Supporting the agroecological transition through living labs networks

Project funded by: ERA-NET, AGROECOLOGY, Call 1

Project type: Transnational collaborative research projects (multi-actor, multinational)

Project title: Supporting the agroecological transition through living labs networks

Project acronym: SUNRISE

Contract no.: 106/2025

Total project value: €3.307.000 (of which €2.786.000 is funding requested under the AGROECOLOGY call)

Funding value for USAMV Bucharest: €172.000

Project duration: 36 months

Implementation period: 01/04/2025 – 30/03/2028

Contracting authority: Ministry of Education / UEFISCDI (for the national component) and ERA-NET AGROECOLOGY (for the international component).

International coordinator: Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies and Specialization in Pisa, Institute of Plant Sciences (SSSA), ITALY.– Prof. dr. Paolo Barberi

Institutional coordinator (Romania): University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest (USAMV Bucharest)

Project director (USAMV Bucharest): Assos.Prof.Dr. Maria Toader

The SUNRISE project aims to foster the agroecological transition by establishing a network of Agroecology Living Labs (AELLs) in 10 European countries, building on existing living labs (5 actual AELLs) or situations that have a high potential to become active AELLs within three years (5 potential AELLs).

AELLs are set up at sub-regional or regional level and are based on networks of actors (multi-actor teams, MATs) already involved in agroecological practices/value chains at an early or advanced stage. These include: (i) farmers (organic and/or conventional), farmer associations or cooperatives; (ii) agricultural consultants; (iii) upstream and downstream companies (e.g. producers and distributors of agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilizers/amendments, biopesticides, machinery; food/feed processors or retailers); (iv) civil society, organisations (e.g. NGOs, consumer associations); (v) regional/national decision-makers; (vi) researchers.

The MATs are responsible for all innovation cooperation, demonstration and knowledge exchange activities focused on innovative agroecological practices.

The activities in each AELL comprise several stages (common across countries), all carried out within multi-actor teams (MATs), with the continuous involvement of all actors in the co-creation of innovation and knowledge exchange, including the co-development of guidelines on the establishment and operation of Agroecological Living Labs and suggestions for improving policies aimed at promoting the agroecological transition in the target regions and beyond. Successful activities will allow for the synthesis and scaling up of SUNRISE approaches and results from the local level (local pilot centre/lighthouse) to the European level, laying the foundations for a permanent network of Agroecological Living Labs. 

·         Maria Toader – University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest (USAMV), ROMANIA

·         Liina Talgre - Estonian University of Life Sciences (EMU), ESTONIA

·         Jens Dauber - Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut (TI), GERMANY

·         Doreen Gabriel - Julius Kühn-Institut Institute for Crop and Soil Science (JKI), GERMANY

·         Friederike Dima Danneil - Agricultural University of Iceland (AUI), ICELAND

·         Daniele Antichi - University of Pisa (UNIPI), ITALY

·         Pablo Tittonelli - University of Groningen (RUG), (NETHERLANDS)

·         Xavier F. Sans Serra – University of Barcelona (UB), (SPAIN)

·         Marcos Lana - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), SWEDEN

·         Franz S. Bender – Agroscope (WFB), Switzerland

·         Peter Bezak - Institute of Landscape Ecology of Slovak Academy of Sciences (ILSAS), SLOVAKIA

·         Thomas Parisis - STRATAGEM ENERGY LTD (STRATA), CYPRU

The SUNRISE project will generate a series of scientific, practical and social results with long-term impact on European agri-food systems:

-         creation of a vibrant network of Agroecological Living Labs (AELL) in 10 countries: Switzerland, Spain, Estonia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Romania, Slovakia, Italy, Iceland and Germany. Building on five existing labs and five promising initiatives, the project supports a collaborative approach to innovation.

-         identification and establishment of Multi-Actor Teams (MAT) in partner countries, with the aim of setting up and/or continuing the activities of Agroecological Living Labs, locally in the partner countries. These interdisciplinary teams will cover topics such as: conventional and organic field crop technology, soil sciences, crop protection, biodiversity, animal husbandry, agricultural economics, law and sociology.

-         identification, establishment of research infrastructure and experimental protocol in order to carry out activities within the Agroecological Living Laboratories, respectively research station and/or farm;

-         carrying out activities according to common experimental protocols established within the Agroecological Living Laboratories, respectively research station and/or farm;

-         collection, analysis, systematization of the results obtained;

-         dissemination of results through: development of scientific papers, popularization actions, workshops, field day, knowledge exchanges to promote the Agroecological transition through Living Laboratories at local, national and international scale.

The impact of the project will lead to the development of recommendations on modern plant cultivation technologies in a sustainable, ecological way, which respects current and long-term agricultural policies and which encourages the agroecological transition to improve agricultural production value chains, preserve the environment and natural resources and which will generate open and transparent data, co-creation with farmers and community involvement to support a sustainable agroecology at the farm level.