POLICY BRIEF 2026: Supporting national funders' cooperation towards organic R&I

Summary

The organic sector is widely acknowledged as a sustainable food and farming system (ECA Special Report 19, 2024). Therefore, the European Commission, in its Farm to Fork Strategy (2020), aims at 25% organically farmed land in the EU in 2030. To achieve this, the EU, in its Organic Action Plan (2021)1 sets the target of minimum 30% of the budget in Horizon Europe (HEU), Cluster 6, Area 3 ‘Agriculture, forestry and rural areas’ to topics ‘specific to’ or ‘relevant for’ the organic sector. The EU Organic Action Plan also aims to strengthen coordination of national organic food R&I programmes via the Horizon Europe mission, A Soil Deal for Europe, and via the partnerships on Agroecology, FutureFoodS, and Animal Health and Welfare.2 Research & innovation (R&I) in organic and agroecological food systems are strategic levers for Europe’s resilience and competitiveness. Hence, the key question the OrganicTragets4EU project partners addressed was the meaning of 25% target in practice for the organic sector? How would the sector need to change? What kind of R&I is needed to support the growing sector, and is to be provided by whom? The project is also hosting a network of European public institutions, CORE Organic Pleaides, that focus on transnational coordination of organic R&I since 2004. This policy brief highlights relevance of European joint programming and the need for strengthening dedicated organic R&I funding in the Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HEU).