Aim and approach
This research & innovation area is dedicated to the diverse opportunities for transformations in order to achieve resilient agriculture and food security while protecting biodiversity and climate. Fundamental is the recognition of necessary systemic change.
Based on concepts of 'transition management' and 'Earth System Governance', changes in innovative niches are necessary but not sufficient. Changes in the socio-technical regimes that set standards and incentives and thus determine the innovation paths to date are also crucial, as are changes in the framework conditions at regional, national and international levels.
In this respect, it is initially a matter of holistic innovation mapping that encompasses technological opportunities and socio-economic levers as well as political design options and thus goes beyond a traditional, technical-industrial understanding of innovation.
Building on this, technological, economic, social and political innovations for sustainability transformations are specifically prepared for the dialogue with societal actors (RIA 1). In view of the particular socio-cultural sensitivity of agriculture and especially nutrition, also in connection with health needs, this involves the co-production of findings and the co-design of alternative paths through to the preparation of real-world experiments.
Finally, the research & innovation area opens up new innovation paths by taking into account fundamental processes, diverse production and distribution logics and the special role of food.
