Worldwide, one of the major issues in 2019 has been the discussion around climate change and environmental protection. The European Commission has long foreseen this, emerging as one of the greatest challenges of our times and has started numerous projects covering innovations to help the sustainability of our planet.
The research and innovation project LANDSUPPORT (Horizon2020) is one of these projects and is taking big steps towards environmental and agricultural policies on European level – taking into account the diversity of regions and countries on our continent and even beyond.
The original idea of the LANDSUPPORT Coordinator and consortium has come from basic research in combination with innovative thinking: how can data from soil science, biology, agricultural science and others be combined in a way as to make a difference to a large group of stakeholders, from a farmer to the policy-maker? Certainly, combination of data is one important aspect, but accessibility and usability on an every-day basis is the other as to offer the application of the insights and results for a region, for a specific land use and a specific stakeholder.
The final product of the project will be a total of 15 tools. Just after one year of project duration, the project has already offered the first tool – on land use - to be functional. In a live demonstration in Brussels, the European Commission has already confirmed the progress of the project, now awaiting the next deliveries and sharing the vision with the project consortium: making a real difference, when it comes to sustainable agriculture and forestry, trade-offs between land use and the implementation of land policies in Europe.
Facing one of the major challenges of our times, innovative ideas like these and joined forces are definitely needed. LANDSUPPORT - as a consortium of 19 partners of various disciplines - will have a say in environmental protection.