Dear Members, Friends, and newsletter readers,

Here is the first issue of 2014 of the TP Organics newsletter.

The first deadline of Horizon 2020 is approaching. On 12 March first-

stage project proposals have to be submitted. While many of you are

preparing project proposals, TP Organics is already thinking of the

next Work Programme, that for the years 2016/2017. By the end of

2014, the Commission will decide on the strategic areas the next

Work Programme will need to address. TP Organics is getting ready to

give input. The revision of the Strategic Research Agenda is crucial in

this. In order to make the new Strategic Research Agenda a relevant

and widely supported document, we need your contribution. In this

newsletter you read how you can get involved.

In the revision process of the Strategic Research Agenda, our national

technology platforms have an important role to play. First of all, they

are best-placed to collect and interpret the research & innovation

needs from the field. Secondly, they should communicate the

priorities identified in the Strategic Research Agenda to their national

authorities. One should not forget that also the Member States have

an important say in the design of the Work Programmes. We are

proud to present in this newsletter two new national platforms,

namely in the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium).

The European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and

Sustainability (EIP-AGRI) has put innovation in the front of rural

development. With Member States and regions deciding on their own

rural development programmes, it is difficult to predict in how far the

EIP-AGRI will be taken up and what the priorities will be. It is however

sure that the EIP-AGRI offers new opportunities for innovation in

organic farming and agroecology. To promote understanding of this

new policy instrument, TP Organics, IFOAM EU and ARC 2020 have

published a dossier. It explains the different features of the EIP-AGRI

including the link with Horizon 2020, gives insight into the relevant

articles of the rural development regulation and provides inspiration

In the spotlight

TP Organics for dummies in video! By FiBL and IFOAM EU

Latest from TP Organics

Revision of Strategic Research Agenda

International cooperation - Meeting with PAEPARD

National TP

EIP Dossier Latest from Brussels

H2020 briefing

Update EIP-AGRI

Calls

EXPO Milano 2015: call for best practices on food security

Call for volunteers - Environmental Footprinting for particular products

Upcoming Events

EkoSeedForum - 20-22 March 2014 - Poznan, Poland

Review of Events

Science day at BioFach

TIPI workshop on Science Day at BioFach 2014 on research needs at the global level

Publication

Future Farmers in the Spotlight – New inspiring films about young organic farmers!

TP Organics newsletter 01 - 2014

Content summary:

from the Member States. Most Member States haven't finished yet

their rural development programmes. There is still a chance to make

your authorities aware of the innovations organic farming can deliver

and ask for support through the EIP-AGRI. You will find our dossier a

useful resource in this.

I wish you a fruitful and successful 2014 and a pleasant reading of the

newsletter.

Bram Moeskops TP Organics - Scientific Coordinator

News from our members

Agroforestry for Europe - (AGFORWARD)

TP Organics supporters

Become a supporter!

Credits

TP Organics Newsletter is published and edited by TP Organics Editor: Eduardo Cuoco Authors: Eduardo Cuoco, Bram Moeskops, Marie-Chiara Tort Marco Schlüter To remove your name from our mailing list, please send an email to: info@tporganics.eu “subject: no newsletter” Questions or comments? E-mail us at info@tporganics.eu or visit www.tporganics.eu

TP Organics for dummies in video! By FiBL and IFOAM EU

At Biofach 2014, the Technology Platform TP Organics started the revision process of the Strategic Research Agenda. More than 70 actors from the organic sector discussed research priorities for the organic sector in Europe. In the video TP Organics coordinator Eduardo Cuoco explains why the research agenda from 2009 needs to be updated. “The new agenda has to be in line with the new research policies and the framework programme Horizon 2020”, he says. Many of the proposed research topics have been realised in the past four years.

Eduardo Cuoco presentation (Photo: Thomas Alföldi, FiBL) Hans-Jörg Lutzeyer presentation (Photo: Thomas Alföldi, FiBL)

Hans-Jörg Lutzeyer from DG Research and Innovation emphasizes the role of TP Organics delivering a consolidated research agenda to the EU Commission. Given the organic sectors’ long tradition of collaboration across disciplines and between researchers and producers, its research community should feel mobilized to apply for “multi-actor projects” within the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) and Horizon 2020, he says. The new research agenda is expected for mid 2015. Watch it here!

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In the spotlight - Let’s start the Winter newsletter with an inspiring project …

Revision of Strategic Research Agenda This year, TP Organics will revise its Strategic Research Agenda. The current version needs to be adapted to Horizon 2020 as well as to new challenges that have emerged in the organic sector. TP Organics is looking for experts willing to contribute. The experts will make an analysis of research & innovation needs as identified in various national research agendas and other relevant publications and assess which of the topics of the first Strategic Research Agenda are still relevant. Based on that analysis they will describe the research & innovation needs to be included in the new Strategic Research Agenda. Two perspectives should be addressed: solving problems of the organic sector as such and areas where the organic sector can provide solutions to broader societal challenges Contact info@tporganics.eu if you would like to contribute!

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International cooperation - Meeting with PAEPARD

A meeting was organised in Brussels on 17 February 2014 between TP Organics and PAEPARD, the Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development, thanks to our member APRODEV which joined the platform last June. PAEPARD supports research collaboration between a wide range of organizations in Africa and Europe. It:

Facilitates partnerships between farmer organizations, civil society groups, research institutes and education institutes, private companies and policy networks.

Supports these partnerships through capacity strengthening and providing access to information on funding opportunities.

Helps partners to prepare strong research proposals which will address real needs at the farm level. Advocates for increased support for demand-led, multi-actor agricultural research.

The initiative is supported by the European Union through its Food Security Thematic Programme. The discussions turned around the potential cooperation and activities that could be done together, and the subjects mentioned were notably:

- the consortium creation around the Horizon 2020 theme SFS-18-2015: Small farms but global markets: the role of small and family farms in food and nutrition security, and the opportunity to involve - Involve TP Organics members

- the contribution to SRA revision – it is willing to check which topic could have an impact also on Africa; - TP Organics strategic paper on International ARD and the contribution PAEPARD could provide.

This is the first very important result for achieving European Commission recommendation for international cooperation.

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Latest from TP Organics

National TPs TP Organics secretariat has evaluated National Technology Platforms (NTPs) from different countries through a National Technology Platform self-assessment template. Two new National platforms have been recognized, BIONEXT from Netherlands and NOBL from Flanders (Belgium). Today 5 NTPs are officially recognised, they have been assessed on the base of the criteria for recognition outlined in the “Strategy for European Technology Platforms: ETP 2020” published by the European Commission in July 2013. Others are in the process of being setting up.

NTPs are fundamental players in ensuring the broad application of the developments in the organic sector and in linking communities and Europe.

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EIP Dossier The dossier European Innovation Partnership - Opportunities for Innovation in Organic Farming and Agroecology" was launched at the Science Day of BioFach. This joint publication of IFOAM EU, TP Organics and ARC2020 is there to help the organic sector and the agroecological community understand the implementation of this new policy instrument. The dossier explains the EIP-AGRI activities at EU level and the importance of the work that has to be done by the rural development programmes at the national or regional levels. It also features a number of interesting initiatives in the Member States and an overview of the wide range of innovations with which the organic sector can contribute to the EIP-AGRI: get inspired, the EIP-AGRI is about learning from each other! Find here the French version and English version. .

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H2020 briefing In November 2013, the EU has decided new policies and priorities for funding research and innovation: Horizon 2020. Horizon 2020 will provide a significant break with the previous programmes and have a stronger link with the EU's policy priorities while continuing to being a part of the drive to create new growth and jobs in Europe. TP Organics worked hard in order to get a programme which addresses the needs of the organic sector and we are proud to announce that organic farming has been recognized as one of the approaches to achieve a sustainable, resilient, resource efficient and competitive agri-food sector that can cope with climate changes and provides safe and healthy food. We considers it important that the organic farming sector seizes the opportunities, which Horizon 2020 offers. For this reasons the platform has produced a paper to give a short practical introduction on Horizon 2020 and how to apply for project funding. Find it here.

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Latest from Brussels

Update EIP-AGRI The EIP-AGRI will launch a call for experts for four new focus groups on 11 March 2014. The themes will be: 1. High Nature Value (HNV) farming profitability - How to make HNV farming more profitable without losing its HNV characteristics. 2. Mainstreaming precision farming– How to organise the data capture to facilitate the application of precision farming for an optimisation of inputs and yields. 3. Profitability of permanent grassland - How to manage permanent grassland in a way that combines profitability, carbon storage and biodiversity. 4. Fertiliser efficiency – focus on horticulture in open field – How to resolve the conflict between crop quality demands and legislative requirements through innovative fertilisation and nutrient recycling. The objectives of each of the focus groups are to take stock of the state of the art of practice and research, to propose directions for further research and to suggest operational groups or other forms of cooperation to test solutions and disseminate outcomes. The EIP-AGRI service point is organising regional workshops for organisations and authorities to explain what the EIP-AGRI is about and to help them with the set up of Operational Groups in their own Member State or region. The first workshop in the series took place in Lisbon on 27 February and was targeted at the Mediterranean countries. The next workshops will be in Slovenia on 25-26 March 2014 for Slovenia, Germany, Austria, Croatia and Hungary and in Estonia on 2-3 April for Estonia, Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland. The workshops for the other countries will take place in May. Contact servicepoint@eip-agri.eu for more information.

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EXPO Milano 2015: call for best practices on food security

The Universal Expo Milano 2015 has launched a call for “Best Sustainable Development Practices on Food Security”. The collection of best practices is supported by the Feeding Knowledge Program which aims at establishing an international scientific network to promote and transfer knowledge on food security, and at identifying policies that really meet sustainable development criteria.

From all submissions, 15 will be selected that receive high visibility at the Expo Milano 2015 (movie, photo stories). They will be part of the official Expo Milano 2015 legacy. Best Practices can be submitted until 30 April. Results of the selection procedure will be published on 15 September. Submit your best practice and show the world how organic improves food security! Find more information at: https://www.feedingknowledge.net/best-practices

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Call for volunteers to lead the process of Environmental Footprinting for particular products The Commission has launched a call for volunteers to lead the process of Environmental Footprinting for particular products. The objectives are:

to set up and validate the process of the development of product group-specific rules (Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules – PEFCRs), including the development of performance benchmarks;

to test different compliance and verification systems, in order to set up and validate proportionate,

Calls

effective and efficient compliance and verification systems; to test different business-to-business and business-to-consumer communication vehicles for Product

Environmental Footprint information in collaboration with stakeholders.

This call is addressed to stakeholders who want to propose a product category for which to develop specific Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCRs). The call is open ONLY for feed, food and drink and related products. It also covers fertilisers, packaging for food, and catering services, thus products and services that are directly linked to the feed, food and drink sector. Stakeholders (individual companies, industrial associations or any other private, non-governmental or public organisation both from the EU and outside of the EU) can volunteer to lead the process. Product categories can also be proposed without volunteering to lead the process. In such cases the Commission will evaluate the possibility to lead on a limited number of these. The deadline for applications is the 28 March 2014 at 17:00 CET. More information at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/smgp/product_footprint.htm

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EkoSeedForum - Conference on plant breeding, seed production and crop biodiversity - 20-22 March 2014 - Poznan, Poland Organic farmers are dependent on high-quality seed from organically multiplied varieties, which have to be perfectly adapted to their local conditions and climate. In his context the use of genetic diversity and the maintenance of old varieties is an existential issue. In Western Europe, breeding for organic farming has been established several years ago and has been developed under the IFOAM regulations. In Central and Eastern Europe particularly many old crop varieties still can be found, which without utilization concepts are threatened to be lost. At the meeting in Poland different approaches regarding promotion of organic farming, supply of organic seeds and crop diversity will be presented. There will be an opportunity to meet stakeholders from East and West Europe and see the results of their work. The aim is to build a network. Everybody who feels dedicated to these issues, is warmly invited.

Find more information here.

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Science day at BioFach The On 14 February, the BioFach Science day took place for the second time. TP Organics organised two successful sessions. The first one was dedicated to the launch of the EIP-AGRI dossier of IFOAM EU, TP Organics

and ARC2020 (see above). The second session dealt with the revision of the Strategic Research Agenda. Farmers, companies and researchers discussed together the top research needs for the coming years. The session was opened by Hans-Joerg Lutzeyer (European Commission, DG Research and Innovation) who illustrated the opportunities for organic food & farming in

Horizon 2020. He was followed by Eduardo Cuoco who explained the achievements and future activities of TP Organics and Urs Niggli who gave an inspiring presentation on the

Upcoming events

Review of events

Eduardo Cuoco of TP Organics

Photo: Thomas Alföldi, FiBL

research needs of the organic sector. The presentations provided the basis for a lively debate. The outcomes of the workshop will be included in the revised Strategic Research Agenda. This Agenda will be a key document to lobby for more funds for organic oriented research at EU level. The other sessions of the Science day were dedicated to the international aspects of organic food and farming research. Science day was organized in cooperation with TIPI, ISOFAR (International Society of Organic Agriculture Research), IFOAM, IFOAM EU Group and FiBL (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture). All presentations are available on Organic eprints

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TIPI workshop on Science Day at BioFach 2014 on research needs at the global level

On On February 2014, TIPI, the Technology Innovation Platform of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), organised a workshop to develop a vision for organic food and farming research at the global level. TIPI council member Nic Lampkin of the Organic Research Centre Elm Farm, UK, summarized the discussions of the session and issues raised as follows:

Should organic research be focused on certified systems or agreed production standards, or should it be based on the wider ideas, principles and goals of organic farming?

Is ‘Organic 3.0’ a means to developing new perspectives or an opportunity to rediscover the original principles and goals of organic farming?

Should we separate organic and agro-ecological research, or is there significant common ground?

Can organic be THE solution to every problem, or do we need to recognize and find ways of working with its limitations and the trade-offs between multiple goals?

Does organic research need to find global or more locally adapted solutions?

What is the role of stakeholders in the process – what does participatory really mean? Is it researchers still leading the innovation but carrying out work on farms, or is it more about farmers leading the research process with researchers playing only a support role? What about other research questions aimed at different audiences where participatory approaches may be irrelevant?

Urs Niggli of FiBL and President of TIPI at Science Day 2014.

Photo: Thomas Alföldi, FiBL

The TIPI board will now compile the results of the workshop into a report which will be presented to the organic sector at the IFOAM World Congress in October 2014. Interested stakeholders are invited to participate in the development of this vision document. More information: tipi.ifoam.org and tipi.ifoam.org/2584.html Contact: Helga Willer Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, helga.willer@fibl.org

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Future Farmers in the Spotlight – New inspiring films about young organic farmers! On Over the last months, the Future Farmers in the Spotlight team has travelled through Spain, France, Greece and Germany. There they filmed inspiring farmers’ initiatives which will lead to a new series of films about young organic farmers. One of their films is about farm community Heggelbach where 6 families work and live together. Future Farmers in the Spotlight is an ongoing travelling film project about successful young farmers that - despite the many difficulties - have managed to set-up or to take over a sustainable farming business. Most of the farmers within the project have adopted innovative concepts to market their produce, explore niche markets, diversify economic activities, start “new” relations with consumers and make use of innovative ways to get access to land and capital. The short films give insight in the diversity of farming concepts developed by young people in Europe and inspire the next generation of farmers with examples of how to set up a sustainable and viable farming business.

Photo: Future Farmers in the Spotlight

One of the new Future Farmers in the Spotlight films was released this week. It shows the biodyanamic community farm Heggelbach in the south of Germany. Arable farming, the cultivation of vegetables, dairy cattle, cheese making, pigs, sheep and much more … all done by 6 families that work and live on this 170 hectare farm. The farm has organised its financial structures in such a way that young farmers that enter the community do not necessarily need to bring capital with them. The lack of capital of young starting farmers is often one of the main problems in farm continuity. Further, being a farmer at Heggelbach does not mean a job for 365 days a year: here a farmer can also plan time for holidays. Watch this inspiring film about a farm that is fit for the future. More information about Future farmers in the Spotlight: Webpage: http://future-farmers.net Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/futurefarmers.in.the.spotlight Twitter: https://twitter.com/Future_Farmers

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Publication

Agroforestry for Europe - AGroFORestry that Will Advance Rural Development (AGFORWARD)

Photo ORC

The overall goal of the project AGFORWARD is to promote agroforestry practices in Europe that will advance sustainable rural development, i.e. improved competitiveness, and social and environmental enhancement. This 4-year 6 million Euro project will be working with farmers and land owners in 15 countries across Europe to identify how agroforestry practices – farming with trees – can create profitable, productive, and environmentally beneficial farming systems. The 26–strong group of prestigious European and international institutions will be co-ordinated by Dr Paul Burgess, from Cranfield’s Department of Environmental Science and Technology. Several members of TP Organics are involved. One group will look at the current extent of agroforestry across Europe including valued habitats such as parklands in the UK and the Dehesa system in Spain. Another group will work with farmers to understand how established agroforestry systems can be improved, and how and where trees can provide benefits in arable and livestock systems. Examples include woodland egg, woodland pigs, and grazed orchards. The team will also evaluate the potential for innovative practices for locations where agroforestry is currently not-practised.

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http://www.au.dk/en

http://www.bioforsk.no/ikbViewer/page/home

http://www.boku.ac.at/home.html?&L=1

http://www.caae.es

http://www.cnr.it/sitocnr/home.html

http://www.emu.ee

The Platform is financially supported by:

News from our members

http://www.firab.it

http://www.organicfqhresearch.org

http://www.hnee.de/HNE-Eberswalde-E1016.htm

www.ifoam-eu.org

http://www.louisbolk.org

https://portal.mtt.fi/portal/page/portal/mtt_en

ROGAU Stiftung

http://rogau-stiftung.org/

http://www.slu.se/en/

www.software-ag-stiftung.de

http://www.fibl.org

http://www.dtu.dk

www.bioinstitut.cz

http://www.univpm.it/Entra/

http://www.rhea-environment.org/en

http://www.iamb.it/iamb2005/programmi/home.php?id=51&idarea=6

http://www.uni-kassel.de/

http://www.ekhagastiftelsen.se/eng/

http://www.fondationdefrance.org/

http://www.bionext.nl/

http://www.nobl.be/

The TP Organics supporters are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information provided.

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Become a supporter!

TP Organics is a dynamic network of European of civil society organisations, researchers, farmers and companies. We have been officially acknowledge as the European Technology Research Platform by the European Commission.

We have observer status in the ERA-Net+ Core Organic and are member of the advisory board of several other trans-national research networks such as the ERA-Net SUSFOOD and the JPI for Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change.

Our Strategic Research Agenda contains the research priorities of the organic sector. We work hard to make Horizon 2020, EIP-AGRI and other European research & innovation programmes address these priorities. a We hope that you also benefit from our work.

Members and sympathizing scientists have invested time and money to build up the platform. We are now looking for organisations that want to support the work of TP Organics financially.

You can become supporter of TP Organics starting at €500.

If you are interested, contact the Secretariat who will provide you our working programme for 2012-2014.

Thanks for your contribution to the success of TP Organics!

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TP Organics – Technology Platform for Organic Food and Farming - www.tporganics.eu