The CCRI was part of a consortium that has successfully received funding from the EC for a Horizon 2020 research project entitled: SUFISA - Sustainable finance for sustainable agriculture and fisheries (Horizon 2020. Call: H2020-SFS-2014-2. Topic: SFS-19-2014). The CCRI has a pivotal role to play in SUFISA, being responsible for work-package number two.
Drs James Kirwan, Damian Maye and Mauro Vigani are working on this project.
Follow Sufisa on Twitter @sufisa_eu
The work-package involves running a producer survey across 22 regions of the EU, each of which will involve up to 300 producers. This will result in a large database that will be subjected to a comparative cross-regional econometric and descriptive analysis. In order to help deliver this work-package, the CCRI has recently employed Dr Mauro Vigani, who was previously employed as a Research Fellow at the European Commission (EC), Joint Research Centre (DG JRC), Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS), Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Economy Unit (AgriLife) - Seville, Spain.
Coordinated by Professor Erik Mathijs of the Catholic University Leuven, Belgium, SUFISA involves a consortium of 13 partners from the following countries:
• Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium).
• University of Pisa (Italy)
• University of Gloucestershire, CCRI (UK)
• Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (France)
• Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna (Italy)
• University of Hasselt (Belgium)
• Nodibinajums Baltic Studies Centre (Latvia)
• University of Evora (Portugal)
• Aarhus University (Denmark)
• Agricultural University of Athens (Greece)
• Hochschule für nachhaltige Entwicklung Eberswalde (Germany)
• Jagiellonian University (Poland)
• University of Belgrade (Serbia)
The project has also received support from a wide range of relevant stakeholders from across Europe. These include:
At an EU-level:
COPA COGECA; FOODDRINKEUROPE; Via Campesina; Euromontana; Greenpeace.
At a national level:
Belgium: Departement Landbouw en Visserij; FEVIA
Germany: Hessian Ministry of Agriculture; Zukunftsagentur Brandenburg; Fördergemeinschaft ökologischer Landbau Berlin-Brandenburg
France: Aquimer
Greece: WWF Greece
Italy: Regione Toscana
Latvia: Latvian Farmers Federation; Farmers Parliament Latvia; Latvian Agricultural Organisation Cooperation Council; Kalnciema Quarter
Poland: Zwiazek Zawodowy Centrum Narodowe Mlodych Rolnikow; Centrum Doradztwa Rolniczego w Brwinowie oddział w Krakowie
Portugal: Local action Group in the Alentejo region; Fundao Eugnio de Almeida
Serbia: Group for Creative Economy
UK: Soil Association
The project runs from May 2015 to April 2019.
Project Abstract
A sound functioning of the European food system is central to the delivery of food and nutrition security for all Europeans. However, this system faces many economic, environmental and social challenges, as well as opportunities, following a range of socio-economic and technological developments that are not equally distributed throughout the EU. Future policymaking that aims to develop healthy and resilient food systems needs to take into account this differentiation and diversity of approaches, which necessitate foresight activities that take into account both the development of important driving forces as well as the social and spatial diversity involved.
Primary production - that is agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture - forms the foundation of the food system. Its structure and performance is influenced by various conditions shaped by both the public and the private sectors. As economic agents, primary producers aim to generate a sufficient amount of income, but their financial conditions are highly dependent on both public and private actors, such as government regulators (including the EU’s agricultural and fisheries policies), the financial sector, suppliers, the food industry, retailers, etc. In other words, the web of policy requirements as well as input and output market imperfections greatly shape farmers’ and fishermen’s livelihoods. Knowledge on the conditions of primary producers and the driving forces influencing these conditions exists, but in a fragmented way: not all primary producers and regions are covered, not all driving forces have been investigated, cross-linkages between them have been insufficiently analysed, and future opportunities are not well integrated, etc.
The purpose of SUFISA is to identify sustainable practices and policies in the agricultural, fish and food sectors that support the sustainability of primary producers in a context of multi-dimensional policy requirements, market uncertainties and globalisation.
Follow Sufisa on Twitter @sufisa_eu
View the EU CORDIS record for this project
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme for research and innovation grant agreement no 635577
Project Updates and Activities
CCRI Brexit paper accepted for publication in Space and Polity
Damian Maye, Hannah Chiswell, Mauro Vigani and James Kirwan have had a paper accepted for publication in Space and Polity, which looks at how Brexit is being discussed now in two key agricultural sectors, cereals and horticulture
CCRI research team at 13th IFSA Symposium in Crete
A CCRI team has been in Chania in Crete attending the 13th European Farming Systems Symposium (IFSA – European Group) Symposium, which has been looking at ‘Farming systems facing uncertainties and enhancing opportunities’
Brexit under discussion at the RGS-IBG Conference 2017.
Damian Maye, James Kirwan, Dilshaad Bundhoo and Hannah Chiswell are at the Annual International Conference of the RGS-IBG, where Brexit is very much at the forefront of the CCRI presentations.
ESRS 2017 Conference update
Some abstracts of the CCRI presentations are now available for the XXVIIth ESRS Conference, which took place in Krakow, Poland, from 24th to 27th July.
CCRI team visit Denmark for Sufisa project meeting
Drs Damian Maye, James Kirwan and Mauro Vigani were in Esbjerg, Denmark on the 4th-6th July for the fifth project meeting for the SUFISA [Sustainable finance for sustainable agriculture and fisheries] project.
CCRI SUFISA team at project meeting in Portugal
Damian Maye and Mauro Vigani are currently in Portugal, presenting an update on progress to date on Work Package 2 under the Horizon 2020 SUFISA project.
CCRI at the 2016 RGS-IBG Annual Conference
The CCRI was well represented at the 2016 RGS-IBG Annual Conference, this year’s theme being ‘nexus thinking’, an approach that aims to address the interdependencies, tensions and trade-offs between different environmental and social domains.
Damian Maye and James Kirwan and the forthcoming RGS-IBG conference
Damian Mayer and James Kirwan are once again very much involved in the annual RGS-IBG conference, where they are organising a session on food system sustainability and resilience and also co-presenting three research papers.
Call for papers – 2016 International Farming Systems Association Symposium
The 2016 International Farming Systems Association Symposium is now calling for papers for the workshop “Boundary spanning between agroecological and conventional production systems: implications for pathways towards more sustainable production”.
2nd Meeting of SUFISA to take place in Paris
Drs James Kirwan, Damian Maye and Mauro Vigani will be attending the second meeting of the SUFISA project in Paris on 15 – 16 December.
CCRI at the 2016 International Farming Systems Association Symposium
The CCRI is to be well represented at the 2016 International Farming Systems Association Symposium, with sessions linking to three EU funded projects on which the CCRI is currently a working partner – Glamur, SUFISA and VALERIE
European funding won by Gloucestershire researchers
The CCRI has been successful in consortia bids for two EU Horizon 2020 research projects which will bring over 850,000 Euros to the University over the next five years.