Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda appropriate for meeting the organic F2F targets

Summary

OrganicTargets4EU is a Horizon Europe project dedicated to supporting the European Union's Farm to Fork (F2F) and Biodiversity Strategies, which aim to have at least 25% of the EU's agricultural land under organic farming and a significant increase in organic aquaculture by 2030. The project develops a range of possible scenarios for achieving the 25% organic targets and propose possible pathways of change. The socio-economic impacts of reaching the 25% organic target are analysed at two strands: for Production and Markets and Knowledge and Innovation. This deliverable reports the identified knowledge gaps preventing the achievement of the organic F2F targets and recommendations for research and innovation (R&I) investments. The knowledge gaps take into consideration the scenarios developed in Work Package 2 Participatory foresight and scenario analysis, covering both business and environmental aspects. OrganicTargets4EU contributed to the development of the new TP Organics Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda (SRIA) for Organics and Agroecology through Task 5.1 under WP5 Knowledge exchange and capacity building, involving national-level practice partners and external experts in a broad, bottom-up consultation process. The SRIA sets the research and innovation priorities of the organic and agroecological sector for 2028-2034, i.e., the period of the next multi-annual financial framework (MFF) of the European Union (EU). The aim of TP Organics, the European Technology Platform for Research & Innovation into Organics and Agroecology is to identify knowledge gaps and provide solutions of organic and agroecological farmers, food processors, consumers, policymakers and other actors on the ground. The secretariat of TP Organics is hosted by IFOAM EU. In order to collect input for the new SRIA, IFOAM EU and TP Organics organised, through OrganicTargets4EU, two European-level workshops in the beginning and towards the end of 2024. In addition, the practice partners of OrganicTargets4EU organised eight national workshops in all eight focus countries (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Hungary and Romania), in conjunction with Task 5.2. Finally, an online consultation was conducted during summer 2024. This deliverable explains the methodology to develop the SRIA based on a broad, inclusive stakeholder engagement process and provides a snapshot of the content. While IFOAM EU coordinated the whole development process, wrote the accompanying chapters, introduction and methodology, policy recommendations for R&I for more impact) and is overseeing the design process, FiBL Europe took over the scientific coordination of the chapters containing the 33 research questions. The respective contributions of the other OrganicTargets4EU project partners involved in the deliverable are mentioned as well.