Paving the way towards future-proofing our crops

To meet the increasing global demand for food, feed, fibre and other plant-derived products, a steep increase in crop productivity is a scientifically and technically challenging imperative. The CropBooster-P project, a response to the H2020 call ‘Future proofing our plants’, is developing a roadmap for plant research to improve crops critical for the future of European agriculture by increasing crop yield, nutritional quality, value for non-food applications and sustainability. However, if we want to efficiently improve crop production in Europe and prioritize methods for crop trait improvement in the coming years, we need to take into account future socio-economic, technological and global developments, including numerous policy and socio-economic challenges and constraints. Based on a wide range of possible global trends and key uncertainties, we developed four extreme future learning scenarios that depict complementary future developments. Here, we elaborate on how the scenarios could inform and direct future plant research, and we aim to highlight the crop improvement approaches that could be the most promising or appropriate within each of these four future world scenarios. Moreover, we discuss some key plant technology options that would need to be developed further to meet the needs of multiple future learning scenarios, such as improving methods for breeding and genetic engineering. In addition, other diverse platforms of food production may offer unrealized potential, such as underutilized terrestrial and aquatic species as alternative sources of nutrition and biomass production. We demonstrate that although several methods or traits could facilitate a more efficient crop production system in some of the scenarios, others may offer great potential in all four of the future learning scenarios. Altogether, this indicates that depending on which future we are heading toward, distinct plant research fields should be given priority if we are to meet our food, feed and non-food biomass production needs in the coming decades

Towards safe and sustainable innovation in nanotechnology: state-of-play for smart nanomaterials

The European Green Deal, the European Commission’s new Action Plan for a Circular Economy, the new European Industrial Strategy and the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability launched in October 2020 are ambitious plans to achieve a sustainable, fair and inclusive European Union’s economy. In line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030, these policies require that any new material or product should be not only functional and cost-effective but also safe and sustainable to ensure compliance with regulation and acceptance by consumers. Nanotechnology is one of the technologies that could enable such a green growth. This paper focuses on advanced nanomaterials that actively respond to external stimuli, also known as ‘smart nanomaterials’, and which are already on the market or in the research and development phase for non-medical applications such as in agriculture, food, food packaging and cosmetics. A review shows that smart nanomaterials and enabled products may present new challenges for safety and sustainability assessment due to their complexity and dynamic behaviour. Moreover, existing regulatory frameworks, in particular in the European Union, are probably not fully prepared to address them. What is missing today is a systematic and comprehensive approach that allows for considering sustainability aspects hand in hand with safety considerations very early on at the material design stage. We call on innovators, scientists and authorities to further develop and promote the ‘Safe- and Sustainable-by-Design’ concept in nanotechnology and propose some initiatives to go into this direction.JRC.F.2 - Consumer Products Safet

Safe- and Sustainable-by-Design: the Case of Smart Nanomaterials. A perspective based on a European Workshop

The European Commission’s Green Deal is a major policy action plan aiming to achieve a climate-neutral, zero-pollution, sustainable, circular and inclusive economy, driving both the New Industrial Strategy for Europe and the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability. Innovative materials can help to reach these policy goals, but they need to be safe and sustainable themselves. Thus, one aim is to shift the development of chemicals to Safe- and Sustainable-by-Design, and develop a new systems approach and criteria for sustainability to achieve this. A virtual workshop was organised in September 2020 by the Joint Research Centre and the Directorate-General Research and Innovation of the European Commission, with participants from academia, non-governmental organisations, industry and regulatory bodies. The aim was to introduce the concept of Safe- and Sustainable-by-Design and identify challenges in achieving safer and more sustainable Smart Nanomaterials, as an example of innovative materials, and to deliver recommendations for directions and actions necessary to meet these challenges. The discussions focussed on aspects of designing Smart Nanomaterials and how to shift to Safe- and Sustainable-by-Design, Regulatory Preparedness, and the implications of the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability. The following overarching themes were identified: (i) a need for an agreed terminology, (ii) how to achieve a transition from Safe-by-Design to Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design, (iii) preparedness of regulators and legislation for innovative chemicals/nanomaterials and (iv) a common understanding of the principles of Safe- and Sustainable-by-Design. This paper presents the authors’ view on the state of the art as well as the needs for future activities, based on discussions at the workshop and further considerations. The considerations concerning the case of Smart Nanomaterials can illustrate the implementation of the Safe- and Sustainable-by-Design concept for other advanced materials and for chemicals and products in general.JRC.F.2 - Consumer Products Safet

Paving the way towards future‐proofing our crops

International audienceTo meet the increasing global demand for food, feed, fibre and other plant- derivedproducts, a steep increase in crop productivity is a scientifically and technicallychallenging imperative. The CropBooster- P project, a response to the H2020call ‘Future proofing our plants’, is developing a roadmap for plant research toimprove crops critical for the future of European agriculture by increasing cropyield, nutritional quality, value for non- food applications and sustainability.However, if we want to efficiently improve crop production in Europe and pri-oritize methods for crop trait improvement in the coming years, we need to takeinto account future socio- economic, technological and global developments, in-cluding numerous policy and socio- economic challenges and constraints. Basedon a wide range of possible global trends and key uncertainties, we developedfour extreme future learning scenarios that depict complementary future devel-opments. Here, we elaborate on how the scenarios could inform and direct fu-ture plant research, and we aim to highlight the crop improvement approachesthat could be the most promising or appropriate within each of these four futureworld scenarios. Moreover, we discuss some key plant technology options thatwould need to be developed further to meet the needs of multiple future learningscenarios, such as improving methods for breeding and genetic engineering. Inaddition, other diverse platforms of food production may offer unrealized poten-tial, such as underutilized terrestrial and aquatic species as alternative sources ofnutrition and biomass production. We demonstrate that although several meth-ods or traits could facilitate a more efficient crop production system in some ofthe scenarios, others may offer great potential in all four of the future learningscenarios. Altogether, this indicates that depending on which future we are head-ing toward, distinct plant research fields should be given priority if we are to meetour food, feed and non- food biomass production needs in the coming decades

Paving the way towards future‐proofing our crops

International audienceTo meet the increasing global demand for food, feed, fibre and other plant- derivedproducts, a steep increase in crop productivity is a scientifically and technicallychallenging imperative. The CropBooster- P project, a response to the H2020call ‘Future proofing our plants’, is developing a roadmap for plant research toimprove crops critical for the future of European agriculture by increasing cropyield, nutritional quality, value for non- food applications and sustainability.However, if we want to efficiently improve crop production in Europe and pri-oritize methods for crop trait improvement in the coming years, we need to takeinto account future socio- economic, technological and global developments, in-cluding numerous policy and socio- economic challenges and constraints. Basedon a wide range of possible global trends and key uncertainties, we developedfour extreme future learning scenarios that depict complementary future devel-opments. Here, we elaborate on how the scenarios could inform and direct fu-ture plant research, and we aim to highlight the crop improvement approachesthat could be the most promising or appropriate within each of these four futureworld scenarios. Moreover, we discuss some key plant technology options thatwould need to be developed further to meet the needs of multiple future learningscenarios, such as improving methods for breeding and genetic engineering. Inaddition, other diverse platforms of food production may offer unrealized poten-tial, such as underutilized terrestrial and aquatic species as alternative sources ofnutrition and biomass production. We demonstrate that although several meth-ods or traits could facilitate a more efficient crop production system in some ofthe scenarios, others may offer great potential in all four of the future learningscenarios. Altogether, this indicates that depending on which future we are head-ing toward, distinct plant research fields should be given priority if we are to meetour food, feed and non- food biomass production needs in the coming decades

Paving the way towards future-proofing our crops

To meet the increasing global demand for food, feed, fibre and other plant-derived products, a steep increase in crop productivity is a scientifically and technically challenging imperative. The CropBooster-P project, a response to the H2020 call ‘Future proofing our plants’, is developing a roadmap for plant research to improve crops critical for the future of European agriculture by increasing crop yield, nutritional quality, value for non-food applications and sustainability. However, if we want to efficiently improve crop production in Europe and prioritize methods for crop trait improvement in the coming years, we need to take into account future socio-economic, technological and global developments, including numerous policy and socio-economic challenges and constraints. Based on a wide range of possible global trends and key uncertainties, we developed four extreme future learning scenarios that depict complementary future developments. Here, we elaborate on how the scenarios could inform and direct future plant research, and we aim to highlight the crop improvement approaches that could be the most promising or appropriate within each of these four future world scenarios. Moreover, we discuss some key plant technology options that would need to be developed further to meet the needs of multiple future learning scenarios, such as improving methods for breeding and genetic engineering. In addition, other diverse platforms of food production may offer unrealized potential, such as underutilized terrestrial and aquatic species as alternative sources of nutrition and biomass production. We demonstrate that although several methods or traits could facilitate a more efficient crop production system in some of the scenarios, others may offer great potential in all four of the future learning scenarios. Altogether, this indicates that depending on which future we are heading toward, distinct plant research fields should be given priority if we are to meet our food, feed and non-food biomass production needs in the coming decades