BACKGROUNDThe main purpose of our project is to design an innovative vocational curriculum on Regenerative Agriculture, which will provide learners skills and knowledge to implement sustainable cultivation methods, therewith giving impetus to transform agricultural practices and landscapes.In the EU, more than 90% of the fields are cultivated conventionally. This type of cultivation creates serious problems for human health, the climate, biodiversity, soils’ fertility, freshwater bodies and the ecosystem as a whole. (UNEP Foresight Brief, 013, May 2019)Regenerative Agriculture with its subtopic Permaculture, responds to all above-mentioned problems as it is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to farming systems focusing on topsoil regeneration, increasing biodiversity, improving the water cycle, supporting bio-sequestration, increasing resilience to climate change and enhancing soil fertility.OBJECTIVESOur overarching objective is to promote, facilitate and accelerate the global transition to regenerative food, farming and land management in order to restore climate stability, increase biodiversity, rebuild soil fertility and produce healthy food.Therefore, the project aims to: 1) close the skills gap in agriculture education by providing a web-based training on Regenerative Agriculture. The course will enable learners to apply alternative cultivation methods, therewith equipping them with the competences to respond to the challenges the agricultural sector is experiencing.2) Inform VET authorities and policy makers about regenerative agriculture thereby giving impetus to include teaching contents on the subject into national framework curricula.3) Integrate the course into curricula of agricultural VET providers, training companies and HEIs.4) Conduct an awareness raising campaign on national and European level giving policy makers, VET providers, farmers and the general public a coherent picture of the state of the art of regenerative agriculture and help improve the perception about alternative farming, its benefits and the possibilities to upscale measures.TARGET GROUPSThe RegAgri4Europe VOOC will empower a new generation of farmers. The course is ultimately targeted to apprentices and other interested persons with an agricultural background (end users). Furthermore, the project targets two additional groups:a) Persons, who actively participate in the development of training curricula and examination queries for agricultural vocation on national level. These include public authorities for vocational education, members of national VET (sub)committees, members of specialist groups, representatives of training networks and policy makers. By including VET representatives and policy makers, the project gives impetus to include contents taught in the project course into the national framework curricula for agricultural education. In doing this, the consortium ensures the achievement of highest possible impact and sustainability of its outputs.b) VET providers in agriculture, training companies and higher education institutions offering agricultural education. By engaging training providers, the consortium ensures the integration of the course content into curricula of independent education bodies and therewith achieves optimal exploitation results.RESULTS IO1: Status Analysis on Regenerative Agriculture in today's agriculture, education sector, public awareness and industrial demand. The major aim of the status analysis is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the present situation of Regenerative Agriculture/Permaculture in today’s agriculture, education sector, public awareness and industrial demand.IO2: Development of RegAgri4Europe Training ProgrammeThe RegAgri4Europe training programme includes: Course catalogue and handbook, reading material, video lessons, learning activities, a virtual library, assessment exams, certificate in all partner languages and English. IO3: RegAgri4Europe Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) - creating an accessible Vocational Open Online Course (VOOC) containing the training and assessment material developed. It also contains a Virtual Community space to support community interactions among learners, professors and teaching assistants.IO4: RegAgri4Europe International Accreditation and TransferabilityThe project also includes a Learning Teaching Training Activity on the Permaculture farm Schloss Tempelhof providing work-based learning experience to participants. IMPACT•Learners' acquisition of important skills and knowledge on Regenerative Agriculture•Improved digital competences of educators and learners•Integration of RegAgri4Europe course content into national VET programs and curricula•Improved perception, awareness and understanding of Regenerative Agriculture by all stakeholders and the general public•Influencing political approaches and measures towards a sustainable agricultural turnaround

Algae biomass is highly underexploited and its efficient utilization is one of the main challenges in current and future EU marine policies towards sustainability. CIRCALGAE will boost the blue bioeconomy by applying an integrated biorefinery concept to valorise the massively produced (over 36 Mt of algae biomass annual world production) and vastly underexploited algae industrial waste streams (which can add up to 95% of the initial biomass) from the main existing sources to date: the phycolloid production from macroalgae and protein/lipid microalgae industries. CIRCALGAE’s simple, water-based technologies, will transform these waste streams into value-added ingredients to be used in specific texturized vegan foods, health-promoting food ingredients, protein rich feed, and cosmetic formulations incorporating texturizing or highly bioactive ingredients for topical use. 3 blue biorefinery schemes up-scaled to hundreds of kg will be demonstrated throughout CIRCALGAE project. 12 demonstrator products will be developed by food, feed and cosmetic industry partners validating the great potential of novel algae ingredients in these key sectors. Additionally, 2 final products will be qualified for market including their studies in consumer acceptance assessments. Through co-creating and co-learning, CIRCALGAE will connect all algae cross-sectional actors, including industrial end-user partners, RTOs, technological and consultancy SMEs, for the validation of all health-promoting effects and claims, regulatory aspects and environmental, economic and social impacts, engaging all relevant stakeholders in the primary sector to re-shape the current industrial network for a future thriving blue bioeconomy.

The project will design and implement an undergraduate study programme in permaculture, which will be automatically certified through ECTS credits (4 to 6 ECTS will be granted through the module depending on the university). This module will be taught in several faculties such as agriculture, horticulture, bioscience engineering, and agronomic sciences.Permaculture is a set of principles that integrates land, resources, people and the environment through mutually beneficial synergies. It aims to imitate and recreate natural ecosystems through the use of closed-loop and no waste techniques. It has gained increasing visibility in front of a growing environmental threat and deterioration of ecosystems. Indeed, permaculture is a good alternative to intensive agriculture, which generally results in high productivity but most often at the expense of biodiversity.However, there is a gap in higher education modules exclusively dedicated to permaculture. Fostering the implementation of permaculture principles at a wider level would have significant environmental benefits as it would participate to a more sustainable management of land and thus address societal and environmental needs.The primary target group is composed of University students at an undergraduate level in 4 EU countries (Italy, Malta, Romania and Belgium).Through innovative pedagogies, the module shall train undergraduate students in permaculture with specific skills in environment sustainable design, which is the fact of designing objects, building environments and services compliant with the principles of ecological sustainability. Learning environment sustainable design will help participating students developing their entrepreneurship skills in the context of achieving the development of a more circular and green economy. Additionally, the students will also develop theoretical and practical knowledge on permaculture such as field diagnosis, permaculture principles, or design methods for example.The project will deliver 3 intellectual outputs:- Teacher’s coursebook on permaculture;- Student handbook;- Online platform.After the first year of the project the Master programme will be implemented inside the four partner universities in Belgium, Italy, Malta and Romania. A total of 120 students and 10-15 professors will be involved. Two Intensive Study Programmes will be organized in Italy and Romania, with the participation of 4 groups composed of 5 students + 1 professor per university. Through the involvement of experts from the 2 scientific partners, the students will acquire soft skills working in a multicultural environment and will work inside permacultural farms.

Only in the EU, we generate every year around 89M tonnes of Food Loss and Waste (FLW), accounting for 20% of the total food produced, with costs estimated at ?143 Bn, impacting each stage of the Food Value Chain. In SISTERS, we propose a set of systemic innovations addressed to reduce FLW generated in every stage of the Food Value Chain in Europe that will solve main existing challenges in Production, Processing, Marketing (retailing/wholesaling), Consumption, and the Logistics among stages. SISTERS will design the 1st European Short Chain Platform for farmers to sell their discarded production, favouring local economies, providing access to nutritious and healthy food to the less favoured consumers. Smart and reusable food containers will be designed to diminish food losses during transportation, maintain bulk and packed food in ideal conditions with new accurate sensors allowing immediate reaction. Moreover, to improve the preservation and quality of food a set of bio-based and home-compostable packaging solutions will be created reducing their potential negative impacts in the environment. A novel SISTERS Seal of Excellence will promote sustainable practices among retailers. While the information provided to the consumers with QR and dynamic labelling incorporated in the packaging is expected to impact on retailers and consumers sustainable awareness, thus reducing the discard of food and associated FW. With these cross-sectorial innovations, we will achieve an ambitious environmental & economic impact of the current dynamics in the food system, contributing to the reduction of FLW and to change the unsustainable consumer behaviours. With the support of the EC, SISTERS will be a key EU project addressing the problem in a holistic way, reducing FLW by 27.4% and CO2 emissions by around 20% in the case studies. Our interdisciplinary SISTERS consortium consists of 18 partners from 8 European countries, with wide expertise in fighting FLW from Farm

ZeroW has set the ambitious target of playing a key role in the transition of current food systems towards halving Food Loss & Waste (FLW) by 2030 and reaching near-zero FLW by 2050. ZeroW provides significant impacts through the demonstration of innovations in nine real-life food chains, by employing a systemic innovation approach, to effectively address the multidimensional issue of FLW. This involves: (i) pre-identifying systemic innovations, that incorporate multiple interlinked dimensions (process, organisational, strategy, marketing, product, technological, governance, etc.), which are tested and demonstrated; (ii) steering the evolution of innovations towards higher levels of systemic readiness and impact, using a Living Lab co-creation and multi-actor collective learning approach; (iii) enhancing the Living Lab actors’ innovation advancement capability with shared resources facilitating new ways and means of cooperating and co-developing innovations; (iv) developing context-specific trajectories for the systemic innovations (from ideation to scaling-up and commercialisation) leading to the provision of currently missing end products and services that align with consumer attitudes, food actor needs and policy trends. Moreover, ZeroW establishes a clear ‘FLW impact trajectory’, from demonstrator results (2025), scaled up to meet the F2F 2030 goals, and steered through a ‘just transition pathway’ towards a near-zero FLW in 2050.