17th September 2013: AGREE presented the research agenda for transnational co-operation on energy efficiency in agriculture to the European Commission, the collaborative working group on Agriculture and Energy of the Standing Committee on Agricultural Research (SCAR) and the European Association of Agricultural Engineers (EurAgEng).  

The Agenda identifies the most important research themes to be addressed to support and improve energy efficiency in European agriculture. These themes were the result of a multi-stakeholder participatory approach across Europe and across the value chain. 
The Agenda is a combination of innovations that are already in progress but need more advanced development to profit from their full potential like sensoring and precision agriculture. Also, more long term themes were identified that focus on designs of new value chains that hold promise for the future like local food strategies. To reach full impact, the Agenda needs to be adopted by different already existing R&D platforms in Europe. 

The AGREE project advised the Commission to put the Agenda forward to these R&D platforms.

The Research Agenda for transnational co-operation on energy efficiency in agriculture was elaborated by the partners of the AGREE project: Wageningen UR from the Netherlands, Unversity of Warmia and Mazury (Poland), University of Evora (Portugal), University of Helsinki (Finland) and Aarhus University (Denmark). German Partners were ATB and FNR.

The Project "Agriculture and Energy Efficiency (AGREE)" is funded by the European Commission in the 7th Framework Program as Coordination Action (CSA) (FP7-KBBE-2011-5-289139) with the aim to generate long-term research and development opportunities in the area of energy efficiency. 

Contact: Dr. Andreas Meyer-Aurich

More information on AGREE: http://www.agree.aua.gr/