Agroecology and Living Labs

Those who have had the pleasure of reading the latest supply of research funding from the EU will have noticed that agroecology is included in unusually many of the proposed topics. Along with words such as zero-emission, Green Deal and nature-based solutions. There are quite a few problems that agroecology can be expected to help solve. I think for a research institute called Agroecology it provides some good opportunities.

According to the EU Commission “agroecology is a holistic approach that relies on and maximizes the use of ecological processes to support agricultural production. By working more with nature and ecosystem services, agroecology has the potential to increase the circularity, diversification and autonomy of farms, and drive a full transformation of farming systems.” Agroecology is thus considered important for meeting the UN's sustainability goals in areas such as food security, climate and biodiversity.

The green transition, as well as food security, is one of the greatest research and societal challenges of our time. If we can solve it, it will involve a complete transformation of the agricultural system. It is in such situations that the concept of Living Labs comes into the picture, as a method of promoting and accelerating a transition in a sector or in society as a whole.

The concept was "invented" in the mid-00s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as a user-centered methodology for developing new technologies and designs. In relation to agroecology, Living Labs is a “transdisciplinary approach which involves farmers, scientists and other interested partners in the co-design, monitoring and evaluation of new and existing agricultural practices and technologies on working landscapes to improve their effectiveness and early adoption” (AE4EU.eu and macs-g20.org). Living Labs is thus characterized by active user involvement, and that the development takes place in the relevant environment with many stakeholders and methods, as well as solutions that are iterated between the different groups of users. The advantage of this - at first glance complicated process - is that the solutions to the problems are developed by and with the end users, so the probability that they can be used quickly is greater than stand-alone technologies that must first be fitted into a context and therefore often stumbles on the road. Thus, Living Labs is considered to be suitable for addressing the often site-specific challenges of agroecology, as well as through a network of Living Labs, to be able to contribute to a more general agroecological transition.

In other European countries (and also outside Europe), a network of Living Labs (enoll.org) has grown since 2006, covering many sectors of society. Here with us, we may have been more inclined to stick to our well-proven systems for knowledge sharing, which in the field of agriculture has often had SEGES as a key player. However, there are many examples of constructions that are reminiscent of or could actually be called Living Labs. I think for example, on the development of green biorefineries and grass protein production, where CBIO and its many stakeholders have been involved in addressing a mosaic of challenges. This has ranged from cultivation and the environmental aspects, where AGRO has played a central role, over the extraction which has been the core area for our engineers, to commercial partners, including a farmer-run cooperative, and with input from municipalities interested in clean water in the rivers and to drink, to the authorities' interest in the climate and environmental effects by replacing annual crops with perennials.

Another example could be the AgriFoodTure roadmap which has been prepared under the auspices of Innomission and which has had broad user involvement and which is now being implemented via the Innovation Fund. Finally, the CarbonFarm project can be mentioned, where the experimental part, which basically springs from the farmers' ideas, takes place in their fields, and the new START center, which is a joint initiative from Universities Denmark and will be a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration.

AGRO is currently actively involved in the development of the Horizon Europe Partnership, which goes by the name "Accelerating farming systems transition: agroecology living labs and research infrastructures". The hope here is that AGRO can become part of a larger European network and set up our own agro-ecological Living Labs through the funds that are made available. Some AGRO projects are already participating in a pilot network. We believe we have a lot to offer based on our many years of experience in research and development with active involvement of end users and authorities and our central role with respect to the green transition in agriculture.