Geographical location | Ireland |
Main geographical location (NUTS3) | Mid-East |
Keywords | Farming practice Animal husbandry and welfare Agricultural production system Fertilisation and nutrients management Farming / forestry competitiveness and diversification |
Main funding source | Horizon 2020 (EU Research & Innovation programme) |
Project Identification | Thematic network |
Project type | Research project |
Starting date | 2020 |
End date | 2022 |
Project status | Ongoing |
Website |
see objectives in English
BovINE (Beef Innovation Network Europe) is tackling sustainability challenges, identified as urgent by the 255,000 farmers that constitute the EU bovine meat sector, by bringing together beef farmers, farming organisations, advisors, researchers and other stakeholders to collectively develop practical innovations that can be implemented on European beef farms immediately.
see project activities in English
Recognising the role of farmers as innovators, BovINE will draw on the reservoir of knowledge which exists at farm level on the four related key themes of: Socio-economic Resilience, Animal Health & Welfare, Production Efficiency & and Meat Quality and Environmental Sustainability. Using these themes, BovINE will also identify research findings that have not yet been widely adopted at farm level. Before recommending uptake their feasibility in practice will be assessed, including demonstration of such solutions on multiple beef farms across Europe.
The BovINE concept was created to address the needs of 255,000 farms in the EU bovine meat sector, which produce approximately 7.6 million tonnes of beef per annum from a bovine herd of around 88 million heads. The sector accounts for approx. 8% of total agricultural output, valued at 33.2bn in 2016. However depite its relative importance to the European economy, the beef industry is characterised by tight margins and low profitability. In relation to environmental aspects the livestock sector has been identified by the FAO, in relation to greenhouse gas emmissions and climate change as "one of the most significant contributors of today's most serious environmental problems. Addittionally forecasted ongoing declines in EU beef consumption (11.0kg/hd to 10.2kg/hd 2018-2030) reflects social aspects including societal demands to increase food production standards in relation to ethical, animal welfare and environmental issues. Furthermore the consumption of red meat has some negative health connotations. BovINE will therefore help the sector to address the challenges it faces in relation to economic, environmental and social sustainability through the development of a thematic innovation network. The European Commission has dedicated significant resources to enhancing knowledge exchange and innovation in agriculture via thematic networks; however no network focused soley on the beef farmers has been established to date. BovINE is stepping forward to close the divide between reseaerch and innovation by bringing together beef farmers, farming organisations, advisors, researchers and other relevant actors across Europe to tackle urgent challenges faced by beef producers.
The BovINE project draws on the connections of consortium members to agricultural demonstration-focused networks, beef networks, sub-thematic networks (i.e related to socio-economic resilience, animal health and welfare, production effciency and meat quality and environmental sustainability), and EU, national and regional networks. Using a multi-actor approach the project will capture and share innovative ideas and methods from practice across Europe and identify research findings that have not yet been widely adopted and enhance their potential for integration into practice via assessing feasibility through application in demonstration farms. The project will ultimately form a transnational ecosystem to stimulate knowledge exchange at international level and boost the sustainability of the European beef-producing sector.
The BovINE project will create a repository of practice-ready research solutions and good practices on the four sub-thematic areas, that have been analysed in terms of addressing beef farmers needs, cost benefit aspects and feasibility. This repository known as the 'BovINE Knowledge Hub' (www.hub-bovine.eu) will be used to disseminate end user material using similar format to that of an EIP-AGRI practice abstract.