Supporting agricultural modelling with virtual research
Agri-food research is increasingly becoming an international network of research groups working together in large multi-disciplinary projects. To efficiently solve food security challenges, agricultural modelers need to work together, sharing their knowledge, data and algorithms. Although opportunities for remote collaboration and sharing resources in the cloud are available, most of them are offered commercially through big tech companies. There are still many barriers for their use, like a lack of integration of different services and considerations of trust, safety, ownership, privacy and openness. Reliable and open shared working environments are needed that support the whole research process.
Nature inclusive planning, a vision for Small Island Development States
Small tropical islands are rich in biodiversity and host a wide variety of globally threatened ecosystems. These ecosystems are important for coastal protection and tourism, but also for erosion control and making the islands resistant to climate change. At the same time, there are all kinds of factors that cause a lot of pressure on both nature and other forms of land use that crowd together on the small area, such as a growing population and tourism industry, built development, erosion, salt intrusion and climate change, the latter resulting in sea-level rise and more frequent storm events.
Combatting water pollution from coffee production
Coffee is intrinsically linked to water, both for crop growing and coffee processing. Climate change leads to increased uncertainty on water availability. The fruit of the coffee tree, known as the coffee cherry, undergoes a long process to make it ready for consumption. This process often entails use of large quantities of water and the production of considerable amounts of solid and liquid waste.
Securing access to mineral deposits for future generations
The exploitation of minerals in Europe is an indispensable activity to ensure that the present and future needs of the European society can be met. To achieve this, extraction of these minerals must be guaranteed, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The potential of mineral resources (including abandoned extraction sites) must therefore be evaluated in relation to other land use and environmental objectives.