uP_running project aims to set the path for the development of the bioenergy utilisation of agrarian pruning and plantation removal (APPR) wood obtained from vineyards, olive groves and fruit tree plantations. uP_running vocation is the abatement of the current immobilism of the value chain actors for the utilization of APPR woody biomass. For that purpose uP_running incorporates a set of straight actions aimed to reshape the sectors perception, to provide evidences of real success and replicable models to follow, as well as to promote the take-off for the utilisation of APPR biomass residues. An intense communication campaign will address the varied target audience with tailored messages and materials to raise the awareness. An impact on policy barriers and on the legal framework currently setting limits for the utilisation of APPR wood will be carried out through direct advocacy and lobbying work at national and EU level. Once the awareness is raised and the sector is released of hindering barriers, a snowball effect will be triggered through multiplicative and dissemination actions. First part of uP_running multiplicative strategy is to create a permanent capacity in Europe, by empowering national and regional agrarian associations, extension services and/or private consultants with capacities to give support for decision making to farmers, cooperatives and agro-industries owing the APPR residues. A call for entrepreneurship will put into operation the newly created capacities in 7 EU countries to promote the decision making of pioneer entrepreneurs. Setting up and running new APPR biomass value chains is the key for a self-replication and to further contribute to the development of the bio-economy in Europe. The actions will be initiated in a set of 4 “demo” countries (that together account for 50% of EU potential), replicated in 3 relevant EU countries, and extended through precursor actions to 7 additional EU countries.

There are new challenges and opportunities for agriculture today, driven by the climate change, the greening of the products and processes, the reuse of side-stream products, the raised complexity of the chain and the increased availability of information.However, to successfully address and react to these drivers, agriculture and forestry needs new business models and skills. The identification of existing and emerging skills needs in bio-economy, agricultural sustainability and for the use of digital technology, is of paramount importance in order to develop a strategic approach to keep the European agricultural sector competitive and sustainable in the long term.The multi-stakeholder approach in the FIELDS project, with 30 partners from 12 countries (HEI, VET providers, agricultural and forestry sector representatives and agrifood industry) will allow tackling the complexity of the issues EU agriculture faces today.The FIELDS approach, starting from the current and future trends and skills needed, will lead to a sustainable European strategy to address these skill gaps. Since agriculture issues and opportunities differs a lot from country to country, the EU strategy will be customised to have a country strategy for 7 countries. It will address country-specific actions, occupational profiles and training material to reflect the country needs while keeping EU quality standards (ESCO, EQAVET, ECVET) to address the mobility of learners through Europe concretely.An Agriculture SSA will be established during the project to build upon the regulatory frameworks and opportunities at EU and country level, while proposing concrete and practical initiatives to address skills challenges, in particular through offering modular training inside the project while guaranteeing mobility of workers within the agriculture, forestry and agrifood industry.

SCOoPE project will work directly with energy-intense agro-food industries to implement cross-cutting and collaborative energy management systems addressed to reduce their energy consumption, and will further spread this knowledge within technicians, businesses managers, and energy and agro-food institutions. The project SCOoPE aims at achieving the challenges of the topic EE 16-2014/2015. Regarding the use of cost-effective energy solutions, the project objective is to reduce energy consumption at a short term in a range between 10% and 15% directly in 81 businesses belonging to the agro-food target sectors of the project (namely crop drying, meat and poultry, dairy, and fruit and vegetables transformation). This reduction must be achieved without any decrease in the production capacity of the companies and maintaining correct socioeconomic and environmental conditions. In order to do that, the project will work with the uptake of specific and cross-cutting innovative technologies and techniques, which efficacy has been proven in other industrial sectors, different from agro-food sector, but that are not yet familiar to project’s target sectors. On the other hand, the project pursues larger savings in the medium term with new affordable energy solutions, specifically by developing the concept of “Collaborative Energy Management Systems”. It will take advantage of complementarities and synergies between analysed industrial sites with similar characteristics and will use them for the improvement of their joint energy efficiency. For this purpose, 6 pilot industrial clusters will be run in order to prove the improvements of total energy consumptions and its associated costs, achieved by using common procedures based on ISO 50.001 and supported by an specific software (Dashboard) developed by the project. All these experiences will be promoted to encourage target groups to reduce their energy consumption, following the example of the directly involved companies.

The Pact for Skill roundtable raised several issues the Agrifood secThe Pact for Skill roundtable raised several issues the Agrifood sector is facing and identified potential ways of overcoming them: upskilling and reskilling workers; intersectoral skill transfers; increased attractiveness of the sector to youth; digital transition; partnerships between learning institutions and companies.The I-RESTART project aims at reskilling and upskilling the workforce in the agrifood and veterinary sectors, retrain the employees leaving the heavy industry to hire them in the agrifood sector, and engage some students that want to enter the agrifood labor market, to improve their digital skills and facilitate the transition to the Green Deal initiative.To reach the above-mentioned objectives, I-RESTART will facilitate the inter-sectoral and intergenerational skills transfers through the adoption of an innovative micro-credentials methodology and the work-based learning experiences that will provide inclusive, flexible and engaging work-based patterns with mentors while opening the ecosystem also to external workers.The project, complementing the FIELDS Blueprint on agriculture and forestry, will provide the tools to tackle future challenges with the offering of 10 occupational profiles for a total of 3200 hours of training. In total 16 trainers and 200 trainees will benefit from the pilot training, and 40 students will complete the work-based learning scheme that also includes the advanced entrepreneurial skills.The 29 partners consortium from 11 countries will identify skills needed and gaps, create occupational profiles, detailed curricula, design European strategies and 10 country roadmaps to reflect the country's needs while keeping EU quality standards (ESCO, EQAVET) to address the mobility of learners through Europe.A strong connection will be established with the Pact for Skills initiative, in order to make useful content for the members that will implement the pact.