Food security in the face of climate change

The FACCE CSA (Agriculture, food security, and climate change) project was a Coordination and Support Action (CSA). Its aim was to prepare and support successful development of the FACCE Joint Programming Initiative (JPI). The JPI was an output from the Standing Committee on Agricultural Research (SCAR) foresight exercise, which identified food security and climate change as two critical issues facing European agriculture.

Project work involved 11 partners from the FACCE JPI, who developed tools and structures to enable successful implementation of the joint programming process. JPI activities were coordinated at a high strategic level to ensure the successful delivery and updating of the emerging concepts of agriculture, food security and climate change via a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA). Through its implementation, the SRA tackled the global challenges of food security within the context of population growth and climate change.

Main achievements of FACCE CSA include SRA development, which examined current and future national research programmes on the core themes of the FACCE JPI scope. Stakeholder input was integrated through public consultation, workshops at the national or regional level, and the stakeholder advisory board.

Mapping and foresight exercises were held in order to determine current and future research programmes and projects, funders, policies, institutes, infrastructure and internal collaborations. This information was used to suggest topics and instruments for joint actions. Five joint actions resulting from the mapping meetings facilitate the exchange and mobility of researchers, postdoctoral scientists and students in the European open labour market.

JPI instruments went a step further than the European Research Area Networks (ERA-NETs) and joint calls for projects by generating new forms of knowledge that build on existing research. Innovative FACCE instruments such as the Knowledge Hub and the Knowledge Networks helped to align national priorities and responded to the needs of the specific scientific communities involved.

The FACCE JPI SRA was disseminated through the FACCE JPI website and via different communication methods to all its stakeholders within Europe and worldwide. The work undertaken by FACCE CSA marked the beginning of a pan-European approach to address the major societal challenges of population growth and climate change through the alignment of national programming.