EU and China look ahead to future food and agriculture R&I

Research and innovation in the field of Food, Agriculture and Biotechnology (FAB) has been identified as a key priority for the EU – China cooperation, with a dedicated EU – China Task Force on FAB established in 2013.

Since then this cooperation has produced 16 projects (with 4 more coming in 2019 and 2020) for a total funding of more than €120 million under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation framework programme. More information on the funded projects can be found in the dedicated brochure.

In the scope of this flagship initiative, the European Commission Directorate-General for agriculture and rural development and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences hosted an EU – China FAB expert seminar on 25 March 2019 in Brussels.
The seminar brought together around 60 experts from both EU and China to discuss and explore potential further developments of the EU-China research and innovation cooperation in the FAB fields beyond 2020.

Specific objectives of the workshop were to:

• discuss and develop further, with the help of experts, the thematic areas selected by the FAB Task Force that could be interesting for further bilateral collaboration;
• identify possible objectives for action to address common challenges, hence forming the basis for the further development of challenged-based topics of mutual interest or cooperation activities at programme level.

The seminar consisted in two plenaries (opening and closing) and 5 parallel thematic sessions in the fields of:

1. Sustainable agriculture, ecosystem services and environment – how to manage the trade-offs
2. Agri-waste
3. Healthy food
4. Genetic resources
5. Forestry

In each of these sessions, experts presented their views on challenges and opportunities for cooperation from a Chinese or European perspective. Discussion then allowed participants to identify where are challenges of common interest and how best to tackle them through research and innovation. To learn more, see presentations and sessions’ conclusions and thematic reports below.

Workshop documents

• Agenda

Presentations

Plenaries

• EU-China cooperation in research & innovation: the FAB Flagship initiative
• Commission proposal for Horizon Europe
• Expert seminar introduction

Thematic sessions conclusions for the plenary

1. Sustainable agriculture, ecosystem services and environment – How to manage the trade-offs?
2. Agri-waste
3. Healthy food
4. Genetic resources
5. Forestry

All documents can be downloaded at the bottom of the page.