The Commission is launching a new strategic approach to boost the agri-food sector

The European Commission has adopted a Communication on a new strategic approach to research and innovation aimed at achieving competitive and resilient agriculture, forestry, rural areas and food systems. The document brings together two closely interlinked frameworks, AgRI 2040and Food 2040, with the aim of guiding future research, innovation, dissemination and the uptake of solutions across the entire agri-food sector.

The Communication places greater emphasis on the challenges and needs of users, as well as on the importance of achieving a real impact on the ground, by bringing together end-users, researchers and businesses to jointly create, test and demonstrate solutions in real-world settings, whilst ensuring food safety. This will also help start-ups, scale-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises to bring promising innovations to market. 

To boost competitiveness, it is necessary to adopt a perspective that encompasses the entire value chain and strengthens the innovation process of start-ups and scale-ups in the EU, from research to the market. To support bottom-up innovation, the Commission will promote initiatives that validate traditional knowledge and solutions driven by practitioners in the sector themselves, whilst involving farmers in testing innovations across different regions.

The new strategic approach contributes to the objectives of the Vision for Agriculture and Food, the Strategy for Start-ups and Scale-ups, and the European Strategy for Life Sciences. It complements the EUBioeconomy Strategyby supporting innovation and the creation of sustainable value.

 

More information: European Commission