Improving analytical capacity for sustainable competitiveness of the agricultural sector

Expected outcome

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• farmers and other decision makers of the agri-food supply chains have a better understanding of the determinants of competitiveness, and the interactions with the sustainability dimensions (economic, social, environmental, including biodiversity protection and climate change mitigation and adaptation);
• farmers, policy makers and other decision makers of the agri-food supply chains benefit from improved collection and access to data and analytical tools, enabling better-informed decisions conciliating competitiveness, sustainability and resilience objectives;
• policy makers are better equipped to develop evidence-based policies.

Scope

The agri-food sector is an important pillar to EU competitiveness. It is composed of diversified businesses representing around 15% of total EU employment and contributes to provide essential services and secure a stable and affordable supply of food to EU citizens. The concept of agricultural competitiveness is complex and approached with different perspectives and methodologies in the scientific literature. EU policies aim at addressing a growing number of objectives in a challenging and evolving context (e.g., climate change, biodiversity loss, geopolitical tensions, fast digitalisation). There is a need to update knowledge and tools on agricultural competitiveness. This should contribute to improve our capacity to design and implement agricultural policies, effective in navigating and addressing multiple objectives while enabling green and digital transitions without undermining our competitiveness over time. Successful proposals under this topic should support the EU Vision for Agriculture and Food, the Competitiveness Compass, the Common Agricultural Policy, the sustainability objectives (including on climate and biodiversity) of the Green Deal, and the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Proposals should:

• address analytical gaps on competitiveness to better account for their various drivers, inputs (including land, labour, capital), components (e.g., costs, price, innovation capacity, investment capacity, market share, market position, resilience, knowledge, skills, productivity, product quality, differentiation) and impacts (economic, environmental and social). Consider various value chains and farming systems in different regions, one of which should be organic farming. This activity should integrate knowledge from different disciplines (e.g., economics, management, agronomy, environmental sciences);
• improve the capacity to analyse agriculture-related policies supporting and recognising sustainable practices (such as supporting climate, biodiversity, and SDGs ) across the value chain (e.g., due diligence, deforestation-free products) and in trade agreements, in particular their capacity to support competitiveness and resilience objectives, and to mitigate leakage effects;
• provide evidence on the social, economic and environmental drivers of competitiveness, synergies and trade-offs between the sustainability dimensions, at and between different stages of the value chain (including farm-level, producer organisations, upstream and downstream operators etc.) as well as spatial (local to global) and time scales (short to long term). Proposals are encouraged to consider different lengths of value chains (e.g., short, mid-tier, global), business strategies (e.g., economies of scale, specialisation and agglomeration vs economies of scope) and marketing strategies (e.g., quality differentiation);
• identify, improve and/or develop adequate indicators and metrics, and collect the necessary data, to improve the measurement of performance, sustainability, resilience, productivity and competitiveness in analytical tools. This work should take into account the practical needs of decision-makers and the context of their operations (e.g., international versus local strategy). Particular attention should be paid to prioritising relevant robust indicators that could be replicated in different countries;
• provide recommendations and propose levers to anticipate trade-offs and conciliate competitiveness, resilience and sustainability objectives in business strategies and policies and support the long-term prosperity of the agricultural sector.

Proposals should capitalise on existing relevant research findings and tools and ensure complementarities with other relevant EU-funded projects. Proposals should also ensure synergies with other relevant EU-funded studies, initiatives and processes (e.g., competitiveness check).

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as member of the consortium selected for funding. The JRC’s participation could involve contributing to scenario assessment with the iMAP modelling platform, sharing of information and contribution to dissemination of results.

Proposals must implement the multi-actor approach, with a consortium based on a balanced mix of actors with complementary knowledge, including farmers, researchers, businesses and other relevant actors from agri-food supply chains.

International cooperation is encouraged, in particular with Mediterranean countries.

This topic should involve the effective contribution of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) disciplines.