The European Commission wants to accelerate the move “from research to market” in the agriculture and food sectors, with a new research and innovation strategy, adopted on Tuesday 8 September and structured around two frameworks, AgRI 2040 and Food 2040.
The plan is to increase the involvement of businesses and market experts in evaluating projects financed by Horizon Europe and to facilitate access to EU funding for start-ups and SMEs.
A new mechanism will enable the earlier identification of research results with commercial potential and provide them with rapid additional funding.
The Commission is considering ‘innovation vouchers’, funding pathways to ease the transition from prototype to commercialisation, and a new ‘fast-track-to-innovation’ scheme. A Science for Policy Centre on agricultural and food innovation will be created within the Joint Research Centre (JRC).
The Commission wants to bring research closer to farmers, notably through ‘Living Labs’. Research results will need to be translated more extensively into practical guides, with greater use of digital tools and artificial intelligence.
The strategy (https://aeur.eu/f/ncg ) identifies six cross-cutting priorities, including competitiveness, food security, resilience, circularity, health and reducing strategic dependencies.
Artificial intelligence, robotics, drones, sensors and data technologies are expected to play a greater role on farms and in rural services.
The Commission also wants to stimulate investment in open-access pilot infrastructures for advanced fermentation to facilitate the industrial scaling-up of food innovations.
Furthermore, the strategy aims to strengthen European production of proteins, vitamins, amino acids and other essential ingredients in order to reduce external dependencies.
On the agriculture front, AgRI 2040 will cover areas such as soils and water, crops, livestock farming, the bioeconomy, forests, rural areas, value chains and digitalisation.
Food 2040 will focus on local food systems, healthy and sustainable diets, resource efficiency, consumers, scaling up innovation and aquatic products.
An initial AgRI 2040 conference is scheduled for 24 and 25 September, ahead of the more precise definition of action areas by the end of 2027. Finally, the Commission plans to launch the first concrete actions as early as 2026-2027, with a broader rollout of Food 2040 starting in 2028. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)