RESUMEN
Background: Redesigning the agri-food system through agroecology represents a common ambition among practitioners, activists and scholars to achieve environmental and socio-economic sustainability. Research can have a main role to support this path. Although it seems that there is a gradual increasing body of agroecology research, it clearly lacks good knowledge about this. The main objective of this study was therefore to map research projects related to agroecology in Europe with the aim to characterize European research in terms of implementation of agroecology elements, identify needs for future cross collaboration between countries and networks, and support the setting up of appropriate research agendas fostering agroecology research in Europe. Methods: A desktop research with different databases related to European and transnational funding programmes was carried out to identify funded research projects involved in agroecology. The obtained projects were used to perform a social network analysis. Furthermore, two surveys were conducted, one with coordinators of identified projects and a second one for researchers engaged in agroecology. Results: Our study highlighted a predominant trajectory of agroecology research prone to the transformation of the agri-food system. France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and United Kingdom were the most active countries engaged in agroecology research. In all surveys, issues related to efficiency improvement, synergies strengthening, local economy development, and co-creation and sharing of knowledge were the most implemented to support agri-food transformation. Transdisciplinary approaches were mainly addressed by European projects. Surveys reported a limited participation of value chain actors, while researchers, farmers, and their associations were the most involved. Survey respondents suggested to increase project duration and introduce flexibility methods to modulate research actions according to dynamic of the contexts. Conclusion: On the basis of the results, some policy recommendations were provided to fostering agroecology research in Europe and its contribution for transformation of agri-foods systems.
RESUMEN
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicts that food production must rise 70% over the next 40 years to meet the demands of a growing population that is expected to reach nine billion by the year 2050. Many facets of basic plant science promoted by the Botanical Society of America are important for agriculture; however, more explicit connections are needed to bridge the gap between basic and applied plant research. This special issue, Speaking of Food: Connecting Basic and Applied Plant Science, was conceived to showcase productive overlaps of basic and applied research to address the challenges posed by feeding billions of people and to stimulate more research, fresh connections, and new paradigms. Contributions to this special issue thus illustrate some interactive areas of study in plant science-historical and modern plant-human interaction, crop and weed origins and evolution, and the effects of natural and artificial selection on crops and their wild relatives. These papers provide examples of how research integrating the basic and applied aspects of plant science benefits the pursuit of knowledge and the translation of that knowledge into actions toward sustainable production of crops and conservation of diversity in a changing climate.