The CCRI is part of a newly approved EU Horizon 2020 “Towards SUstainable and REsilient EU FARMing systems (SURE-Farm)”.
Amid concerns about the viability of EU farming systems, the 4-year SURE-Farm project will build on concepts of resilience thinking and aims to develop a comprehensive framework to identify the conditions that enable farming systems to become and remain resilient to a broad range of current and imminent stressors.
It will address determinants of resilience, potential improvements of risk management strategies, drivers of farm demographics, and strengths and weaknesses of the existing policy framework. Its overall ambition is to develop a novel, comprehensive resilience-enabling framework that can be supported, adopted and implemented by key actors in the sector (e.g. upstream and downstream value chain actors and insurance companies) and by policy makers in their attempts to enhance the sustainability and resilience of the EU agricultural sector.
The research of SURE-Farm will be organised into three phases: Phase I will address the resilience framework and challenges; Phase II will examine the capacity of farming systems to adapt and transform; Phase III will provide an integrated impact assessment and explores its role in promoting an enabling environment.
The work programme has three expected impacts:
1: Improve the delivery of the policy framework to agricultural activity thus fostering its sustainability. Particular attention will be paid to the delivery of the CAP
2: Provide farmers with better risk management tools
3: Improve the resilience of the agricultural sector in coping with the risks it faces.
The CCRI is one partner of a 16 pan-European consortium (from 13 countries), led by Wageningen University, with a strong transdisciplinary approach. See an interview in Resource with the project coordinator.
The CCRI team is led by Mauro Vigani and includes Rob Berry, Damian Maye, Paul Courtney and Julie Urquhart. The CCRI team is involved in Work Packages 1,2,6 and 7, and it is task leader of tasks 2.2 and 3.3. Team members will build on their research work for the EU projects SUFISA, GLAMUR, SOLINSA and VALERIE.
The work of the CCRI team will focus on farmers’ adaptive behaviour and learning capacity, the enabling environment for farms demographics and farm labour and the assessment of the capacity of the Common Agricultural Policy to enhance resilient and sustainable agriculture. A mixed quantitative and qualitative analytical approach will be used and large corporate farms in the East of England will be used as a case study. SURE-Farm started on the 1st June, 2017. Updates:
To coincide with the meeting, the project has launched its official website, which gives full information about the project and which will be updated as the project progresses.
A video about the work and aims of the SURE-Farm project was launched in April 2018.
Project Updates and Activities
New SURE-Farm policy brief
The SURE-Farm team have issued a new policy brief on farm demographics and impacts on farm structure, which has been in part based upon work conducted by a CCRI case study focussed on arable farming in the East of England.
Summer publication success for CCRI researchers
Over the summer period, two papers have been published that have had involvement from a number of CCRI researchers. Dan Keech is co-author on a paper that will be available next year, whilst Damian Maye, Julie Urquhart and Mauro Vigani contributed to a paper associated with the SURE-Farm project.
CCRI welcomes Belgian researcher to work on EU SURE-Farm project
The CCRI welcomes Belgian researcher, William de Grunne, who has come to work with the CCRI on the EU Horizon 2020 SURE-Farm project
CCRI welcomes visiting researchers
The CCRI was pleased to welcome Bárbara Soriano and Dr Vera Ventura during the summer months.
Resilience vital for post-Brexit British agriculture
The EU funded SURE-Farm project has published a policy brief which outlines why a broader view of resilience is needed to ensure a sustainable agricultural sector in the longer term.
MEDIA COVERAGE – University of Gloucestershire researchers explore the resilience of UK arable farming
Media coverage for University of Gloucestershire researchers explore the resilience of UK arable farming
East Anglian arable farmers wanted for international project
The SURE-Farm project is seeking arable farmers in East Anglia to participate in research investigating resilience and sustainability of farming systems.
Understanding dimensions of farm resilience
Julie Urquhart and Mauro Vigani have been giving training sessions for qualitative methods for understanding dimensions of farm resilience at a SURE-Farm meeting in Madrid
CCRI researchers explore the resilience of UK arable farming in major EU project
Researchers from the CCRI are working with a team of European scientists to develop a novel resilience-enabling framework that can support policy makers and the farming sector to enhance the sustainability and resilience of farms and farming systems.
MEDIA RELEASE – University of Gloucestershire researchers explore the resilience of UK arable farming
Researchers from the University of Gloucestershire’s Countryside and Community Research Institute (CCRI) are working with a team of European scientists to develop a novel resilience-enabling framework that can support policy makers and the farming sector to enhance the sustainability and resilience of farms and farming systems.
SURE-Farm kick-off meeting in Wageningen
The CCRI is part of a 16 pan-European consortium (from 13 countries) working on an EU Horizon 2020 project “Towards SUstainable and REsilient EU FARMing systems (SURE-Farm)”, which has just launched its official website.
New Horizon 2020 project SURE-Farm kicks off today!
The CCRI is part of a recently approved EU Horizon 2020 project, “Towards SUstainable and REsilient EU FARMing systems (SURE-Farm)”, which starts today (1st June).