Source: European Parliament
The Commission promotes agricultural research and innovation (R&I) in the Member States through the EU R&I framework programme (Horizon Europe (HE)) and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), working in synergy.
Under HE, the Commission invests in R&I projects that involve beneficiaries to provide new knowledge and solutions for competitive and sustainable farming. The CAP[1] offers funding to strengthen the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS)[2] in Member States across the EU.
Under the HE (2021-2027)[3], the Commission earmarked approximately EUR 3.3 billion for transnational R&I projects in agriculture, forestry and rural areas.
Under the CAP 2023-2027, the Member States have planned around EUR 3.6 billion for EIP[4]-AGRI operational group projects (OGs)[5] and other knowledge sharing and creation activities .
As regards security of data from EU farmers collected through public authorities, the Commission has strict procedures in place on data access, re-use, publication and anonymisation, which are defined in the regulation that mandates the data collection[6].
As regards data collected by R&I projects, the HE[7] requires it to be open access but allows for the exceptions when legitimate data security risks apply.
- [1] Regulation (EU) 2021/2115, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32021R2115
- [2] Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) are defined in the regulation — 2021/2115 (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32021R2115) as the combined organisation and knowledge flows between persons, organisations and institutions who use and produce knowledge for agriculture and interrelated fields.
- [3] Horizon Europe Cluster 6 ‘Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment’.
- [4] European Innovation Partnerships.
- [5] EIP-AGRI OGs are bottom-up interactive innovation projects at local/national level.
- [6] For example Regulation (EU) 2011/2115 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2021/2115/oj, in particular Recital 128 and Articles 150 and 151.
- [7] Regulation (EU) 2021/695, Article 39, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32021R0695