Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CERERE (CEreal REnaissance in Rural Europe: embedding diversity in organic and low-input food systems)

Teaser

CERERE is a balanced multi-actor network of academic/research partners and partners closer to the world of practice (Figure 1) focusing on organic and other low input cereal food systems in Europe. Focusing on cereals as cornerstones of European agriculture, culture and diets...

Summary

CERERE is a balanced multi-actor network of academic/research partners and partners closer to the world of practice (Figure 1) focusing on organic and other low input cereal food systems in Europe. Focusing on cereals as cornerstones of European agriculture, culture and diets, CERERE fosters and facilitates exchange and integration of scientific and practical knowledge along innovative cereal supply chains from seeds to fork. CERERE’s most relevant goal is to reduce the gap between research and innovation practice in diversity based cereal food systems through the achievement of the following four specific objectives:
- To synthesize innovative practices and research results used to construct organic and low-input cereal food systems based on agro-biodiversity;
- To share, discuss, validate and enrich the knowledge about existing best practices, relevant research results and co-innovation cases through multi-actor activities;
- To support existing and foster the support of new Operational Groups within the EIP-Agri framework to enhance the diffusion of agrobiodiversity-based innovation;
- To disseminate the knowledge accumulated throughout the network’s operation to the outer world.
To achieve stated objectives, the CERERE project is structured in six work packages (WP): WP1 - Project Management, WP2 - Synthesising best practices and research results, WP3 - Sharing and spreading practical oriented knowledge in Europe, WP4 - Support to EIP groups, WP5 - Exploitation and Communication activities and WP6 - Ethics requirement (Figure 2).

Work performed

During the first 18 months (11/2016 – 04/2018), CERERE partners have achieved several results summarised by work package here after.
As regards WP1, the CERERE network has produced the Consortium Agreement, the Management Guidelines, consolidated the first annual report and the technical report, organised meetings and managed to communicate constantly between CERERE partners and the European Commission Project Officer.
As regards WP2, all partners involved in this task have contributed substantially to the selection and development of case studies (task 2.1). Deliverable 2.1 contains information both on the selected list of case studies to be elaborated by each partner and methodological guidelines for the elaboration of these case studies. In total, 39 case studies were selected and will be elaborated by all partners. So far, partners have already submitted final versions of several case studies. For Task 2.2, all partners have contributed substantially to the literature review task and were responsible for the screening process, the final selection of papers and for the content analysis performed. A first literature paper on ‘Rural development studies for the promotion of cereal biodiversity: a participatory literature review approach’ was finalised as D.2.2 and it will be submitted to the scientific peer review journal Sustainability. Task 2.3 and Task 2.4 are under development.
As regards WP3, the CERERE network has organised a series of events with two different approaches. The first approach was carried out organising so-called ’classes vertes’ (outdoor class), while the second approach was carried out organising National and EU events where different actors (e.g. farmers, bakers, millers, consumers) of sustainable cereal chains were invited to share their experiences from the ‘seed to the fork’. From December 2016 to March 2018, 6 class vertes and 11 national events were organised by CERERE partners in their own countries, generally more than one per country.
As regards WP4, the CERERE consortium has both established relevant contacts for the network and involved operational groups (OGs) in these network’s events (task 4.1). The implication of partners in the construction of OGs, OGs mapping and OGs Seminars are strongly helping to support formal and informal groups. A first OGs seminar was delivered the 23rd of June under the LCD event. For Task 4.2, a training methodology to train facilitators in the participatory process was produced and tested by several partners (Deliverable 4.1). For task 4.3, partners are preparing 25 Practice abstracts (Figure 3) which will be elaborated by CERERE partners both using the EIP-AGRI format and the CERERE format (Deliverable 4.2).
With regard to WP5, a dissemination plan was produced and shared with all partners together with a brand identity of the project including logo, templates for documents and a leaflet. The CERERE website is available at www.cerere2020.eu and the on online presence is also ensured using Facebook and YouTube profiles. The production of training and awareness raising materials is ensured by the editorial board and so far 5 videos and 7 innovation factsheets (Figure 4) were produced. Furthermore, the production of the next 10 videos will cover the following themes: 1) Cereal populations - what they are, how you obtain them, advantages and criticalities; 2) Community seed banks; 3) Seed selection and conservation; 4) Bread making process with low input organic cereals; 5) Pasta making process; 6) Beer production; 7) The distribution system; 8) Operational groups; 9) Class vertes and 10) European events.
As regards WP6, Ethics guidelines were produced in agreement with all partners.

Final results

CERERE has contributed to unveil the vast reservoir of existing scientific and practical knowledge on agronomic, health and rural development areas, contextually improving knowledge exchange between scientists and practitioners on agricultural practices within organic cereal crop systems. National and European meetings carried out in different countries have contributed to enhancing, fostering and embedding diversity in cereal chains addressing main issues of sustainability in the agronomic, genetic and technological, seeds, biodiversity areas. Knowledge exchange among stakeholders has been very important to better understand the context of the existing best practices related to embedding diversity in organic and low-input cereals systems with a focus on associated values of food quality and health.
The actions supporting activities that analyse and assess existing OGs in each partner’s country will bring about the development of a big network of stakeholders in each partner’s country and will be useful to improve the existing and prospective OGs. The training concept has been implemented by several partners and outcomes of these activities have been disseminated by CERERE partners via their communication channels. The construction of the selected 25 PAs proposals is a process where partners are learning about innovations in other countries. PAs, once elaborated, will be valuable tools to increase the flow of practical information among diverse geographical areas in Europe.
Training and educational material, as well as videos, are distributed through the project’s digital channels (i.e. project website, Facebook and YouTube) and partner’s newsletters. The high-quality documentary will be distributed to a list of thematic festivals and will be available for broadcasting. Training and educational material will be translated into four different languages (English, French, Spanish and Italian) in order to maximize the effectiveness of the communication to the end-users and local communities. Selected posts on Facebook are also translated into several local languages.

Website & more info

More info: http://cerere2020.eu.