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The European Commission has this week unveiled its Communication on a new Strategic Approach to Research and Innovation for agriculture, forestry, rural areas and food systems.

Published on 8 September, the document brings together two closely related frameworks to guide future research, innovation, deployment and uptake across the agri-food sector.

It aims to strengthen the innovation ecosystem across agri-food with an emphasis on stakeholders’ challenges and needs, and on the delivery of on-the-ground impact through collaborative initiatives between end users, researchers and businesses. The strategy also aims to support start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs in bringing new innovations to market and moving faster from lab-scale to commercial deployment.

The two frameworks are AgRI 2040, focusing on agriculture, forestry and rural areas, and Food 2040, covering food systems including fisheries and aquaculture.

Six areas of action have been identified within the Food 2040 framework: place-based food systems; healthy and sustainable diets; resource efficiency and zero pollution in food systems; food environments and consumer empowerment; scaling innovations, business models and fair food systems solutions; and aquatic food.

The frameworks are guided by six shared priorities: competitiveness, start-ups and scale-ups; food security, resilience and preparedness; natural resources and circularity; food and feed safety, nutrition and health; fairness; and global cooperation. Governance, technologies, and territories and communities are identified as common enablers.

EU food security and resilience is emphasised significantly throughout the food systems strategy. It emphasises the need to reduce dependencies on imports and fill in vulnerability gaps by strengthening domestic production of certain ingredients, such as vitamins, amino acids and enzymes.

The approach highlights the need to diversify protein supply, and mentions advanced fermentation technologies, using organisms like yeasts, algae and bacteria, as a key area targeted for investment. It calls for greater investment into open-access biomanufacturing infrastructure, as well as into technological solutions that can further support scale-up, such as AI and automation.

The strategy states that more financial support is required to help start-ups in this space overcome the ‘second valley of death,’ where companies struggle to move their innovations into industrial scale-up phase due to lack of capacity and infrastructure.

Additionally, it proposes a more integrated approach to research and innovation across nutrition, health and food safety, highlighting microbiome science as a promising area of focus, while food chain integrity is flagged as a priority with regards to ensuring traceability and transparency, and preventing/detecting food fraud.

The focus on food environment proposes research into the environments that shape consumer eating behaviours, including food availability, affordability, accessibility, labelling, packaging, and the transport, distribution and marketing of food, as well as the role of social media in influencing consumer perceptions of food.

Meanwhile, resource efficiency, food waste and reducing pollution are highlighted as key components of food chain sustainability amid ongoing efforts to decouple food production from fossil fuels. This emphasis spans across areas such as decarbonising food processing, reducing reliance on petrochemical-based packaging and protecting biodiversity.

To strengthen farmers’ position in the value chain, the food systems strategy addresses support for fair distribution across food systems with benefits for farmers and rural communities. It emphasises on-farm and local food processing and improved governance of rural food systems while reinforcing urban-rural linkages, as well as investment into digitalisation and decarbonisation initiatives and EU quality schemes, including organic production and geographical indications.

Christophe Hansen, Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, said: “Research and innovation can make a real difference to how we farm and manage our rural areas: from crops that can better withstand drought and extreme temperatures, to faster ways of detecting plant diseases, more sustainable crop protection and digital tools for smarter use of resources like water”.

“Our task is to make sure these ideas do not stay in the laboratory, but are tested, adapted to local conditions and turned into practical solutions that can be used and scaled up. In this way, research can have a real impact on the ground, helping farmers and foresters respond to new challenges and build a more competitive, resilient and sustainable agri-food sector.”

Further efforts will be discussed at the EU AgRI 2040 Conference, taking place in Brussels on 24-25 September. Hansen will open the conference, which brings together key stakeholders from across the agri-food and research community to contribute to shaping future priorities.

Alternative protein industry non-profit The Good Food Institute welcomed the strategy’s ‘promising’ references to diversifying protein supply and scaling up fermentation capacity.

However, it called for more ‘concrete’ commitment to funding the alt-protein research needed to achieve the aims set out in the strategy, which is expected to guide food research financing decisions under the EU’s Horizon Europe programme from 2028-2034.

In particular, GFI noted that the strategy falls short of including renewed support for dedicated research pathways to improve the taste, texture and price of plant-based, cultivated and fermentation-derived foods – despite an accompanying evidence review of the current Food 2030 agenda that acknowledged the success of such research.

Alessandro Gardino, policy officer at GFI Europe, said: “While it’s great to see a renewed focus on scaling up Europe’s fermentation manufacturing capacity, the lack of dedicated research to improve the taste and price of alternative proteins is a missed opportunity, particularly as the Commission has acknowledged their benefits in its own evidence review”.

“Europe’s alternative protein researchers also need support to address the remaining scientific challenges around taste, texture and price, so these foods can help to realise the EU’s ambitions for a more resilient, sustainable and healthy food system.”