and engage local and international stakeholders, and use a Cross-Sectoral Nexus adaptation tool for a transition to a Green Economy and Sustainable Development.

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Programs and contacts

• Project Coordinator: Kleftodimos Georgios
• Contact: kleftodimos@iamm.fr 

Partners : 

• FRANCE : CIHEAM-Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier (coordinator)
• GRECE : University of Thessaly, TOEV Tavropou Karditsas
• ITALIE : Consorzio di Tutela Arancia Rossa di Sicilia IGP, Università degli Studi di Catania, Almaviva The Italian Innovation Company S.p.A.
• ALLEMAGNE : Leibniz-Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung, e.V.
• TURQUIE : Ankara University
• EGYPTE : Institute of National Planning, Egyptian Association for Sustainable Development
• MAROC : Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, University Ibn Zohr
• ALGERIE : Research Center for Applied Economics for Development
• TUNISIE : National Institute of Agronomic Research of Tunisia

Social Networks :

• • Website: https://www.dionysus-nexus.eu/ 
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dionysus_nexus/
  • X: https://x.com/Dionysus_nexus/media
  • Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dionysus_nexus
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574020510275&locale=fr_FR