Agriculture R&D ‘needs longer timelines and new collaborations’

EU research funding is too transitory to meet sustainability goals for natural resources, experts warn

To meet EU policy goals for food and other natural resources, the systems underpinning relevant R&D must be modified so that the work can operate on longer timelines and involve different forms of collaboration, an independent expert foresight group has recommended.

The “transitory” nature of EU R&D funding “is not always fit for the chronic problems we face in food and agriculture: mitigating climate change, improving nutrition [and] boosting diversity”, the group led by Gianluca Brunori, professor of food policy and bioeconomy at the University of Pisa in Italy, said in a report published by the European Commission on 18 January.