trans4num kick-off meeting

Transformation for sustainable nutrient supply and management (trans4num) is an Innovation-Action (IA) Horizon Europe-funded project under the HORIZON-CL6-2022-ZEROPOLLUTION-01-03 - EU-China international cooperation on nature-based solutions for nutrient management in agriculture call. The project is coordinated by the University of Hohenheim (Germany) with a total budget of over €5 million.

The overall objective of trans4num is to substantiate and broadly promote nature-based solutions (NBS) innovations for sustainable agriculture in Europe and China. To realise its objective, trans4num will use a social-ecological transformation (SET) framework tailored to study 20 NBS farm-level innovations in 7 regions with intensive farming systems: 4 in Europe (Denmark, Hungary, Netherlands and United Kingdom) and 3 in China.

The project brings together 14 organisations from 8 European countries and 9 Chinese participants, across sectors and disciplines, ranging from biophysical-agronomic to socio-economic, including demonstration farms, farmer organisations, NGO and SMEs

trans4num started 1st of December 2022 and will last for 48 months. The project consortium met online Friday, December 9th, 2022, for getting to know each other and the individuals involved from each partner’s organisation, discuss objectives and activities for the first 6 months of the project and get to know the Chinese trans4num project and share ideas on future cooperation.

The consortium met face-to-face in February 2023 for a 3-day event, in Stuttgart at the University of Hohenheim. We had the opportunity to learn more about the history of the University and had the most beautiful meeting venue so far.

Throughout the days we participated in different sessions that focused on the activities to be carried out in each Work Package (WP):

• WP1 – Understanding NBS, concept and approaches
• WP2 – Explore innovative NBS in regions of intensive farming
• WP3 – Monitor and optimise NBS-related nutrient flows
• WP4 - Assess NBS effects in a SET context
• WP5 – Scaling up and out: Communication & dissemination
• WP6 – Project coordination and management

We also had a presentation from the European Commission’s project officer Christophe Coudun and from other projects with the same topic, as well as from the sister project – ECONUTRI.

Meeting days ended with some open discussions and an overview of the upcoming tasks. Over the next four years (2022-2026), trans4num will

• Develop a differentiated understanding of NBS potentials for sustainable agricultural practices in intensive farming systems
• Understand and analyse the complex interdependencies of applying NBS
• Develop a dynamic, smart nutrient management tool to support decision-making of optimal nutrient supply
• Assess the impact and up-scale potentials of technological and social innovations as well as policies related to NBS
• Up and out-scale information and recommendations related to the design, development and implementation of the NBS and
• Enhance Europe – China exchange and learning processes