Today, agricultural systems are facing multiple challenges, including climate change, loss of biodiversity, dwindling resources, degradation of soil and water quality. Agroecology can strengthen the sustainability and resilience of farming systems and thus contribute to addressing these challenges. Based on the premise that Open Innovation Arrangements (OIAs) and in particular Living Labs (LL) and Research Infrastructures (RIs) are instruments that have large potential to contribute to amplifying agroecology in Europe, the main aim of ALL-Ready is to prepare a framework for a future European network of LLs and RIs (to be called “AgroEcoLLNet”) that will enable the transition towards agroecology throughout Europe.

The project will lay the groundwork and prepare the necessary prerequisites and activities. Testing will verify and improve the project’s outcomes, which will be communicated widely in Europe. The implementation plan will be tested and integrated into the validated framework of AgroEcoLLNet. The project relies on a highly participatory and inclusive approach and on experimentation in real life situations and thus itself uses a living lab approach. An underpinning principle of the project is strong stakeholder engagement, which has begun in the preparation of this proposal.

The ALL-Ready project’s full name is “The European Agroecology Living Lab and Research Infrastructure Network: Preparation phase”, and it is a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) funded under Horizon 2020, the European Union's Research and Innovation programme, working in close collaboration with other ongoing projects, especially  Agroecology for Europe (AE4EU) project.

The overall goal of the project is to integrate agroecology knowledge into agricultural production systems, by engaging all the stakeholders in the value chain. The Living Labs and Research Infrastructures in coordination with farmers and researchers will generate scientific results that will benefit the agroecology transition. More info on the project website.