Water quality and quantity are under arising pressure from agricultural activities that may cause overexploitation of natural waters and pollutants runoffs (e.g., nutrients, pesticides). These stresses are also compounded by climate change effects. To address the complex challenges of agri-water management, the UNIVERSWATER consortium will adopt a ‘system of systems’ approach by developing and improving technologies designed to optimise water resources uses in a fully integrated way. A dedicated interdisciplinary and intersectoral consortium of 15 partners from six European countries will: a) develop innovative portable and in-situ sensors for a number of parameters and pollutants (salinity, nutrients, CEC, microbiological indicators) and b) couple them with earth observation imaging and advanced explainable and robust artificial intelligence techniques, as well as c) develop cost-effective, sustainable methods based on nature-based and technology-based solutions for water remediation at the point of need and d) promote the adoption of the developed methods through pricing incentive provision. These technologies will be integrated into decision support systems (DSSs) that will be tested at three case studies tackling on-farm treatment of dairy soiled water, mitigation of soil salination through water reuse, and optimisation of fertiliser/pesticide application for freshwater preservation. Going beyond, UNIVERSWATER will upscale these local DSSs into a common platform where a suite of DSS tools can be adapted to different situations after being tailored to the local factors, thereby developing a modular, extensible and holistic universal DSS.

Climate Smart Research (CSR) is a research & innovation project involving 29 Experimental Research Stations (ERS) across Europe. It will accelerate the transition to climate neutral agriculture. CSR contributes to EU climate goals by developing new Climate Smart Farming (CSF) knowledge and innovations and boost the potential of ERS in realising these goals. More specific CSR will: 1) Co-develop a conceptual foundation for Climate Smart research on agricultural ERS and uncovering implications on system level to assess effectivity, synergies and trade-offs of CSF; 2) Develop cutting edge CSF approaches on selected ERS across 4 pedo-climatic zones with significant mitigation of GHG emissions (-55% to climate neutral) and adaptation to climate change; 3) Collect and compare climate tool-kits, services and decision support systems also for possible use on average farms across the EU and scientifically validate emerging solutions coming from practice; 4) Foster the capacity of research station actors through various knowledge exchange and networking activities amongst ERS and identify pathways for effective climate research and climate research design processes. This supports the development of practice-oriented climate smart knowledge, skills and innovations; 5) Maximise the impact of CSR by ensuring that project results are effectively embedded within EIP-AGRI and national/regional AKIS networks by developing and implementing a strategy for effective Dissemination, Exploitation and Communication. The networks of pilot demonstration farmers and climate smart advisors established in sister projects CFD and CSA will be leveraged to ensure that CSR practice-oriented solutions are widely accessible to farmers across Europe.

The EU Farm to Fork strategy, which is at the heart of the European Green Deal, aims to make food systems fair, healthy, and environmentally friendly. Sustainable Livestock Production must play a substantial role to engage the EU in green transition while ensuring farmers’ incomes and quality of life. The main objective of LIVENET is to establish and build capacity of a network of advisory services across the EU, increasing the knowledge sharing between advisors, and among the whole AKIS, and the adoption of innovative solutions for Sustainable Livestock Production by farmers. The project will achieve this through: 1) the establishment and development of an EU network of livestock advisors, based on existing networks and national AKIS, covering the 27 EU Members States, the UK and Switzerland. To cover all MSs, the project will adopt a twinning approach: 10+1 National Networks will be created by the project partners and will engage with 18 Associated Networks through a twining program. The network will cover all European pedo-climatic areas, integrating 10 EU regional clusters, the major livestock sectors and the main thematic challenges faced by breeders; 2) the collection, selection, evaluation, adaptation and validation of context-based Innovative Advisory Practices (IAPs), which are technically, economically, socially, and environmentally viable and will be replicated across the EU, 3) the wide scaling of solutions through trainings, demo-events and other activities towards advisors, students and value chain actors to promote the adoption of the IAPs. 4) the connection with other regional, national and EU projects, initiatives and policy makers for better integration of livestock advisory organisations in the AKISs. The project embrace a multi-actor approach, gathering 20 organisations with a vast experience in advisory and sustainable livestock production representing a diversity of AKIS stakeholders (farmers, advisors, researchers, value chain actors).