On 25 September 2025, BrightSpace participated in the Feedback to Policy Cluster Meeting – Models and Tools Supporting Agricultural Policies: a Horizon Update, hosted by the European Commission’s Research Executive Agency (REA) in Brussels. The event organized in the framework of the 2025 Feedback to Policy plan gathered policymakers from across the European Commission services and representatives of the relevant Horizon Europe projects to discuss how advanced modelling can inform the design of a competitive, resilient, and sustainable agri-food sector in the context of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post-2027. This feedback to policy event promotes the uptake of research findings into policymaking. It helps policymakers to access and use evidence when making policy choices.
The cluster meeting provided a platform to:
- present project results and methodological advances,
- ensure policy feedback on modelling needs and research questions, and
- strengthen collaboration between projects and EU institutions.
BrightSpace Contributions
As part of Session 1, BrightSpace coordinator Marc Müller (Wageningen Social and Economic Research) and Petr Havlík (IIASA, LAMASUS coordinator) presented the joint perspective paper developed by ACT4CAP27, BrightSpace, and LAMASUS on modelling challenges and opportunities for the EU agri-food system. The paper (available here) outlines interconnected challenges, priority areas, and the importance of aligning baseline assumptions across models.
In Session 2, Marc showcased BrightSpace’s work on defining a Safe and Just Operating Space (SJOS) for EU agriculture. This framework identifies thresholds for sustainability across climate, biodiversity, and socio-economic dimensions, providing a model-based reference for assessing whether EU agriculture operates within sustainable limits.
BrightSpace also contributed to discussions on baseline projections, highlighting how its modelling toolbox develops business-as-usual scenarios that combine qualitative narratives with quantitative simulations, ensuring that future policy options can be tested against transparent and credible baselines.
Collaboration Across Projects
The event featured contributions from fellow Horizon Europe projects including ACT4CAP27, LAMASUS, Tools4CAP, and AgEnRes, each showcasing new modelling approaches and tools for evidence-based policymaking. Together, these projects demonstrated how EU-funded research is strengthening the knowledge base for the future CAP and broader EU sustainability ambitions.
