Cremona, Italy | 10 March 2026
The BrightSpace Annual Meeting 2026 opened in Cremona, Italy, bringing together project partners for three days of discussions on progress, collaboration, and the next steps toward developing a roadmap for a Safe and Just Operating Space (SJOS) for European agriculture.
Morning: Work Package coordination and modelling discussions
The first morning was dedicated to parallel Work Package (WP) meetings, allowing researchers to coordinate modelling activities, refine deliverables, and strengthen linkages across the project’s research pillars.
A joint session between WPs 5, 8 and 9 with WP10, led by Stefan Frank (IIASA) and George Philippidis (CITA), explored how technological innovation, policy analysis, and economic modelling can be integrated into the project’s scenario development framework. Participants highlighted strong potential for deeper linkages between pillars and for combining modelling outputs to support future scenario analysis.
At the same time, WP6 held a dedicated meeting on biodiversity and footprint modelling under the Safe Operating Space framework. Led by Sofie te Wierik and Jonathan Doelman (PBL), the session focused on preparing Deliverable D6.3, which will further develop indicators and modelling approaches to assess environmental impacts of agriculture. Discussions reviewed progress across models such as IMAGE, GLOBIOM, CAPRI, FARMDYN and AGMEMOD, covering topics including biodiversity indicators, pesticide risks, animal welfare metrics, and environmental footprints related to land, water, greenhouse gas emissions, and nutrients. The meeting clarified the structure and priorities for the upcoming deliverable and reinforced coordination across modelling teams.
A third cross-WP meeting brought together WPs 3, 4, 8 and 9 with WP10, led by George Philippidis (CITA), to discuss how analytical and policy work can inform the design of the project’s future scenarios. These discussions helped align ongoing research activities with the scenario-building process that will underpin BrightSpace transition pathways.
In parallel, WP7 met to advance work on health and diet modelling, led by Michiel van Dijk (WSER), focusing on the integration of health-related indicators within the broader modelling framework.
Afternoon: Project progress and strategic discussions
The afternoon session opened with a welcome from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, the host institution, which highlighted the university’s strong involvement in European research programmes and the strategic importance of sustainable agriculture research in the current geopolitical context.
Project coordinator Marc Müller then introduced the objectives of the meeting and presented a comprehensive project progress update. BrightSpace has made substantial advances in developing the conceptual foundations of the SJOS framework, establishing modelling baselines, and strengthening collaboration with related Horizon Europe projects such as LAMASUS, GeneBEcon, Ration, ACT4CAP27, Tools4CAP and Step-Up. The project is now moving into a phase focused on integrating modelling results, developing transition pathways, and preparing tools that support evidence-based policy decisions for EU agriculture.
Updates from Work Package 11 highlighted progress in communication, dissemination, stakeholder engagement and capacity-building activities. The project has expanded its outreach through publications, newsletters, videos, press releases and policy briefs, while continuing to grow its BrightSpace Stakeholder Platform, which now involves more than 60 participants across stakeholder groups. Capacity-building activities are also progressing, including model training workshops, researcher exchanges through the Agri-Food Model Young Researchers Network (AMYRN), and the development of a new master-level course on agricultural modelling.
Policy perspectives and project review
A policy update from SPAB member, Bartelemy Lanos, DG AGRI presented the European Commission’s Vision for Agriculture and Food, highlighting priorities for the next Common Agricultural Policy period starting in 2028. Key themes include strengthening farmer resilience, improving governance across the agri-food system, and developing new initiatives on livestock, animal welfare, risk management, and carbon farming.
The session also included reflections from the European Commission REA Project Officer on the 2nd review of BrightSpace (Months 1–36). The review confirmed the strong progress of the consortium and provided recommendations for the next phase, including improving deliverable presentation, strengthening communication of results, and ensuring transparency in modelling approaches to build trust among policymakers.
Looking ahead
The day concluded with a reflective discussion on the integration of work across pillars, communication and exploitation of project results, and the importance of stakeholder engagement. Participants emphasized the need to further strengthen collaboration between modelling teams and ensure that BrightSpace outputs effectively support policy debates on the future of European agriculture.
The meeting will continue over the next two days with in-depth discussions on modelling integration, scenario development, and the exploitation of the project’s key results.
