The central aim of the proposed Source to Sea (NAPSEA) CSA is to support national and local authorities in selecting effective nutrient load reduction measures and to gain political support for the implementation. The consortium partners have been closely involved in applied research and implementation of nutrient reduction measures at local, national and European level. In NAPSEA the current challenges to reduce nutrient pollution, eutrophication and its negative impacts on inland and coastal waters and their ecosystem services will be addressed by an integrated approach addressing nutrient pollution from river source to sea, using the Rhine and Elbe Rivers-North Sea coastal system as case study and integrating three complementary perspectives: governance, nutrient pathways & measures, and ecosystem health. Each of these perspectives provide an essential part of the solution to achieving a healthy ecosystem with measures that are societally acceptable and cost-effective. We will identify options to reach a harmonized approach in nutrient reduction measures across different geographical areas and policy frameworks (governance), select and evaluate nutrient reduction scenarios with an integrated modelling framework from source to sea (nutrient pathways) and define safe ecological boundaries for different types of ecosystems along the continuum from catchment to coast (ecosystem health). NAPSEA will showcase the best practices and consider obstacles on the implementation of socially acceptable, sustainable and effective measures for several local case studies within this geographical scope, also taking into account effects of climate change. These case studies accommodate the variability in potential threats of eutrophication as well as feasibility, effectiveness and implementation of potential measures to represent different ecosystem types, with varying eutrophication symptoms, and address different socio-economic and governance scales from local to European level.

In line with the Zero Pollution action plan and the Farm to Fork Strategy, Nutribudget will develop the prototype of a first-of-its-kind integrated nutrient management platform, called Nutriplatform, in various regions across Europe. The Nutriplatform will operate as a decision-support tool (DST) for farmers, advisors and regional authorities and before the end of the project this prototype (as a stand-alone or integrated in the existing EC promoted FaST tool for nutrient management) will be tested and used by at least 40.000 farmers across Europe. Firstly, the development of the Nutriplatform will be based on the algorithms of two advanced newly developed holistic Nutrimodels that quantify the impact of agronomic mitigation measures to optimize nutrient budget and flow across scales (from farm to Europe), across elements (C) and nutrients (N, P, K, S, Ca, Mg, Cu and Zn) and by looking at various agronomic and environmental targets. The measures will be derived from (I) existing knowledge, including input from relevant EU projects (e.g. the 4 on nutrient recycling from the call) and (II) new data from field experiments with innovative mitigation measures and combinations thereof that connect animal and crop production via agro-processing industries in 5 pilot regions (4 nutrient hotspot and 1 nutrient deficient area) in 4 different climate regions in Europe. Secondly, these measures will be linked to relevant monitoring indicators, called NutriKPIs, for agronomic performance in different farming systems, nutrient emissions and impact on biodiversity. All will be done in co-creation, according to a Nutri-actor approach, with a consortium of 17 partners from 10 countries that are all experts in their respective fields. Thereby, Nutribudget will contribute to systemically optimize nutrient management across different agricultural production systems and regions in the EU to reduce pollution due to the excessive use of nutrients and nutrient losses to the environment.

The Climate-CAFE project focuses on increasing the “adaptive capacity” of arable and forage crops to climate change (CC). We will use an interdisciplinary approach to evaluate traditional and more novel regional adaptation and mitigation strategies along a North-South climate gradient in the EU and propose new farming system designs for adaptation to CC. The evaluation includes synergies and trade-offs between strategies using different scales and indicators for IPCC scenarios in 2050 and 2100. Synthesis of existing data from experimentation and expert knowledge (advisors and farmers) will be used to propose adaptation measures for a selection of Adaptation Pilots based on representative regional cropping and farming systems located in consortium countries. These pilots will be defined and used to design and evaluate adaptation strategies based on multicriteria economic and environmental analyses. The proposed adaptation strategies will focus on improved soil and water management via ecological intensification, including new cultivars, novel rotations, alternative tillage options, and the inclusion of legumes and intercrops, to enhance the buffering capacity of the soil-crop system and capitalize on emerging value chains in the bio-economy. The STICS and DAYCENT models will be used to simulate scenarios at the cropping system level (plot scale and rotation duration). Existing long-term experiments, including FACE and Ecotron specific experiments will be used for analyzing the quality of predictions and where necessarymodels will be improved to accommodate new processes (e.g. introduction of O3 effects in STICS). Over the short/medium-term, the STICS soil-crop model will be run on the RECORD modelling and software platform to make multiple simulations for testing the potential efficiency of proposed CC adaptation measures for maintaining crop production without degrading environmental impacts. In addition, the DAYCENT soil model will be used to evaluate the long-term impact of adaptation measures on soil carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions (CO2, N2O, and CH4). The Modam and Farm-design models will be used to assess the impact of CC adaptation measures on the farms’ economic and environmental performances. In addition, the Farm-design model will be applied to evaluate these outcomes at the supra-farm level, considering the regional constraints of agri-food chain organization and pedoclimatic conditions. The expected results of the Climate-CAFE project are: i) an overview of potential CC adaptation measures in accordance with farm constraints, ii) simulation of adaptation measures and their ranking in terms of efficiency and costs, iii) simulation of the impact of IPCC scenarios 2050 and 2100 in interaction with adaptation measures on European agriculture production, considering a wide range of EU countries representing a North-South climate gradient in Europe.