"Einkorn is an ancient grain that dates back approximately a 10 000 years. Bulgarian einkorn, unlike other varieties found, contains higher than typically met nutrients. Unfortunately in Bulgaria and most of the world, no targeted studies have been conducted to understand, grow and cultivate einkorn and especially the Bulgarian variety. By conducting initial studies within the framework of our successfully ongoing 2013 ""Transfer of innovation"" project which was focused on malting and brewing einkorn, we came across several alternations which do not allow production of einkorn products with same taste and properties thus making them unfit for the high quality standards of the European market. In order to produce products with the same or similar properties and taste indicators it was necessary to develop a comprehensive study-based training methodology (main project output) for the cultivation of einkorn with the same taste and elemental indicators. The current proposal was focused precisely on that, transferring, adapting and further developing a training methodology for cultivating einkorn with the same elemental and flavor indicators of products independently of the harvest. The main target group which the training methodology addresses was agronomists (grain/cereal producers), and secondly stakeholders involved in the production of cereal food/beverage products and young farmers. The needs addressed are directly related to the fact that conventional agriculture does not apply modern methodologies for the cultivation of agricultural crops and especially this almost forgotten but extremely valuable variety. By successfully developing the foreseen outputs, the project contributes to the improvement of the level of key competences and skills of the target group with regard to their correspondence to the challenges of the labor market. The methodology helps improving the professional skills of agronomists in a highly developed economic sector but in a specific market niche. The overall outputs of the project leads to improvement of conventional agriculture and introduction and provision of innovative learning methods in the sector. By digitizing the entire agro-technological process the consortium developed several key outputs that will increase the attractiveness of the agricultural sector, mainly einkorn cultivation and usage of by-products of low gluten content suitable for people suffering from celiac disease. In order to achieve its objectives, the consortium of partners develop the above mentioned training methodology for agronomists and specialize scientifically developed and proved technological manual for production of einkorn with sustainable properties. This will enhance the professional qualifications of the interested parties and keeping it open up to grain-producers and brewers, allows them to implement and integrate it in their production process and to increase their competitiveness by involving qualified experts. Another important product, the Technological Glossary of terms contains a description of the specific terminology used in the projects and the corresponding sectors. It was produced in four languages - Bulgarian, English, Czech and German. In order to achieve sustainability and impact, the training methodology was introduced in the teaching process of partner organizations which will enhance their skills and knowledge in their training modules to date. The Agricultural Academy introduced an entirely new training course based on the project outputs in the curriculum of its educational system. As a whole, the agricultural industry is now able to adopt unknown to date, innovative high quality training methodology for agronomists and brewers providing a qualified vocational training within the framework of the participating organizations. Successful graduates will gain professional education for a little known grain such as the einkorn, with high content of nutrients, in a highly developed but with further potential for growth economic sector such as the Agricultural in a market niche with great potential. With the growing popularity and activities associated to the cultivation of einkorn the demand for highly qualified experts who can grow, process, treat, etc. this culture in a sustainable manor will grow proportionally. In other words those who successfully pass the developed within the project training will become integrated in the dynamic employment market with ease."

The new European Commission launched the European Green Deal last autumn as one of its key policies. Among the various strategies, Biodiversity 2030 and Farm to Fork are of tremendous importance for France that has placed sustainability of its agri-food system as one of its priorities. For the past two years, INRAE has brought together the European research community around the vision of an agriculture free of chemical pesticides. This community of now 34 members from 20 European countries joined forces to create the European Research Alliance “Towards a Chemical Pesticide-free Agriculture” (hereafter referred to as “the Alliance”). Through regular exchanges with European Commission services, the Alliance highlighted the need to address this issue that appeared as a target both in the Biodiversity 2030 and Farm to Fork strategies. In order to support the ambition and to strengthen the position of France in this domain, INRAE decided to lead the proposal from the Alliance “” on the call LC-GD-6-1-2020 Topic title: Testing and demonstrating systemic innovations in support of the Farm-to-Fork Strategy, scope C. This project will strongly rely on the implication of actors all across Europe with almost 75% of the members states covered in this project. It will be first based on the identification of pluri-disciplinary innovative solutions, technical (e.g. precision agriculture, robotics…) agronomic (e.g. agroecology, rotation, diversification…), biological (e.g. genetics/varieties, biocontrol, biostimulants…) but also socio-economic (e.g. governance, supply chain organization, willingness to pay by consumers, regulatory …), and their optimization to foster potential synergies. It will then strongly rely on demonstrating the relevance and feasibility of these solutions, i.e. documenting their actual impact on the reduction of pesticides and fertiliser uses, with common metrics such as the methodology created in the French CEPP design (certificats d'économie de produits phytopharmaceutiques), as well as on the monitoring of their impact in real-life situation thanks to the dense network of experimental facilities from the Alliance members as well as their connections with other national or European farm networks. Companies providing new options (varieties with better disease resistance and fertiliser use efficiency, biocontrol, digitalisation, machineries) will be included into the consortium. The precise assessment of the economic impact and the analysis of the barriers limiting the implementation of these solutions and the strong dissemination targeted to relevant actors will allow empowerment of the actors and scaling up alternative protecting methods that will reduce pesticide use. Regular exchanges with local, national and European decision makers will allow supporting the implementation of the identified technical or socio-economic solutions. Ultimately this global approach will give access to new potential solutions adapted to local conditions that could undergo the same optimization, testing, dissemination steps. This approach was built using the backward construction of impact pathways. This ex-ante methodology will be further developed in order to maximize the impact potential of the project. Furthermore, to allow dynamic evolution of the project throughout its life, a real-time analysis of the impact will be conducted (in-itinere) using the recognized ASIRPArt methodology.

The overall objective of BIOEASTsUP project is to support the BIOEAST initiative and Action Plan for transition of 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) to bioeconomy. The specific objectives are: SO1: To trigger strategic thinking at governmental level and transnational peer-to-peer development of national circular bioeconomy strategies in BIOEAST countries. SО2: To emphasize the role of multi-actor approach in developing new value chains to advance bioeconomies. SO3: To develop in a multi-stakeholder driven approach a consolidated BIOEAST Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). SO4: To set-up and maintain a macro-regional framework in support of the BIOEAST initiative and the SRIA development and sustainability. SO5: To facilitate evidence-based policy making. SO6: To increase the visibility of the bioeconomy within the quintuple helix in the BIOEAST region. BIOEASTsUP methodology was developed to support a parallel setup: the project structure and the structure of the BIOEAST Initiative. Two work packages focus on the national bioeconomy deployment (WP1, WP2), two are dedicated to the impact at the macro-regional and the EU level (WP3, WP4) whereas dissemination activity complements all the components (WP5). The work plan is as follows: WP 1: Framework for National Bioeconomy Strategies Development WP 2: Capacity building for BIOEAST stakeholders WP 3: Establishing macro-regional structures in support of the BIOEAST initiative WP 4: BIOEAST SRIA development and positioning the macro-regional economies WP 5: Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation WP 6: Project Management and Evaluation BIOEASTsUP has been initiated directly by the BIOEAST Initiative’s ministries. In total 26 ministries support the project. In addition associations, industrial chambers, innovation centres, other research organisations and NGOs have committed to the project. BIOEASTsUP will further engage all stakeholders in the bioeconomy value chain to coordinate efforts to maximize the impact.

The BOOST4BIOEAST project aims to set in motion the levers for bioeconomy deployment in the Central Eastern European and Baltic countries. The consortium will focus on building upon BIOEASTsUP outcomes and the Vision Paper of the BIOEAST Initiative by boosting the participation of national stakeholder networks in the development of national bioeconomy action plans and to build long-lasting structures for national and macro-regional cooperation. The BIOEAST HUBs will be the national platforms directly linked to public administrations under which capacities are built and the different stakeholders of the bioeconomy are mobilised to more effectively contribute to and take part in decision-making processes using participatory approaches. BIOEAST-wide mapping of bioeconomy competencies and biomass will be undertaken to advance the knowledge on bioeconomy in the macro-region as well as BIOEAST Knowledge Platform will be created to act as repository of knowledge materials and relevant information on bioeconomy that will allow BIOEAST´s stakeholders to access, share and store bioeconomy-related materials towards developing national BIOEAST HUBs into active contributors to bioeconomy in each member state. In order to boost bioeconomy innovation and education in the BIOEAST countries, the project will bring together public and private funders with relevant business stakeholders and expand the BIOEAST UNI NET network. Activities such as training, reskilling, awareness spreading and communication channels creation will set the basis of the bioeconomic transition, creating spaces of dialogue and involvement among all agents of the industry (academia, private and public), which will boost the stakeholders engagement for the integration of programmes and policies in turn of bioeconomy. The hereby proposed consortium is composed of stakeholders of all BIOEAST member states along with partners distributed throughout Western Europe (BE, FI, GER, IE, IT& ES).