FACCE-JPI & GEH Joint Conference 2024 Towards New Horizons: Sustainable Solutions in Agri-Food and Biotechnology
10-11 October 2024, Berlin, Germany
Figure 1: Group Pictures of participants at the FACCE-JPI & GEH joint conference 2024
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.
Figure 2: Maps of all projects team of the joint conference 2024
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.
Figure 3: Prof. Dr. Nina Gaißert delivering the keynote speech at the FACCE-JPI & GEH Joint Conference 2024
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.
Figure 4: Martine Vernooij from Wageningen University and Research giving address on the 2nd day of the joint conference 2024
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.
Figure 5: Marta Perez-Soba from Wageningen University & Research delivering keynote on Foresight
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.
Figure 6: Participants networking and engaging in discussions at the joint conference 2024
Figure 7: Breakout session at joint conference 2024
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
Figure 8: Group picture of the collaborating partners
Speakers, Projects and Presentations in Session 1
Carl Coudron (Inagro, Belgium) – HiGa – Presentation
Anita L. Burger (IMBM, South Africa) – AMD-GAS in maize – Presentation
Maria Rita Palattela (LIST, Luxembourg) – LIFE – Presentation
Silvio Matassa (Unina, Italy) – DARE2CYCLE – Presentation
Ellen De Keyser (EV ILVO, Belgium) – RootsPlus – Presentation
Christian Hermans (ULB, Belgium) – C4FUTURE – Presentation
Magdalena Szczech (NIHORT, Poland) – BioHortiTech
Hervé Vanderschuren (ULiège, Belgium) – CATCH-BNI
Jose Jimenez (Imperial College London, UK) – MIPLACE – Presentation
Lisa Neidhardt (Imperial College London, UK) – SyCoLim – Presentation
Monica Mburu (DeKUT, Kenya) - CHIAM – Presentation
Hervé Vanderschuren (KU Leuven, Belgium) – PHEALING
Pim van Tongeren & Katarzyna Negacz (VU, Netherlands) – SALAD – Presentation
Speakers, Projects and Presentations in Session 2
Carlo Viti (Unifi, Italy) & Marcello Mele (UniPi, Italy) – ALL-IN – Presentation
Janos-Istvan Petrusan (DIL eV, Germany) – Poultrynsect – Presentation
Lilliana Stefanovic (Uni Kassel, Germany) – SysOrg – Presentation
Danny Geelen (UG, Belgium) – Bio4Food – Presentation
Karl-Heinz-Kogel (Uni Gießen, Germany) – BioProtect
Fernando Andrés (INRAE, France) – FruitFlow – Presentation
Juan Vorster, Karl Kunert (UP, South Africa) & Silvia Lisciani (CREA, Italy) – BIO-BELIEF – Presentation
Giuseppe Leonardo Rotino & Laura Toppino (CREA-GB, Italy) – C4C – Presentation
Achim Schmalenberger (UL, Ireland) – NutriSTORM – Presentation
Isabela Pinheiro (AWI, Germany) – ProRMAS – Presentation
Cécile Thonar (ULB, Belgium) – FERTIGO – Presentation
Fiona McGovern (Teagasc, Ireland) – Sustain Sheep – Presentation
FACCE-SusCrop Joint Call on Agrobiodiversity:
Diego Intrigliolo Molina (CSIC-CIDE, Spain) – DIVERGRAPE – Presentation
Fiona Doohan (UCD, Ireland) – WheatSecurity
Stéphane Nicolas (INRAE, France) – MineLandDiv – Presentation
Ernesto Igartua (CSIC, Spain) – RecoBar – Presentation
Speakers, Projects and Presentations in Session 3
SUSFOOD2- CORE Organic joint call:
Stefan Wahlen (Uni Gießen, Germany) – FOOdIVERSE – Presentation
Riccardo Zulli (Unipd, Italy) – HO-FOOD – Presentation
Pietro Rocculi (Unibo, Italy) – MILDSUSFRUIT – Presentation
Arianna Ricci (Unibo, Italy) – MI-WINE – Presentation
Elmar Schulte-Geldermann (Th-Bingen, Germany) – CRRIsP – Presentation
Osama Ahmed (IAMO, Germany) – TRUSTFARM – Presentation
Daniel Pleissner (ILU e.V., Germany) – CLIMAQUA – Presentation
Trygve Brautaset (NTNU, Norway) – MCM4SB – Presentation
Cristina Gonzalez-Fernandez (IMDEA Energy, Spain) – OLEOFERM – Presentation
Heike Sträuber (UFZ, Germany) – Cell4Chem – Presentation
Nadine Ihle (TU Dresden, Germany) – SynBioMet – Presentation
FACCE-SusCrop Joint Call on Agrobiodiversity:
Maria José Aranzana (CRAG, Spain) – AppleBIOME – Presentation
Cassandra Vogel (SLU, Sweden) & Ieva Misiune (VU, Lithuania) – IMPRESS – Presentation
Eligio Malusà (NIHORT, Poland) – AgroBioConnect – Presentation
Sonoko Dorothea Bellingrath-Kimura (ZALF, Germany) – CLEAR – Presentation
More about the conference:
Pitch Talks:
Brochure: FACCE-JPI and GEH conference
Recordings
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