The national strategy of the Albanian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) for rural development and fisheries underlines the role of Agricultural Knowledge as the main pillar to improve sustainable food systems: ln January 2022, the MARD launched a strategy to strengthen producers’ capacity and enable them to adopt resilient practices by national training. In this context, the current offer in terms of agricultural advice -partly deployed via 5 Technology Transfer Centers- has to strengthen its capacities. The aim of this project is to set up a training offer at the Agricultural University of Tirana (UBT) which gathers and cooperates with national and regional actors, serving as a seed of the Albanian Agricultural Knowledge & Innovation Systems (AKIS). The INSIST-VAT CB VET project will meet the missions entrusted to the UBT by the MARD for designing a “producers’ academy” and offering training courses to producers and extension workers. INSIST-VAT will participate in:

• The identification of the training needs of producers and extension workers;
• The design of a training offer to meet the needs of producers and extension workers;
• The organization, structuration and integration of a training center at the UBT, in connection with the departments & faculties concerned;
• The setting-up of an interactive online platform as a tool for producers training; -The sustainability of the training center in terms of training offer, financing and national and international networking;
• The involvement of Kosovo in this process -a country that faces the same agricultural challenges and training needs- so as to allow the future transferability of this training tools to Kosovo.

The overall aim of the project is to support, through lifelong learning, the professional and personal development of people in the fields of agriculture in Albania, with the medium-term objective of replicating the results of the project in Kosovo and thus contributing to sustainable growth, quality jobs, social cohesion and the promotion of innovation in Albania. The project will also advance agricultural cooperation between Albania, Kosovo and the project consortium’s EU partner countries and beyond.

Considering the above points, the specific Objectives are as follows

1. Vocational Training Center design Objective: To design and equip and structure a state-of-the-art training center at the Agricultural University of Tirana in terms of human resources, operation and equipment.
2. Curriculum Development: Objective: Create a comprehensive curriculum tailored to the identified needs of the agricultural community.
3. Training of Trainers: Objective: Train a cadre of educators and extensionists to deliver the curriculum effectively.
4. Outreach and Enrollment: Objective: Enroll a significant number of agricultural householders and specialists in training programs.
5. Integration with AKIS: Objective: Ensure the training center is fully integrated with AKIS, enhancing the information and innovation flow.

The following activities will be developed:

• 4 workshops. These will gather stakeholders and actors of the agricultural training sector: technical centers, farmers representatives, ministries in charge of agriculture, continuous learning environment from Albania and Kosovo
• Identification of the needs according to the different production sectors: Collecting the needs in terms of vocational training from the producers, according to the different production sectors: breeding, cereal cultivation, production of aromatic and medicinal plants, arboriculture, apiculture, fishing through a comprehensive approach through Interviews, focus groups and field observations.
• Mapping the Current Vocational Training Landscape, this involves a detailed survey of the vocational training institutions and programs currently operational in Albania.
• Analysis and consolidation of the farmers’ needs.
• Analysis and consolidation of the trainers’ needs.
• Validation through the stakeholders’ engagement, through key consultation meetings with different groups of stakeholders.
• Benchmark on European vocational training: Structural organisation, with a specific focus on France and Spain.
• Benchmark on European vocational training: training content, aiming to establish a comprehensive inventory of vocational training programmes across Europe that exemplify best practices in sustainable an innovative agriculture.
• A critical assessment of how European vocational training models canbe adapted to the Albanian agricultural and educational landscape.
• Identification of ways to promote and increase cooperation between the various players involved in agricultural training in Europe, already established with the consortium and Albania.
• Setting up a training center.
• Elaboration of a sustainability plan for the center.
• Identification of needs to make the center secure and accessible to all and at the cutting edge of technology.
• Building the VET accreditation framework (structuration and training content).
• Staffing HR for the training center.
• Developing and leveraging national networks.
• Training of Trainers.
• Training of Administrative staff.
• Training of farmers.
• Quality plans for training center, training contents for accreditation and evaluation system.
• Accreditation process by a competent authority.

The main effects of the project are as following:

Short-Term Effects: In the immediate term, the project aims to provide agricultural training courses given at a training center as well as a structured and accessible platform for education and training for individuals directly involved in the agricultural sector. The target groups primarily include:

1. Agricultural Householders in Rural Areas: They will gain access to contemporary farming techniques, enabling them to improve crop yields, manage their resources more efficiently, and increase their income levels with a more direct path to market for their products.
2. Agricultural Specialists: The center will offer specialists the latest knowledge in agricultural science, helping to bridge the gap between research and practice.
3. Agricultural Extensionists: These professionals will receive training to disseminate knowledge effectively, ensuring that the latest innovations reach even the most remote farming communities.

Medium-Term Effects: Over a medium-term horizon, the training center will begin to influence the broader agricultural ecosystem. As knowledge dissemination becomes more systematic, the adoption of innovative practices is expected to grow. This will likely result in:

• Enhanced Agricultural Outcomes: With better training, agricultural outcomes in terms of quality, quantity, and sustainability of produce are expected to improve.
• Economic Growth: As rural households apply new skills, they can diversify their income sources, potentially leading to a reduction in poverty levels.
• Increased Competitiveness: Agricultural specialists and extensionists equipped with the latest knowledge will help Albania’s agricultural products compete on the international stage.

Long-Term Effects: In the long term, the training center is poised to become a cornerstone of the national Agricultural Knowledge Innovation System (AKIS), which is crucial for the continuous improvement of the agricultural sector. The long-term impacts include:

• Sustainable Agricultural Practices: Education and training promote sustainable practices, ensuring long-term soil health and resource conservation.
• Robust Agricultural Economy: A more educated agricultural workforce can lead to a more resilient agricultural economy capable of withstanding global changes.
• Cultural Shift: There may be a cultural shift toward valuing education and continuous learning within the agricultural sector.

In addition to the above-mentioned impacts at local and national level, the project will also have a regional and international impact: the involvement of the University of Pristina in Kosovo and associated partners such as the Kosovo Ministry of Agriculture (which will be involved in workshops organized as part of the project with all stakeholders) will enable the dissemination and replicability of the work carried out as part of the project (methodology, experience, know-how), with a direct impact on this neighbouring country, which is facing the same agricultural challenges.

Behavioural and cognitive biases reduce the ability of decision makers to adopt the best solutions among the alternatives available. Borrowed from pre-existing knowledge in psychology on priming, “nudges” are defined as gentle interventions in a decision maker’s choice architecture (default choice, information, presentation, framing etc.), which enhance the likelihood of optimal choices. ForestAgriGreenNudge will first review initiatives and projects which explicitly or implicitly use Green Nudges to promote the use of sustainable practices in farming and forestry. It will then assess each type of nudge according to two types of criteria: 1) Criteria associated with efficacy in promoting the use of the desired practices over a sufficiently long period and 2) Criteria dictated by ethics and good practice principles (transparency, nudge awareness, participation/self-regulation, actor-specificity, etc.) that guarantee the quality of the implementation process. Nudges will then be tested in the field and assessed on a grid, reflecting the desiderata of efficacy and implementation quality. The set of successful nudges will be enriched by innovative nudges based on information regarding attitudes and strategies of actors along the entire value chain. The resulting set of nudges together with their corresponding implementation guidelines, and the business models and market conditions which favour their application in agroforestry will be collected on an online tool (iNUDGE Academy) whose target audience will include policy makers, wholesalers, retailers, farmers and foresters. The tool will associate each nudge with implementation rules, possible domains of application and possible risks in terms of efficacy/good practice trade-offs. Diffusion of the results among farming and forestry experts, policy makers, and actors along the value chain will maximise the impact of the project, enhancing the adoption of sustainable practices in the farm and in the forest.

ForestAgriGreenNudge will identify effective green nudges, and the key features that make them suitable to different stakeholders in different scenarios. Working with established EU initiatives, we will showcase examples of green nudges in action, and work across value chains to identify and implement new effective green nudges. We will engage with policy makers to ensure green nudges are effectively incorporated into policy and establish an “iNUDGE Academy” to support any stakeholder looking to select, apply and benefit from green nudges.

Specific objectives of the project are to:

1. Identify green nudges
2. Test innovative green nudges and improve practitioners’ self-regulatory capacity
3. Scale up access to, and uptake of, green nudges

The following activities will be developed:

• Development of the Green nudge evaluation grid and resource library.
• Open access Green Nudge Conferences.
• Policy forums and national conferences.
• Nudge interventions tested across forestry and agriculture.
• Development of Best Practices.
• Open access publications.
• Green Nudge training delivered through the iNUDGE Academy.
• Establishment of the Nudge Library, and nudge evaluation grid, and best practice guidelines.
• Development of policy recommendations, based on policy forum workshops and national engagement with policy makers and AKIS actors leads to improve policies and decision making.
• Link with other EU projects, including EU-FarmBook, ModernAKIS, ATTRACTISS, WP2 collaborations and Project Group formations.

• Improved understanding of and selection of Green Nudges, accounting for behavioural biases.
• New diagnostic tools for behavioural biases, adapted to forestry and farming context.
• Proposal and effectiveness testing of new and existing nudges, with external validity checks in the field.
• Publications, reports and policy recommendations, enabling policy makers, solution developers, advisors and farmers to recognise biological, behavioural and socioeconomic limitations on transition towards sustainable practices and increased uptake of Green Nudges, and opportunities to overcome these limitations.
• Educational modules for the training of foresters, farmers and their respective advisors and value chain actors, including AKIS actors, concerning the effectiveness and implementation of nudges as a means of enhancing transition towards sustainable production.
• Multi-actor stakeholders are aware of Green Nudges and have access to information about Best Practice of their application.
• Nudgees are able to self-regulate their own behaviours in response to Green Nudges.
• Increased research into development of novel nudges and implementation, and integration into the evaluation grid.
• Green Nudges are selected and embedded into policy development and implementation at European and national scales.
• iNDUGE Acaedmy and associated resources.

ActFast is a Horizon Europe Innovation Action (Grant Agreement No. 101181159) dedicated to identifying, validating, and demonstrating climate change adaptation and mitigation solutions tailored for European aquaculture. ActFast aims to identify, validate, and demonstrate climate change adaptation and mitigation solutions tailored for European aquaculture, alongside opportunities to increase sustainable production. Targeting regions where aquaculture is deeply integrated into the socio-economic fabric, the project will map climate hazards across the Mediterranean Sea, deltas, Central-Eastern European inland waters, and North-east Atlantic Ocean, utilising historical data, predictions, stakeholder insights, and satellite surveys. Integrating this comprehensive data analysis, the project will develop a user-friendly early warning system for the Mediterranean region empowering aquafarmers to proactively manage and mitigate climate risks. ActFast will promote the development of fast and replicable climate solutions for marine, transitional, and freshwater aquaculture by integrating climate prediction models with targeted solutions in four target regions. Given the unique impacts and sensitivities of the targeted areas and aquaculture systems, ActFast aims to design mitigation strategies that consider both regional and species-specific characteristics, boosting the productive efficiency, health, and well-being of farmed fish and molluscs struggling against climate change’s impacts, increasing and diversifying production in coastal and rural areas, promoting economic growth and community resilience, and minimising environmental impact and shrinking European aquaculture’s carbon footprint. The proposed innovations will be shared through an inclusive dissemination and communication plan, while the market uptake of the results and outputs will be ensured by a detailed exploitation strategy. To achieve maximum exploitation, dissemination, and knowledge transfer, ActFast will develop and implement a “Virtual ActFast Lighthouse”, an immersive demo-training virtual reality collecting data from diverse experiments and field operations conducted across multiple work packages.

1. Develop climate-smart aquaculture solutions. Create and demonstrate tailored adaptation and mitigation solutions for aquaculture under diverse European climate regimes.
2. Enhance fish and shellfish health. Improve survival and productivity by advancing disease prevention tools, reducing antibiotic use, and supporting resilient husbandry practices.
3. Boost sustainable production. Leverage climate conditions to shorten production cycles, improve mollusc survival, and develop innovative feeds to support sustainable growth.
4. Advance circularity and low-impact practice. Implement dietary innovations, integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, and circular systems to reduce the carbon footprint and environmental impact.
5. Strengthen internationalization efforts by advancing international scientific cooperation focused on the life cycle of agri-food processes, fostering collaboration and knowledge-sharing on a global scale.
6. Deliver early warning systems. Provide AI-driven climate predictions and a user-friendly early warning system to help aquaculture farmers to anticipate and manage risk.
7. Mobilise knowledge and skills. Share results widely through training, outreach, and the Virtual ActFast Lighthouse, empowering aquaculture operators across Europe and beyond.

• Mediterranean. Focus on seabass and seabream farms, particularly vulnerable to heatwaves and fish diseases. The Po Delta (Italy) and other Mediterranean sites test adaptive feeds and health solutions
• North-east Atlantic. In Norway and Scotland, the focus is on salmon aquaculture, testing functional feeds and genetic approaches to reduce complex gill disease and improve smolt quality.
• River deltas. In the Ebro Delta (Spain), Po Delta (Italy), and Nile Delta (Egypt), ActFast addresses mussel thermotolerance, invasive blue crab threats to clams, and develops innovative Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) systems with fish, shellfish, algae, and rice.
• Inland waters. Demonstrations in Hungary and Slovenia focus on carp, trout, and catfish farming. The case studies include new wintering feeds, biosensors for pathogens, and duckweed-based IMTA to improve resilience in cold freshwater systems.

CIHEAM will coordinate the WP – Competence development and knowledge mobilisation whose objective is to ensure the widest possible dissemination of project findings, conclusions, and recommendations to both relevant stakeholders and the general public. CIHEAM Bari and CIHEAM Zaragoza will develop the following activities:

• Two 5-day in-person advanced multidisciplinary courses to equip stakeholders with the knowledge and skills needed to adopt the new solutions developed in WP1 to WP6.
• Two in-person training workshops focus on specific knowledge, tools, and skills needed for stakeholders to adopt the innovative solutions developed in WP1 to WP6.
• Online Transfer Knowledge. Webinar series. Webinars will be designed and developed to transfer selected and specific knowledge, conclusions and recommendations generated from all WPs.
• Mobilisation of Advisory Board Management and other Stakeholders. The AB members will provide their expert opinions in form of inputs, feedback and recommendations and will support the outreach project results through their professional networks.

Redesign of agrifood systems is urgent to mitigate the effects of climate change and fulfil sustainable development goals. This process requires that professionals involved in the food life cycle have a set of competencies currently not present in the curricula, such as the ability to assess the environmental impact and sustainability of the activities and processes in the agri-food systems or the most recent scientific and technological developments to increase resilience to the effects of climate change and the productivity in the agroindustry and food processing. The project aims to identify and fill those gaps in 5 universities from 3 countries in South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Uruguay). The concrete goal is to modernise a wide range of food-related study programs on the participating IES, including agronomy, agroecology, bioprocesses and food technologies at undergraduate, master and doctorate levels. To achieve and sustain these curricular changes, teachers from all the participating HEIs will be trained in the new content by experienced professors and researchers from 4 HEIs in 3 European countries (Belgium, Spain and Portugal). A transdisciplinary approach involving teachers, students, and relevant societal actors (local/rural communities, farms, industry and commerce) will bring closer training, labour market and societal needs. The curricular changes will materialise in developing 18 courses to be incorporated into the existing programs, four new study programs, and nine modernised laboratories for practical. All the created material for students and teachers will be offered freely and openly through a series of MOOCs to maximise the project’s impact. We expect these changes will contribute to employability, sustainable growth, transition to a greener economy, and the empowerment of local communities by addressing how the degradation of natural resources and the deterioration of productive systems affects the local populations.

The EduSAF project aims to ensure that training, research, and knowledge exchange on agri-food systems lead to ecological and sustainable improvements. These improvements contribute to food security, employability, increased incomes, and the livelihoods of communities while reducing environmental degradation through the integration of technological tools. This goal directly aligns with three of the European Commission’s overarching priorities for Latin America: the Green Deal, Digital Transformation, and Sustainable Growth and Employability.

In this context, and considering the specific needs of each country and Higher Education Institution (HEI), the EduSAF project pursues the following five specific objectives, which serve as a common foundation across the diverse realities of the participating entities: Latin American:

• Prioritize curricular changes by identifying the genuine needs of social actors to ensure relevance and alignment with societal challenges.
• Enhance the capacities of participating Latin American HEIs through teacher training in key project areas: environmental sustainability, life cycle assessment for evaluating agri-food systems, resilience to climate change effects, and the use of digital tools and green technologies for improving agri-food systems.
• Upgrade training programs by updating curricula and laboratory practices to focus on developing graduates’ competencies, critical thinking, and capacities. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the environmental impact of agri-food processes, fostering resilience to climate change, applying appropriate technologies, and addressing labor market demands, all while incorporating local knowledge and needs. Transdisciplinary education approaches, such as problem-solving methodologies or innovation days, will be included.
• Foster integration and transdisciplinarity by promoting the exchange of information, knowledge, experiences, and best practices across the region. This will generate synergies between academia and the socio-economic sectors of the agri-food system, ensuring the sustainability of actions beyond the project’s conclusion.
• Strengthen internationalization efforts by advancing international scientific cooperation focused on the life cycle of agri-food processes, fostering collaboration and knowledge-sharing on a global scale.

• Needs Assessment: Conduct an analysis of the general needs of local socio-economic actors to identify gaps and introduce improvements in curricula. This aims to equip graduates with enhanced competencies in the proposed subject areas.
• Objective Formulation: Based on the identified needs, design new learning objectives to enhance students’ skills and capacities by the end of the course.
• Selection of New Learning Content: Ensure that the selected content aligns with the learning objectives, maintaining relevance, validity, and meaningfulness for students.
• Organization of New Learning Content: Structure the learning material by considering learners’ maturity, prior knowledge, comprehension levels, critical thinking abilities, and interests.
• Development of Teaching Concepts and Materials: Create innovative concepts and materials to improve teaching and learning practices. This includes evaluating and disseminating these strategies to maximize their impact.
• In-Service Training for Educators: Provide professional development for educators, focusing on self-assessment of their teaching effectiveness. Training should include improving skills in curriculum development, evaluation, and implementation.
• Documentation of Best Practices: Compile and share teaching materials, instructional scenarios, and experiences as examples of effective teaching practices for broader adoption.

• The project is expected to have a significant impact on Latin American HEIs during its implementation, primarily through the training of a considerable number of teachers in areas of knowledge that differ substantially from their current expertise. While this presents a challenge for the participating educators, the overwhelming interest they have demonstrated in acquiring these competencies ensures the success of these activities. The teachers recognize the urgent demand for these skills from the socio-economic sector. Equipped with these new capabilities, they will not only effectively guide students in the new content areas but also establish connections with regional experts, fostering collaboration in both education and research.
• A dedicated work package on regional integration will further strengthen links between HEIs in the region, across different disciplines within HEIs, and between HEIs and socio-economic actors. This initiative will enhance interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge exchange, creating a robust network of stakeholders.
• The project will also bring immediate improvements to practice laboratories, providing specialized equipment currently unavailable in the region. This enhancement will transform traditional laboratory practices, enabling hands-on experiences that closely mirror real-world scenarios in the productive and industrial sectors.
• A direct and tangible impact is anticipated for students in the short term, as the new courses will be integrated into existing curricula as elective options. These courses will introduce content that is both complementary to current programs and highly relevant to societal needs, addressing concepts that are entirely absent from present offerings. The rapid implementation of these courses is expected to generate substantial benefits for graduates, equipping them with valuable, in-demand skills.
• The introduction of new study programs at UNCuyo, UMSS, and UTO will amplify the project’s impact, extending benefits to a broader student population, including those outside the participating HEIs. Additionally, the creation of MOOCs from all project materials will ensure open and free access to this knowledge, further extending its reach and societal impact.

The aim of BELIS is (i) to increase the competitiveness of the EU and Associated Countries legume breeding industry by improving the methodologies and the governance structures of the breeding sector; (ii) to design conditions that allow an efficient delivery of the achieved genetic progress to the breeders and seed industry, and to the other actors (registration offices, extension services, feed and food industry, farmers). The project will focus on seven forage crops and seven grain crop that are currently grown to produce feed (for ruminants – cattle, sheep, goat and monogastric animals – pig, poultry), food (as is or after processing) or to deliver ecosystem services. BELIS has three main objectives: (1) To develop tools and methodologies for cost-effective breeding programmes and deliver proofs of concept, with and for breeders, (2) To facilitate the economic and regulatory environment: variety registration, variety recommendation and business models, (3) To implement an efficient, ambitious and durable transfer of innovation through the BELIS platform that includes a network of breeders and actors from scientific research, extension services and seed, food and feed industries, as well as a training portfolio. By enabling the creation of improved varieties in many species, adapted to different areas and uses in Europe, this project is relevant for the destinations towards “Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services”, mainly contributing to “Access to a wider range of crops and breeds with a broadened genetic base is improved in line with global biodiversity commitments”. It also supports the “Practices in agriculture and forestry support biodiversity and the provision of other ecosystems services”. In addition, BELIS will have a positive input on natural biodiversity, reduction of air and water pollutions and farming system sustainability.

BELIS objectives

1. To develop tools and methodologies for cost-effective breeding programmes and deliver proofs of concept, with and for breeders.
2. To facilitate the economic regulatory environment variety registration, variety recommendation and business models
3. To implement an efficient, ambitious and durable transfer of innovation through the BELIS platform that includes a network of breeders and actors from scientific research, extension services and seed, food and feed industries, as well as a training portfolio.

The following activities will be developed:

• Bring together the community of breeders and other key actors of the value chain around themes of shared interest, to facilitate transfer and exploitation of BELIS outputs in order to boost legume breeding
• Communicate and disseminate, through multiple stakeholder groups and geographical levels, the activities messages, achievements and main results of BELIS
• Optimize/update of breeder´s friendly (i.e. cost effective for many samples application) screening tools for important legume traits.
• Develop more efficient low-cost genotyping solutions for grain and forage legumes.
• Identify trait-marker associations and develop genomic selection models for key agronomic traits.
• Establish a data repository for curated marker, phenotype and marker-trait association data.
• Validation of enhanced phenotyping techniques.
• Validation of Marker Trait Associations, with focus on introduction of disease and pest tolerance.
• Validation of genomic prediction models, enabling the selection of genetically complex traits such as drought resistance, yield and protein content.
• Generating a ´one-stop-shop´ comprising phenotyping and genotyping protocols and tools used for all 14 target species in BELIS
• Increase cost-efficiency and accuracy of DUS (Distinctness, Uniformity, Stability) testing for variety registration and seed lot certification, using molecular markers.
• Facilitate and increase efficiency of VCU (Value for Cultivation and Use) assessment of varieties to be registered; and optimize VCU field trials at the agrizone level.
• Reinforce and adapt variety recommendations for increased deployment of legume species and varieties in the current and future agroclimatic conditions in Europe.
• Evaluate existing as well as to identify, co-create, develop, pilot and support innovative and viable governance and business models facilitating the breeding of legumes as the basis for feed and food market development as well as providers of public ecosystem services.

• Cost-efficient and accurate phenotyping protocols, genotyping tools, overview of genetic diversity, molecular breeding methods (toolbox), participatory breeding methods, data.
• Implementation of new methods in breeding programmes as proofs of concept for conventional and organic breeding.
• Tools, methodologies and organisation proposed to/with registration offices to improve cost efficiency and accuracy of the legume variety registration and its relevance to all stakeholder needs.
• The agronomic characteristics of varieties listed on the Catalogue of legume species described and available.
• Adaptation of the main variety types to European regions described
• Results delivered to stakeholders (extension services, farmers, food & feed industries) and breeders (breeding targets).
• Optimised economic models for legume breeding including participatory breeding, with propositions of new types of governance and business models for financial supports proposed to breeders
• Tool to calculate return on investment of a breeding programme released
• BELIS platform, centred on a breeding actor network
• Training portfolio

Since 2019, Lebanon has been facing a multicausal humanitarian crisis. The financial crisis, political instability, the Covid-19 pandemic, the devastating explosion in the port of Beirut in 2020 and the recent bombings along the southern border started in October 2023, have all contributed to growing needs and significant challenges for farmers and producers in the olive sector. Rising production costs and government-imposed export restrictions are the main causes behind the surge in prices, making it difficult for the local population to access olives and derived products. OLIB aims to enhance agricultural transformation in the olive-growing sector by providing theoretical and practical training for producers, farmers, technicians and local advisors. This will serve to support innovative decision-making in agronomic management and olive production in the Nabatieh region of southern Lebanon. The training will be designed based on the local needs for cooperatives, farmers, advisors and technicians in the olive sector and delivered with the support of the women’s organic agriculture and beekeeping cooperative of Deir Mimas.

The project aims to encourage use of meteorological and environmental data in the olive-growing sector, positioning oil quality assessment as a driving factor. This data can be applied to improve production and at the same time ensure the environmental sustainability of the crop. Training will be delivered by Spanish experts with a wide range of expertise in education and experience in this part of Lebanon to offset the lack of professional capacity-building initiatives for farmers, advisors and technicians and limited knowledge of agronomic techniques that can make olive production more effective and sustainable in the context of economic crisis and global climate change.

• To empower women by articulating the project through engagement with Deir Mimas women’s cooperative.
• To achieve more sustainable management of olive crops and natural resources (water, soil and biodiversity) through producer capacity building.
• To draw up a compendium of best practices (Guidebook of Agronomic Techniques) in the local language (Arab) and in Spanish in order to protect the environment and make crops more resilient to climate change.
• To enhance the role of agrifood cooperatives in the sector.
• To improve knowledge on advanced olive processing techniques to improve the cooperative’s organisational and olive processing capacity and produce better quality olive oil.

• Co-create learning materials in collaboration with the local cooperatives in the Nabatieh governate. Theoretical and practical activities on oil production and assessment of oil characteristics, with findings documented in a report of the oil mill.
• Provide an online advisory service for the network comprising farmers, advisors, researchers, private sector.
• A virtual seminar with the network of experts and coordinator of the project to knowledge sharing on the topics addressed during the project.
• Draw up a report detailing the training and knowledge-transfer activities conducted throughout the project. The report will highlight the progress made and initiatives undertaken within the project framework, underlining needs identified for future cooperation activities. This document will be used to disseminate the project’s activities and outcomes among other stakeholders in the sector.
• Publish the Guidebook of Agronomic Techniques. This project outcome will be a compendium of agronomic practices and recommendations on olive grove management and olive processing in the oil mill. The guidebook will be made available to local cooperatives and stakeholders so they can disseminate and transfer the knowledge generated within the project.

• Empowerment of women from the organic agriculture and beekeeping cooperative of Deir Mimas and local farmers in the surrounding area engaged in olive cultivation, oil production and bottling. Establishment of a benchmark of best practices for olive management and yield improvement in the area involved in the project as local partner that will facilitate the accomplishment of the project across all its stages.
• Support for the beneficiaries (farmers’ cooperatives, farmers, advisors and technicians in the olive sector) of the theoretical and practical training to improve olive yield and crop efficiency without damaging the agricultural ecosystem.
• Creation of knowledge networks, strengthening collaboration between the Lebanese and Spanish experts and providing beneficiaries of the theoretical and practical training with an advisory service in questions related to olive growing.
• Publication of a ‘Guidebook of Agronomic Techniques’ consisting of a manual of best practices. This will be translated from Spanish into the local language (Arab) to be disseminated and used by the trainees and other farmers’ cooperative members, advisors and technicians in Lebanon.