Research projects Joint Programming Initiative on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change

FACCE-JPI pre-announces the upcoming call for joint European research projects. The call for pre-proposals is expected to open on the 1st of October 2013 with a closing date for pre-proposals on 2nd of December 2013.  The Joint Programming Initiative on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change (FACCE-JPI) brings together 21 countries who are committed to building an integrated European Research Area addressing the interconnected challenges of sustainable agriculture, food security and impacts of climate change. As an ERA-NET Plus action under the ERA-NET scheme of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) of the European Commission, the partner organisations  will launch a call for proposals with top-up funding from the European Commission (EC top-up funding of 4 M€). Aim of the call The main objective of this call is to support interdisciplinary research and innovative approaches on the adaptation of European agriculture to: i) incremental climate change and ii) to increased climatic variability. Scientific scope Climate smart agriculture has been defined as agriculture that sustainably increases productivity and resilience (adaptation), reduces greenhouse gases (mitigation), and enhances food security and development.The call addresses adaptation of European agriculture to climate change in its broad sense. Four areas are highlighted as key to advancing research in this area: i) genetics and breeding of animals and plants to increase resilience to climate change, ii) pests and diseases linked to climate and posing significant risks, iii) adaptive management of water and soil resources and iv) options for adapting agricultural systems. Projects could address these areas individually or in combination.