With the increase in cities’ populations comes the higher need for food in an, often dense, urban environment. How to best make use of the little space left, and feed the citizens with healthy, fresh food? These EU projects are working on the solutions!
In this article, we have gathered a selection of EU projects focusing on urban agriculture. From micro-gardens to social inclusion in gardens, these projects offer variety, yet keep an eye on what is truly important here: food. Listed are the main key points of each project.
Databases used for research and information on projects were CORDIS and KEEP.EU.
ARBUATEM
- Full project name: Antibiotic resistant bacteria and genes, associated with urban agriculture in low and middle income countries: ecological and medical perspectives
- EU funding: €195,454.80
- Overall budget: €195,454.80
- Timeframe: 2015–2017
- Countries involved: 1 (UK)
- Aim: to raise “awareness about the dangers of using wastewater for urban agriculture in low and middle-income countries”, and to “connect agriculture, the environment and health.”
- Bonus feature: organisation website
CityZen
- Full project name: Enhancing scalable innovations and new business models based on urban farming ecosystem values
- EU funding: € 873,975.95
- Overall budget: €1,028,207.00
- Timeframe: 2019–2023
- Countries involved: 5 (Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Spain)
- Aim: “to influence various policy goals like food quality and security, waste management, resource efficiency, community development and quality of life by introducing urban farming to policy makers as a successful business area.”
- Bonus feature: organisation website
EFUA
- Full project name: European Forum for a Comprehensive Vision on Urban Agriculture
- EU funding: €2,039,437.50
- Overall budget: €2,039,437.50
- Timeframe: 2020–2024
- Countries involved: 6 (Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Netherlands)
- Aim: “investigate the role of [urban agriculture] as an innovator in the agricultural and food sector and the urban economy,” and to promote it to the public.
- Bonus features: organisation website & project website
FoodE
- Full project name: European Forum for a Comprehensive Vision on Urban Agriculture
- EU funding: €2,039,437.50
- Overall budget: €2,039,437.50
- Timeframe: 2020–2024
- Countries involved: 6 (Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Netherlands)
- Aim: “investigate the role of [urban agriculture] as an innovator in the agricultural and food sector and the urban economy,” and to promote it to the public.
- Bonus features: organisation website & project website
FOOD TRAILS
- Full project name: Building pathways towards FOOD 2030-led urban food policies
- EU funding: €11,937,057.50
- Overall budget: €12,185,827.14
- Timeframe: 2020–2024
- Countries involved: 12 (Albania, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, UK)
- Aim: to transform “integrated urban food policies into measurable and long-term progress towards sustainable food systems,” and to “help ensure that all EU citizens have access to affordable, balanced and healthy food.”
- Bonus features: organisation website & project website
Gardens
- Full project name: Gardens of Possibilities – inclusion through urban gardening
- EU funding: €210,000.01
- Overall budget: €280,000.01
- Timeframe: 2018–2019
- Countries involved: 2 (Finland, Sweden)
- Aim: to offer individuals in risk of exclusion to take part in gardening activities, enable rehabilitation, education, and job training.
- Bonus feature: organisation website
INFARM
- EU funding: €1,931,884.50
- Overall budget: €2,759,835
- Timeframe: 2016–2018
- Countries involved: 1 (Germany)
- Aim: “to remove the distance between the farmer and the consumer and thus contribute to an emerging local food system that is transparent, resilient, and affordable. By growing directly where people eat and live we can cut out the lengthy supply chain, eliminate food waste, offer nutrient-dense food without any chemical pesticides and improve the environmental ‘foodprint’ of our plants.”
- Bonus feature: project website
OpenAgri
- EU funding: €4,996,745
- Overall budget: €6,245,931
- Timeframe: 2014–2020
- Countries involved: 1 (Italy)
- Aim: “The project incubates new businesses and attracts investment to a deprived part of the city, while boosting social inclusion and availability of locally-produced, sustainable food throughout greater Milan and beyond.”
- Bonus feature: organisation website
PROTEAN
- Full project name: Prospective Environmental Assessment of Urban Agriculture Emerging-Systems
- EU funding: €172,932.48
- Overall budget: €172,932.48
- Timeframe: 2019–2022
- Countries involved: 1 (Spain)
- Aim: “develop environmental impact assessment models for urban agriculture and rural agriculture,” that will “help flag the parameters that can render urban agriculture more environmentally sustainable in the future.”
- Bonus feature: organisation website
ROMI
- Full project name: RObotics for MIcrofarms
- EU funding: €3,868,186.25
- Overall budget: €3,868,186.25
- Timeframe: 2017–2022
- Countries involved: 4 (France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain)
- Aim: to “develop an open and lightweight robotics platform” for microfarms, which “will reduce manual labour and increase the productivity,” and “help the farmer monitor the crops to increase efficient harvesting.”
- Bonus feature: project website
RU:RBAN
- Full project name: Resilient Urban Agriculture
- EU funding: €500,599.32
- Overall budget: €649,980.33
- Timeframe: 2018–2021
- Countries involved: 7 (France, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Spain)
- Aim: “to improve the design of sustainable urban strategies and action plans in cities” through implementing the “[m]anagement model of Urban gardens in Rome” in other EU countries.
- Bonus features: organisation website & Instagram profile
SiEUGreen
- Full project name: Sino-European innovative green and smart cities
- EU funding: €6,999,999.38
- Overall budget: €8,377,867.50
- Timeframe: 2018–2022
- Countries involved: 10 (Bulgaria, China, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey)
- Aim: “to enhance the EU-China cooperation in promoting urban agriculture for food security, resource efficiency and smart, resilient cities.”
- Bonus features: organisation website & project website
SUPURBFOOD
- Full project name: Towards sustainable modes of urban and peri-urban food provisioning
- EU funding: €1,499,651
- Overall budget: €1,858,114.60
- Timeframe: 2012–2015
- Countries involved: 7 (Belgium, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, UK)
- Aim: “to improve sustainable urban food planning and support the invention and implementation of relevant strategies.”
- Bonus features: organisation website & project website
SustUrbanFoods
- Full project name: Integrated sustainability assessment of social and technological innovations towards urban food systems
- EU funding: €168,277.20
- Overall budget: €168,277.20
- Timeframe: 2016–2018
- Countries involved: 1 (Italy)
- Aim: “to develop an interdisciplinary methodological framework to assess the sustainability of urban food systems with the aim of providing tools and data for supporting policies and decisions on sustainable urban food systems towards local and green economies.”
- Bonus features: organisation website & project website
URBAG
- Full project name: Integrated System Analysis of Urban Vegetation and Agriculture
- EU funding: €1,893,754
- Overall budget: €1,893,754
- Timeframe: 2019–2024
- Countries involved: 1 (Spain)
- Aim: “to find out how urban green infrastructures can be most efficient in contributing to urban sustainability by evaluating which combinations of urban, peri-urban agriculture and green spaces result in the best performance in terms of local and global environmental impact.”
- Bonus features: project website & organisation website
Urban agriculture is on the rise, as it should be! From healthy citizens to social inclusion, urban food holds many benefits to its name. These EU-funded projects prove there’s an interest in agriculture incorporation in the modern cities – the future of cities is green, fresh, and fit.
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