FACCE-JPI & GEH Joint Conference 2024  Towards New Horizons: Sustainable Solutions in Agri-Food and Biotechnology 

10-11 October 2024, Berlin, Germany

The Joint Programming Initiative on Agriculture, Food Security, and Climate Change (FACCE-JPI) and Green ERA-Hub (GEH) Joint Conference 2024 took place on October 10-11, 2024, in Berlin, Germany. The two-day hybrid event, hosted by Project Management Jülich, attracted over 140 participants, including representatives from FACCE-JPI and GEH, researchers, policymakers, funding agencies, and various initiatives from the EU and beyond.  

The conference focused on sustainable agriculture, food security, and biotechnology, providing a valuable platform for project teams to present their ongoing projects and engage in discussions with experts and funding agencies. 

 

Day 1 Highlights 

The event opened with a warm welcome from Stefanie Margraf, FACCE-JPI & GEH Monitoring & Evaluation Officer, and Petra Schulte, Coordinator of Green ERA-Hub, both representing Project Management Jülich, Germany.   

The conference’s keynote speech on the topic of "Bionic Thinking”, delivered by Prof. Dr. Nina Gaißert from Festo, Germany,  underscored the critical importance of interdisciplinary collaboration for innovation. Prof. Gaißert emphasised that by combining diverse knowledge and backgrounds, impactful solutions can emerge at the intersection of different research fields. She also highlighted how design thinking and scrum methodologies enable innovation with speed and creativity. 

Following the keynote, Stefanie Margraf introduced the status of the seminar, which was structured into three main sessions. Each session featured projects from different calls, presented initially as brief pitches, followed by in-depth presentations and, question and answer sessions in breakout groups. 

The first session featured 15 projects from four different calls, covering a range of topics aimed at advancing sustainable agricultural practices, enhancing food security, and addressing climate change.  

Throughout this session, participants explored innovative agricultural techniques such as advanced breeding methods and microorganism-based soil health improvement. These discussions underscored the collaborative projects’ contribution to enhancing food security and addressing climate change challenges.  

In the second session, 17 additional projects presented innovative solutions aimed at reducing environmental impacts. Projects focused on developing biopesticides, biostimulants from agricultural waste, and nutrient cycling technologies. The emphasis in this session was on driving sustainability through eco-friendly methods and innovative solutions.  

The final session of Day 1 highlighted diverse projects tackling post-harvest losses and leveraging genetic diversity to build resilient agricultural systems. Topics included innovative food preservation methods for organic products, mild processing techniques for wine and fruits, climate-smart farming practices, sustainable aquaculture feed production, microbiome and genomic analysis to breed resilient apple varieties, and enhancing biodiversity to improve pest control across landscapes. 

During the seminars, all projects had the opportunity to provide other participants insights into methodologies, results, impacts, challenges and future activities.The day concluded with a meet-and-greet dinner, fostering collaboration and networking among participants. 

Day 2 Highlights 

The second day of the conference began with an inspiring address by Martine Vernooij from Wageningen University and Research, setting the tone for Workshop Session 1: “Learning from the Past.” Discussions focused on identifying the most effective network activities (workshops and training) and how these can enhance project impact during and after completion.  

Following this, Marta Perez-Soba from Wageningen University & Research delivered an insightful keynote on Foresight, emphasizing the crucial role of positive imagination in designing a sustainable future.  

Marta Perez Soba, Wageningen University and Research 

Participants reflected on how future research networks and calls can drive even greater impact, offering valuable insights to shape future initiatives in the Agri-Food and Biotechnology sectors. Discussions also centred on the support needed by researchers to advance their work, ensuring future research addresses pressing challenges in sustainability and climate resilience. 

In conclusion, the FACCE-JPI & GEH Joint Conference 2024 successfully facilitated collaboration and the exchange of innovative ideas in the Agri-Food and Biotechnology sectors. Through fostering interdisciplinary approaches and leveraging cutting-edge technologies, the conference highlighted the importance of sustainable solutions to tackle food security and climate change. Insights from the conference will feed into future activities of FACCE-JPI and the GEH and research findings will guide future collaborations, ensuring ongoing impact in the years ahead. 

 

Collaborating Partners: 

Project Management Jülich, Germany 

Wageningen University and Research, the Netherlands 

International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems, Denmark 

Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Belgium 

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, United Kingdom 

Agence Nationale de la Recherche, France 

Speakers and Projects in Session 1  

GREEN ERA-HUB: 

  • Carl Coudron (Inagro, Belgium) – HiGa 

  • Anita L. Burger (IMBM, South Africa) – AMD-GAS in maize 

  • Maria Rita Palattela (LIST, Luxembourg) – LIFE 

  • Silvio Matassa (Unina, Italy) – DARE2CYCLE

 SusCrop ERA-NET: 

  • Ellen De Keyser (EV ILVO, Belgium) – RootsPlus 

  • Christian Hermans (ULB, Belgium) – C4FUTURE 

  • Magdalena Szczech (NIHORT, Poland) – BioHortiTech 

  • Hervé Vanderschuren (ULiège, Belgium) – CATCH-BNI 

ERA CoBioTech: 

  • Jose Jimenez (Imperial College London, UK) – MIPLACE 

  • Lisa Neidhardt (Imperial College London, UK) – SyCoLim 

FOSC: 

  • Monica Mburu (DeKUT, Kenya) - CHIAM 

  • Hervé Vanderschuren (KU Leuven, Belgium) – PHEALING 

  • Pim van Tongeren & Katarzyna Negacz (VU, Netherlands) – SALAD

Speakers and Projects in Session 2  

SUSFOOD2: 

  • Carlo Viti (Unifi, Italy) & Marcello Mele (UniPi, Italy) – ALL-IN 

  • Janos-Istvan Petrusan (DIL eV, Germany) – Poultrynsect 

  • Lilliana Stefanovic (Uni Kassel, Germany) – SysOrg 

  • Danny Geelen (UG, Belgium) – Bio4Food 

SusCrop ERA-NET & FOSC: 

  • Karl-Heinz-Kogel (Uni Gießen, Germany) – BioProtect 

  • Fernando Andrés (INRAE, France) – FruitFlow 

  • Juan Vorster, Karl Kunert (UP, South Africa) & Silvia Lisciani  (CREA, Italy) – BIO-BELIEF 

  • Giuseppe Leonardo Rotino & Laura Toppino (CREA-GB, Italy) – C4C 

GREEN ERA-HUB: 

  • Achim Schmalenberger (UL, Ireland) – NutriSTORM 

  • Isabela Pinheiro (AWI, Germany) – ProRMAS 

  • Cécile Thonar  (ULB, Belgium) – FERTIGO 

  • Fiona McGovern (Teagasc, Ireland) – Sustain Sheep 

FACCE-SusCrop Joint Call on Agrobiodiversity: 

  • Diego Intrigliolo Molina (CSIC-CIDE, Spain) – DIVERGRAPE 

  • Fiona Doohan (UCD, Ireland) – WheatSecurity 

  • Stéphane Nicolas (INRAE, France) – MineLandDiv 

  •  Ernesto Igartua (CSIC, Spain) – RecoBar 

Speakers and Projects in Session 3  

SUSFOOD2- CORE Organic joint call: 

  • Stefan Wahlen (Uni Gießen, Germany) – FOOdIVERSE 

  • Riccardo Zulli (Unipd, Italy) – HO-FOOD 

  • Pietro Rocculi (Unibo, Italy) – MILDSUSFRUIT 

  • Arianna Ricci (Unibo, Italy) – MI-WINE 

FOSC: 

  • Elmar Schulte-Geldermann (Th-Bingen, Germany) – CRRIsP 

  • Osama Ahmed (IAMO, Germany) – TRUSTFARM 

  • Daniel Pleissner (ILU e.V., Germany) – CLIMAQUA 

ERA CoBioTech: 

  • Trygve Brautaset (NTNU, Norway) – MCM4SB 

  • Cristina Gonzalez-Fernandez (IMDEA Energy, Spain) – OLEOFERM 

  • Heike Sträuber (UFZ, Germany) – Cell4Chem 

  • Nadine Ihle (TU Dresden, Germany) – SynBioMet 

FACCE-SusCrop Joint Call on Agrobiodiversity: 

  • Maria José Aranzana (CRAG, Spain) – AppleBIOME 

  • Cassandra Vogel (SLU, Sweden) & Ieva Misiune (VU, Lithuania) – IMPRESS 

  • Eligio Malusà (NIHORT, Poland) – AgroBioConnect 

  • Sonoko Dorothea Bellingrath-Kimura  (ZALF, Germany) – CLEAR 

More about the conference:

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