On 16 September 2024, the BrightSpace project’s Scientific and Policy Advisory Board (SPAB) held an online meeting to discuss key project updates and upcoming activities.
Agenda Highlights:
- Welcome and Recap
The meeting opened with a recap of the last SPAB meeting, held on 31 January 2024. - Summary from Periodic Report I
The project has successfully achieved most of its objectives and milestones for the reporting period, with only minor deviations. Recommendations based on the report were reviewed and discussed by the SPAB members. - Follow-up on 1st Stakeholder Retreat
Key messages from the retreat were presented to the SPAB, including:- The business-as-usual baseline is well on track and will be discussed between the project partners, during the 2024 Annual Meeting.
- A stronger narrative is required for the challenging baseline.
- Further elaboration of model-based indicators is necessary.
- Increased effort is needed to involve consumer and environmental organisations in the stakeholder community.
- Annual Meeting (5-6 November 2024)
The draft agenda for the upcoming Annual Meeting in Sevilla, Spain, was discussed, including a keynote presentation and concluding remarks to be delivered by SPAB members. - EC Horizon Europe Projects Cluster Workshop (22 October 2024)
SPAB members were informed about the EC-organised Clustering Workshop in Brussels on 22 October, titled “Models and Tools Supporting Agricultural Policies: A Horizon Update.” The workshop will feature presentations from projects such as:- AgEnRes, STEP UP, ACT4CAP27: introducing new projects supporting agricultural policies.
- TRADE4SD, MATS, BATModel: presenting research on alternative futures for EU agri-food policies.
- BrightSpace, LAMASUS: sharing research on baselines and projections for EU agriculture.
- Tools4CAP: showcasing the use of modelling for evidence-based policies and effective governance.
- Next Project Steps
The next steps of the project’s work were presented and discussed with SPAB members, including plans for issuing the 1st BrightSpace Policy Brief on trade-offs and synergies between economic and environmental objectives in EU agricultural production. This can be an important input for the conference “Measuring agricultural sustainable productivity: data, methods, practices and policies” in Paris, France, 28 October 2024, sponsored by the OECD’s Co-operative Research Programme: Sustainable Agricultural and Food Systems (CRP), where BrightSpace coordinator Marc Müller will be a discussant of a session on technologies for sustainable agricultural productivity.
The meeting concluded with a detailed discussion of the project’s trajectory and upcoming deliverables, ensuring that BrightSpace continues to meet its goals and provide valuable insights for policy and research.
Source: WR
