In a world grappling with complex global challenges such as population growth, climate change, and environmental degradation, ensuring security, sustainability, and food safety is paramount. Agricultural practices and food production processes are integral to public health, economic stability, and societal well-being. However, conventional approaches have often operated in isolation, limiting our understanding and hindering scalability. The WHEATWATCHER initiative seeks to break these barriers by uniting soil health monitoring, plant health assessment, and food traceability through a cutting-edge digital soil monitoring system. This system assesses soil nutrition, chemical, and biological factors impacting wheat grains from field growth to flour production, spanning multiple European regions. By actively involving stakeholders, including farmers, mill proprietors, and policymakers, WHEATWATCHER tailors its solution to practical needs. It leverages diverse sensor technologies, advanced machine learning models, and automated mapping techniques to boost efficiency and scalability. A Decision Support System and cloud platform ensure accessible insights. At its core, a machine learning model seamlessly integrates technologies, creating a cohesive solution that bridges the gaps between soil health, plant health, and food traceability. WHEATWATCHER aims to foster harmony between sensing technologies, data processing, and stakeholder engagement, revolutionizing comprehensive monitoring.

With the long-term view of fostering synergies between crop production, biodiversity and the delivery of ecosystem services of local, regional and global relevance, the main objective of SoildiverAgro is the adoption of new management practices and cropping systems that enhance soil genetic and functional biodiversity to reduce the use of external inputs while increasing crop production and quality, the delivery of ecosystem services and the EU agricultural stability and resilience. To achieve this objective 90 farm systems will be analysed in 9 pedoclimatic regions in Europe and 15 field case studies will be designed and established in six of the pedoclimatic regions. The focus will be on the use of innovative management practices based on soil mycorrhiza and plant growth promoting bacteria (including the development and testing of new commercial products), appropriate management of soil organisms (e.g. fungivores), the application of suitable crop rotations, multiple cropping and intercropping, the development of pest alert systems, the use of nutrient catch crops, the use of trap crops for pest control, the use of by-products as soil ameliorants and the application of adequate tillage systems. SoildiverAgro outputs consider: 1) enhancement of soil biodiversity; 2) reduction of pest/diseases incidence; 3) increases in plant growth and development; 4) increases in crop yields, quality and value; 5) the reduction of inputs; 6) increases in soil fertility; 7) reductions of soil contamination; 8) reduction in GHG emissions; and 9) increases in soil C sequestration. To ensure rapid adoption of measures fostering soil biodiversity, improved methods and tools including for monitoring will be developed. The successful crop management practices will be also analysed from the environmental, economic and social perspectives. Operational diversity targets will be defined, with development of best agricultural practice strategies and tools for existing EU policies update.

Climate change affects Boreal regions and their communities severely as these areas are warming three times faster than the global average. Primary producers, such as farmers and forest owners (actors), face a significant challenge when it comes to adapting to these changing conditions. They need tested, proven solutions to help them adapt and so become a resilient primary production sector. We need to bridge the gap between science, which has the knowledge and solutions, and targeted practical implementation with local actors who will use them. Precilience therefore applies an inclusive and collaborative approach to test and demonstrate various solutions for increasing climate resilience in the EU Boreal region. The most effective measures are tailored to their location. We will collaborate regionally, including with authorities, to find the most relevant risks and suitable nature-based solutions. Together, we will co-create the most impactful adaptation portfolios for changing conditions in the agriculture and forestry sectors of 11 focal regions in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway and Sweden. 4 replicating regions will also benefit from the lessons learned and demonstrated solutions (DK,FI,NO,SE). We demonstrate hands-on solutions with local actors under 8 themed demonstrations: a) Co-create adaptation strategies; b) Diversify agricultural production; c) Sustainable water management and recycling; d) Soil function enhancement by closer-to-nature management and improvers; f) Assess vulnerable forest types; g) Innovative forest regeneration in drought-prone sites; h) Closer-to-nature forest management; i) Use climate-considerate tree material to replant forests. We work with local stakeholders to further develop certain demonstrations. This involves targeted collaborations based on stakeholder mapping and categorisation. We involve all levels of stakeholders from small fast reacting units for localised fast impact to large organisations with long-term impact.

Nitrogen (N) is a vital nutrient for plant growth. However, the intensive use of N fertilizers in agriculture, whereby only 30-50% of applied N is taken up by crops, has led to significant environmental challenges. Impactful losses occur through nitrate leaching to the groundwater, leading to its contamination, and through nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, a long-lasting greenhouse gas. Acknowledging the need for a coordinated effort among the four helixes of innovation (i.e. research, society, industry and policy) to unlock the necessary efforts for monitoring N fluxes and action towards reducing N losses and increasing N use efficiency, NitroScope has two major ambitions: a) improving scientific knowledge for pedo-climatic regions getting both simple region-specific emissions factors and model-based decision support and b) bringing the knowledge to land managers so that mitigation will happen. To achieve this, NitroScope will improve N flux monitoring through 125 sites spread over at least 10 pedo-climatic regions using improved proximal sensors for high throughput continuous nitrate quantification, remote sensing, and better methodology to adequately account for the variability of in-the-field N2O emissions. The data will be gathered in a database hosted on a cloud to facilitate reporting and will be used to determine region-specific emission factors and provide model-based decision support with reduced uncertainties. Based on this, improved N management and conservation solutions will be assessed, including variable rate N fertilization and crop residue management. NitroScope will further use transdisciplinary methodology, including developing 2 farm management add-ons, to inform and engage land managers to actively contribute to monitoring and managing N fluxes in Europe while improving agricultural yield and quality. Finally, this will result in a more precise EU N budget estimation and future scenarios to support decision-making.