Towards a safe and just operating
space for EU agriculture

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Why BrightSpace

BrightSpace addresses the Work Programme Topic HORIZON-CL6-2021-GOVERNANCE-01-12 – EU agriculture within a safe and just operating space and planetary boundaries.

The European Green Deal, aims, among others, to increase the contribution of EU agriculture to climate change action, improve the management of natural resources, ensure a fair economic return for farmers, and reinforce the protection of biodiversity. EU agriculture and food practices are currently not on the right track to meet the Green Deal ambitions and objectives. These objectives are interdependent, and while often aligned, they may also compete. Synergies and trade-offs between socio-economic and environmental outcomes are brought together in the concept of a Safe and Just Operating Space (SJOS), where the Safe component reflects the bio-physical boundaries of the ecosystem and the Just component the requirements for the well-being of the involved people. Policy makers and opinion leaders often lack sufficient information to gauge the likely effects of a SJOS crises in their country.

Project objectives

The ambition and overarching objective of BrightSpace is to address this challenge by designing effective and sustainable strategies to navigate within a SJOS. 

BrightSpace provides an analytical toolbox to experiment, analyse, and coordinate the effects of innovative technologies, governance structures, as well as short- and long-term policies related to agriculture, thereby allowing for the execution of consistent, coherent, and lasting strategies with the desired consequences. 

The project emphasises the diversity of challenges regarding the SJOS across countries and regions and delivers new empirical evidence on cause-effect relations between drivers and outcomes relevant for the SJOS. 

A harmonised data framework and modelling toolbox are developed for medium-term and forward-looking projections of possible SJOS futures by 2050 and beyond. 

The support for effective and sustainable actions will include the identification of critical pathways for technological, institutional and consumer-oriented options for EU policies in the areas of agriculture, climate change, trade, and energy.

Intended outcomes

  • Boost EU and Associated Countries analytical and modelling capacity in agriculture in both biophysical and socio-economic domains.
  • Develop an analytical and policy framework and timeframe for the European farming sector to operate within the safe and just operating space and planetary boundaries and achieving EU climate change policy objectives.
  • Analyse policies and develop policy recommendations for agricultural policies in Europe in 2030.

Keep in touch

PROJECT COORDINATOR
Marc Müller, Project Coordinator (WECR)
Hans van Meijl, Scientific Coordinator (WECR)

  • brightspace.wecr(at)wur.nl
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Funded by the European Union. Horizon Europe Grant Agreement No 101060075. Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.