Overview   Innovation

The Digest’s Top 10 Innovations for the week of August 21st

Innovation is key to improving productivity, sustainability and resilience in food and agriculture

A mobile application developed by an EU-funded project offers farmers much-needed, near-real-time support to increase yields - boosting their sustainability and competitiveness.

Biodegradable nappies and sanitary pads could reduce the burden that fossil-based plastic litter puts on nature. The prototypes currently developed are meant to be of higher quality, but still they are more expensive than the similar conventional products on the market

3F BIO, along with a consortium of 9 other partners, announce the launch of a project (known as ‘PLENITUDE’) to build a first-of-its-kind, large-scale, integrated biorefinery facility to produce proteins for food from low-cost sustainable feedstocks.

This initiative aims to support sustainability-driven innovation in creating new local value from waste and biomass. It will focus on helping develop sustainable and climate-neutral technologies and replacing non-renewable fossil and mineral resources with biomass and waste to obtain renewable products and nutrients.

Have your say on future objectives for EU-funded research and innovation

The conference will take place in the FAO premises in Rome and it will be co-hosted by the Africa Union Commission and the European Commission. AU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Economy, Ms Josefa Sacko and the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Phil Hogan are all expected to attend.

Promoting research and innovation, digitalisation and connectivity is among the priorities of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU. The 2018 edition of European Innovation Scoreboard has confirmed the large innovation gap between West and East Europe. At the same time, following President Juncker's 2017 State of the Union address, the Commission adopted in February 2018 a strategy for 'A credible enlargement perspective for and enhanced EU engagement with the Western Balkans'.

The bioeconomy is a crucial factor in fighting climate change, responding to the growing food demand and boosting rural areas. In its opinion on the Updating of the Bioeconomy Strategy, adopted at its plenary session of 15 May, the EESC calls for better support for SMEs in the form of advice and access to finance.

The Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) grant agreements for 18 new projects under the 2018 Call for proposals are now signed, bringing the total number of BBI JU-funded projects to 100. The newly signed projects will tackle a range of different topics from unlocking the potential of biodegradable packaging to using mealworms to produce animal feed.