Name of project: Valorising and balancing the ecosystem service benefits offered by legumes, and legume-based cropped systems

Acronym: LegumES

Start date: 01.01.2024

End date: 31.12.2027

The LegumES will ensure:

• the uptake of best practices in agrobiodiverse legume-based cropped systems;
• the uptake of methodologies and tools to quantify and balance the environmental and economic ecosystem service (ES) benefits provided by legumes;
• that the ES benefits and cost offered by legumes are quantified across scales from field, farm, regional, national, and global levels;
• ES will be assessed to identify those conditions which are able to meet the EU targets:- to decrease agrichemical inputs and losses, combat climate change, reverse biodiversity loss,
  – to ensure the best nutritional provisioning.

To achieve this, LegumES offers a multi-disciplinary consortium comprising 22 partners from 12 EU- and third countries (UK, CH) and including:

• 7 academic institutions;
• 6 Research and Technology Organizations;
• 5 SMEs (or micro-SMEs);
• 2 non-governmental organisations;
• 2 large commercial companies.

The individuals comprising LegumES offer skills which include: agricultural-crop and environment (ES) monitoring, life cycle assessment, economic and socioeconomic-modelling, social-science, EU-agricultural and environmental policy, and law, plus decision support systems.

The LegumES research and innovation strategy centres on the use of a multiactor action- research approach, that is, where legume-facing stakeholders, and especially producers though all value chains actors, can ‘operate’, ‘collaborate’ and, reflect critically’ on the measured ES benefits and costs of legume-based cropped systems, including legumes use in marginal lands; so that an optimal balance of ES can be achieved with success locally, and globally.

To help achieve this, LegumES also centres activities on a suite of 25 innovative legume-based Pilot Studies which use a wide range of legume species and types, plus different cropping approaches and linked value chains spanning the pedoclimatic regions of Europe.

Role of AGFT: Workshop host, to identify knowledge gaps for capacity building in North Macedonia (WP1); provide advisory perspective for [LCA+ES] integration (WP3), and economic assessment (WP4).

Partners:

1. UNIVERSIDADE CATOLICA PORTUGUESA (Portugal, Coordinator)

2. THE JAMES HUTTON INSTITUTE (United Kingdom, Partner)

3. TERRES INOVIA (France, Partner)

4. SEGES Innovation P/S (Denmark, Partner)

5. RSK ADAS LIMITED (United Kingdom, Partner)

6. UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PERUGIA (Italy, Partner)

7. LEIBNIZ-ZENTRUM FUER AGRARLANDSCHAFTSFORSCHUNG (Germany, Partner)

8. POTSDAM-INSTITUT FÜR KLIMAFOLGENFORSCHUNG EV (Germany, Partner)

9. UNIVERSIDADE DE AVEIRO (Portugal, Partner)

10. CREATIVE MINDS-SOLUCOES GLOBAIS DECOMUNICACAO (Portugal, Partner)

11. ITC – INOVACIJSKO TEHNOLOSKI GROZD MURSKA SOBOTA (Slovenia, Partner)

12. ESSRG NONPROFIT KFT (Hungary, Partner)

13. INSTITUT JOŽEF STEFAN (Slovenia, Partner)

14. DIL DEUTSCHES INSTITUT FUR LEBENSMITTELTECHNIK EV (Germany, Partner)

15. AGRI KULTI NONPROFIT KORLATOLT FELELOSSEGU TARSA (Hungary, Partner)

16. ALFRED-WEGENER-INSTITUT HELMHOLTZ-ZENTRUM FÜR POLAR UND MEERESFORSCHUNG (Germany, Partner)

17. ASOCIACIÓN APRISCO DE LAS CORCHUELAS (Spain, Partner)

18. SOLINTAGRO SL (Spain, Partner)

19. AG FUTURA TECHNOLOGII DOOEL SKOPJE (Macedonia, Partner)

20. ARCADIA INTERNATIONAL GEIE (Belgium, Partner)

21. DAS EIDGENÖSSISCHE DEPARTEMENT FÜR WIRTSCHAFT, BILDUNG UND FORSCHUNG (Switzerland, Associated)

22. DAS FORSCHUNGSINSTITUT FÜR BIOLOGISCHEN LANDBAU STIFTUNG (Switzerland, Associated)