The vision of the EU aquaculture industry is to grow substantially in the next decade and to provide annually 4.5 million tons of sustainable food products. To this aim, NewTechAqua intends to expand and diversify EU production of finfish, molluscs and microalgae by developing and validating technologically-advanced, resilient and sustainable new solutions. The organizational approach of NewTechAqua is to group the solutions in 6 different categories: feed, Industry 4.0, sustainable farming, genetics, new species and new products. They will be validated on conventional (Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, seabass and seabream) and emerging (greater amberjack, meagre, Senegalese sole and grey mullet) finfish species, molluscs (Pacific oyster, mussel) and microalgae. NewTechAqua is structured in 9 WPs. WP1 will conceive, formulate, produce and demonstrate three innovative sets of aquafeeds (pro-health, organic, zero waste). WP2 will establish new AI epidemiological models for enhancing the control of parasite outbreaks in Norwegian and Mediterranean farms. Sustainable aquaculture will be also promoted by advanced model systems and technologies for mollusc and in-land fish farm ecointensification. WP3 will develop innovative breeding programmes to improve performance, robustness and quality of farmed fish, molluscs and microalgae, while WP4 will achieve significant advances in reproduction technology of three emerging fish species. High-quality seafood products and sustainable food processing techniques for valorization of by-products will be validated. WP6 will develop a set of indicators to monitor and measure progress towards the expected impacts, while market uptake of NewTechAqua results and outputs will be ensured by a detailed exploitation strategy (WP7). Finally, NewTechAqua will achieve well-targeted communication, dissemination and maximum transfer of generated knowhow and project new technologies (WP8).

NewTechAqua’s main goal is to expand and diversify European aquaculture production of finfish, molluscs and microalgae by developing and validating technologically-advanced, resilient and sustainable applications.

• Promote health and disease resistance of fish.
• Promote disease resistance of molluscs.
• Promote resilient aquaculture production systems.
• Increase eco-friendly by-product valorization.
• Improve efficiency of fish and microalgae farming.
• Promote organic aquaculture.
• Close the reproductive cycle of emerging fish species.
• Develop innovative and eco-friendly fish and mollusc products.
• Improve professional skills of aquaculture operators.
• Increase consumer awareness and acceptance of European aquaculture products and methods.

• NewTechAqua will lead to increased and diversified aquaculture productions, creating new value chains and new markets and jobs, reducing poverty in the EU and all the Mediterranean countries.
• NewTechAqua will support and strengthen food security in Europe and all the Mediterranean area, increasing overall productivity and valorizing by-products of the aquaculture industry.
• NewTechAqua will increase the availability of affordable, healthy, diversified and nutritious aquaculture products.
• NewTechAqua will address the use of technology, such as AI and informatics tools applied to farming management that will promote the empowerment of women in the aquaculture sector.
• NewTechAqua will develop sustainable aquaculture production system, RAS, biofloc technology, aquaponics to improve water treatment, reducing waste and increasing resources efficiency.
• NewTechAqua will lead the production of new products and HiTech solutions exploited in the market paving the way for new jobs at EU level, with the creation of new professional expertise along the entire aquaculture value chain.
• NewTechAqua solutions will bring technological progress at the service of sustainable development, lower environmental impact and increased resource- and energy- efficiency.
• NewTechAqua solutions match sustainable practices from industry to consumers and will ensure that people have the relevant information and awareness relating to the importance of the development of sustainable EU aquaculture practices.
• NewTechAqua will adopt feed, genetic, farming, and new products solutions, which valorize new and resilient feed ingredients, improve feed efficiency, reduce fed losses and waste and produce food with low carbon footprints.

SmartCulTour aims to support regional development in European regions, with special attention to rural peripheries and the urban fringe, through sustainable cultural tourism. The project redefines cultural tourism through a contemporary lens and provides a comprehensive measurement framework for supply, demand and impacts. In order to support knowledge-led destination management, a decision-support system (DSS) will be developed for wide-scale monitoring purposes across European regions. The DSS will synthesize both traditional and non-traditional data sources, the latter particularly related to big data analytics, thereby assisting smart regional development. Besides a contribution to conceptual development and cultural tourism measurement, the main objective of SmartCulTour relates to the facilitation of community-led rural development through field experimentation in 6 living labs. Prior to these living labs, a comprehensive desk research will identify significant sustainable cultural tourism policies, their impacts and critical success factors. These best cases will inspire a series of possible local interventions. Within the living labs, novel creative approaches to stakeholder engagement are tested, notably arts-based methods, serious games, and service design which will help to provide local context and support. A toolkit will be designed to help destinations implement local actions towards sustainable cultural tourism development. SmartCulTour will therefore contribute to theory development, empirical validation of best practices within a living labs setting, and procedural development, particularly by providing European regions with a set of strategies to optimally engage with stakeholders and co-create sustainable cultural tourism experiences.

• Redefine the phenomenon of Cultural Tourism.
• Describe and deploy a set of adequate and innovative indicators to quantify a) Demand; b) Supply and c) Impact of Cultural Tourism.
• Develop a DSS that monitors and that helps to manage sustainable tourism development at the NUTS3 level.
• Create and critically evaluate the instruments for sustainable cultural tourism development through desk-research.
• Develop six living-labs in which novel ways of managing sustainable cultural tourism development will be implemented, tested and evaluated through experiments, serious games, arts-based methods, service or social design techniques to enhance collaboration between the cultural sector and the tourism industry, in order to facilitate a process of capacity building.
• Identify best-and worst practices, and factors determining failure and success that may become an inspiration for destinations of cultural tourism at large, and that together make up a toolkit that allows these destinations to safeguard cultural tourism’s contribution to sustainable development.

• SmartCulTour will use a multilevel approach to the identification of state-of-the-art cultural tourism interventions.
• Through a service design approach, the SmartCulTour Toolkit and manual will be developed; they will provide a customized experience to the larger pool of potential users (i.e. local authorities, NGO’s, regions, national authorities, private culture owners, minority groups).
• Six Labs will be set-up, which will provide a first influx of exogenous investment that assists local stakeholder collaboration. While the Labs have a regional focus through shared learning activities and site visits, as well as the UNESCO network, international learning and cooperation is supported which might in a further stage lead to cross-border Interreg projects.
• Following the European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage, SmartCulTour supports evidence-based decision-making via multistakeholder cooperation while establishing a region’s culture and heritage as a sustainable resource for the future.
• An in-depth analysis will be undertaken into the availability of European Structural and Investment Funds (e.g. European Regional Development Fund and Cohesion Fund, European Social Fund Plus) as well as other relevant programmes such as, for example, Creative Europe, with the aim of providing less developed and transition regions with an overview of potential funding for the suggested interventions in cultural tourism.
• Broad stakeholder participation is a cornerstone of SmartCulTour. Moreover, a central element of SmartCulTour is the establishment of a framework and methodology for an effective participatory approach through the SmartCulTour Game and artsbased methods. These methods will be reproducible in other settings to ensure deeper stakeholder engagement and partnership.
• SmartCulTour sets off with a reconceptualization of cultural tourism, cultural tourism destinations, sustainable cultural tourism and resilience and will use these insights to collect and produce data related to the triad of culture, tourism, and destinations. A set of indicators (quantitative and qualitative) will be developed to provide a holistic assessment of cultural tourism and its associated impacts, going beyond traditional performance indicators. Furthermore, both quantitative and qualitative assessment will be adopted in order to identify and conceptualize best practices, which will be made publicly available through the project dissemination stages.

• Improve interventions on cultural tourism at various levels.
• Provide strategic guidance at European level concerning the efficient use of European Structural Investment Funds.
• Contribute to the establishment of partnerships between public and private stakeholders in this area.
• Creation of innovative quantitative/statistical as well as qualitative tools and methods will improve available data on and understanding of the impact of cultural tourism on European economic and social development and on cultural Europeanisation.

In Mediterranean rainfed cropping systems, agronomic management practices are intended to use rainfall more efficiently. Most soils have low soil organic content due to low water availability, high temperatures and tillage intensity. Conservation Agriculture (CA) could reduce the risk of soil quality degradation and improve nutrient and WU efficiencies, while providing a more stable yield, supporting smallholder agriculture. The CAMA proposal aims to understand and overcome the barriers that prevent the adoption of CA in the Mediterranean basin. The presence of farmers’ associations, research institutes and a postgraduate education centre as partners will guarantee a strong interaction among final users. The proposed optimization of CA will be based on the following researches and activities: socioeconomic assessment of constraints to CA adoption, with emphasis on crop productivity, farmer’s profitability, direct-seeding machinery cost and availability, as well as farmers’ technical level. Participatory researches on CA application: identification and adoption of new techniques within the CA system to improve soil water and nutrient conservation and reduce runoff. Long-term and new field experiments in the countries involved, where the positive effects and innovations will be exposed to potential CA-adopting farmers. Testing of new legume varieties, more oriented to drought stress, with special interest for crop-livestock cropping systems. Soil conservation assessment, with attention to N and WUE, hydrological properties, soil water holding capacity, soil fertility, soil erosion control and soil organic carbon sequestration. Water use efficiency assessment, to determine CA adoption on crop growth and water use. Crop and soil modelling, for simulating the long-term effects of CA on crop growth, yield and soil fertility. Finally, a range of dissemination activities of the research results will be carried out, with specific international training courses.

The CAMA project aims to identify the main barriers that hinder the adoption of Conservation Agriculture (CA) adoption by smallholders of Mediterranean countries and to overcome them by a participatory research approach based on the use of field experiments and pilot case studies in several conditions and the development of an extensive programme of dissemination and training. The main objectives of the CAMA project are to: 1. identify the major social, economic and agronomic barriers to CA implementation by smallholders of Mediterranean countries; 2. establish a network of CA experiments and farmers’ associations adopting CA to apply a participatory research approach; 3. improve legume-based rotations in rainfed CA cropping systems, with genomic and farmer-participatory research aimed to enhance legume crop yield and resilience and research on crop/residues management; 4. quantify the effects of CA application and developing agronomic innovation, to increase soil fertility, soil physical status, nitrogen and water use efficiencies, and to decrease soil erosion; 5. disseminate the CA concept and techniques in Mediterranean countries, tailoring them to the specific pedo-climatic and socioeconomic conditions; 6. increase know-how of technicians, advisors and farmers for a better adoption of CA, through the organization of two training courses and participation in research activities.

• At the scientific level: 1) identify the relevant economic, social and technological barriers to CA adoption in Mediterranean countries; 2) create a network of CA users and potential users, evaluate smallholders’ needs and test a new diagnostic method; 3) test selected legume genotypes for tolerance to climatic/abiotic stresses such as drought, and test them under CA conditions in pure stands and intercropping; 4) assess the effect of CA implementation on soil N and water balances and use efficiencies; 5) evaluate changes in the soil characteristics focusing on water retention, erosion and fertility; and 6) forecast the long-term CA effects on crop and soil using crop simulation models.
• At the technological and industrial level: develop and validate novel technical approaches, such as: 1) optimal settings of existing machinery for direct sowing in CA; 2) new agronomic techniques for weed control and crop residues management (WP3); 3) improved cropping systems with the inclusion of legume crops in different smallholder systems; and 4) genome-based selection of novel legume varieties adapted to arid and semi-arid environments.
• At the farming level: foster cooperation with farmers and other value chain actors to: 1) establish a participatory approach for CA research needs and legume improvement; 2) favour the adoption of CA and sustainable agriculture practices through the dissemination of the results to technicians, farmers’ associations and extension services; and 3) build farmer organizations’, advisers’, extensionists’ and researchers’ capacities for the development and application of adapted practices for the conservation of soils and water in dryland agriculture.
• A communication, dissemination and exploitation of resources plan, comprising a wide range of dissemination activities, such as training courses, publications, participation in several scientific events, field experiments and visits…

• The research activity based on farmers’ needs will propose new crop rotations, breeding of legume crops, technological innovations and will enable new cropping systems to be identified in semi-arid environments requiring less water and nitrogen fertilizers. Enhanced soil water conservation and WUE will be achieved via CA application and will be assessed in field research and modelling activities.
• Legume crops will be improved genetically and evaluated in diversity-based systems of CA tailored for specific condition. Costefficient genomic selection of drought-tolerant legume crops will be validated and compared to conventional phenotypic selection in conditions of crop monoculture and intercropping. Indicators and benchmarks on the environmental effects of low input systems will be used in a diversity of Mediterranean conditions. Case-study results will provide evidence of lower environmental impact and multicriteria assessment will provide evidence of the benefit of CA system adoption on crop productivity and environmental impact.
• Specific research will be carried out on rainfall water infiltration, soil water depletion and WUE assessment in several case-studies of CA, as well as simulation models for long term evolution.
• The choice of winter crops/varieties (cereals and legumes), with growing cycles better exploiting rainfall; the adoption of CA system to stabilize and increase crop yield.
• Research will improve the knowledge on the water infiltration dynamics in the soil when CA is adopted, and the effect of mulching on the reduction of rainfall impact.
• A specific socioeconomic analysis on CA adoption in Mediterranean countries, a participatory approach to evaluate research needs, dissemination and training activities will have a large impact on CA farm adoption. Innovation derived from WPs 3 to 6 will be transferred to and adopted by farmers, also through farmers’ associations involved in the project. CAMA partners will encourage and enable the creation of start-ups, much-needed technology and advisory service providers, in rural areas around the Mediterranean.

Production and productivity of Mediterranean marine fish aquaculture, mainly seabass and seabream, are stagnating or growing slowly as a result of multiple and interrelated causes. To accomplish the objective of improving its competitiveness and sustainability, MedAID was structured in a first interdisciplinary WP to assess technical, environmental, market, socioeconomic and governance weaknesses, and in several specialized WPs exploring innovative solutions, followed by an integrating WP, which provided codes of practice and innovative toolboxes throughout the value chain to enhance the sector performance holistically. Various stakeholders interacted in the consultation, communication, dissemination and training WPs ensuring practical orientation of the project and results implementation. Biological performance (nutrition, health and genetics) was scrutinized to identify and quantify the relevant components to improve Key Performance Indicators (KPIs: growth rates, mortality and feed efficiency), thus contributing to increase production efficiency. Economic, business, marketing, environmental, social, administrative and legal factors were addressed to obtain integrated solutions to shift towards a marketoriented and consumer-responsible business and to face the multiple administrative, environmental and social issues constraining competitiveness and public acceptance. An interdisciplinary consortium of research and industrial partners carried out R&D and case study activities to close the existing gaps. Mediterranean countries (EU and non-EU) with significant aquaculture production were represented. Northern European R&D institutions participated by bringing successful technological tools and integrated approaches that Mediterranean aquaculture was missing. MedAID impacted the sector positively by providing innovative tools, integrated marketing and business plans and by improving the sector image, sustainability and governance.

MedAID was a research project developed by a consortium of 34 partners from European and non-European countries. Its main objective was to improve sustainability efficiency and competitiveness for the industry by providing strategies for optimizing production processes, marketing, business, administration and sector image and governance, by combining socioeconomics, biological sciences and food technology. The project provided integrated solutions targeted to solve specific industrial bottlenecks of a technical nature throughout the whole value chain.

The MedAID assessment of Mediterranean aquaculture sustainability covered technical, economic, environmental, social and governance components, and identified main KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and enterprise typologies. Further integrative analysis led to develop the MedAID farm benchmarking tool. MedAID ran 15 experiments, including a two-site on-farm trial, in 6 countries, focusing on current knowledge gaps in rearing conditions, feeding strategies, management practices, welfare and interlinks with genetics. The applicability and economic profitability of the approaches was also assessed. Α 60K SNP genotyping array (MedFish) was designed for seabass and seabream as a collaboration between MedAID and PerformFish projects and industrial partners. 10,000 fish were genotyped to study fat deposition and quality traits and identify potential markers for selection, and to examine the genetic diversity and relatedness of populations of both species, showing differentiation between wild and farmed populations. Genetic x Environment interaction effect was confirmed using the array in two Mediterranean locations. A survey assessed farm biosecurity and pathogens in 8 countries to develop a farm risk scoring system. An analysis on nodavirus introduction and spread identified hazard points, as introducing live fish in farms. MedAID analysed Mediterranean laboratories’ diagnostic capacities with two ring tests on nodavirus diagnosis and lab mapping. It organized the Mediterranean fish health forum and published a Manual on diagnostics of seabass and seabream diseases. A prototype vaccine against VNN virus (with innovative VLP biotechnology) was characterized, and lab challenges showed it is safe and effective. A list of welfare indicators for seabream was produced. Consumer segments, their needs and potential for accepting new fish products, were identified in France, Germany and Spain. Adapted fishproduct ideas were selected through a screening process with stakeholders, applying co-creation techniques and textual analysis. Eight product prototypes from seabass, seabream and meagre were developed at pilot scale. Four were elaborated in short production runs and validated with consumers. The optimal product and packaging configuration attributes were 1 Ref. Ares (2022)1381563 – 23/02/2022 derived from consumer choice experiments. The products’ technical and economic feasibility was evaluated. The economics of production studies investigated the technical efficiency and scale effects of Mediterranean aquaculture companies, indicating that there is still room for improvement, and ranking the impact of selected KPIs on farms economic results. The AquiAID tool was developed with artificial intelligence to support farms’ decision-making. The market dynamics and price analysis described market drivers (including mass media coverage), showing price volatility, price sensitivity of demand, and supply being affected by production costs. The retailer/consumer study confirmed 3 preferred attributes: size, level of processing and country of origin. A forecast analysis of the impact of Covid-19 in the sector was done. MedAID developed Guidelines in support of social acceptability (SA) for aquaculture development with Mediterranean stakeholders. A methodological framework to improve SA was proposed and tested in 3 local case studies (in Greece, Spain and Tunisia) showing how SA was addressed, identifying SA factors, and exploring potential responses from companies and acceptable scenarios of aquaculture development. MedAID synthesized its main outputs in a benchmarking software and in 48 recommendations on technical aspects, business plans, better governance and social acceptance. MedAID partners participated in 112 external meetings and published 81 articles, reports and conference abstracts. The project organized stakeholder consultation and dissemination activities (more than 20 local, national and international events), as well as 5 training courses for professionals.

Progress beyond the state of the art, expected results until the end of the project and potential impacts (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far).

SIMRA seeks to advance understanding of social innovation (SI) and innovative governance in agriculture, forestry and rural development (RD), and how to boost them, particularly in marginalised rural areas across Europe, with a focus on the Mediterranean region (including nonEU) where there is limited evidence of outcomes and supporting conditions.

SIMRA’s overarching objective is to fill the significant knowledge gap in understanding and enhancing social innovation in marginalised rural areas by advancing the state-of-the-art in social innovation and connected governance mechanisms in agriculture and forestry sectors and in rural development in general. This objective will be achieved by blending diverse theoretical positions into a coherent explanation of spatial variability of social innovation, encompassing its empirical diversity (complexities and various dimensions), co-constructing a novel evaluative toolkit, and developing improved knowledge of determinants of success in order to answer the question of how to support enhanced governance and social innovations, addressing specificities and priorities of social needs and new social relationships and collaborations, especially in marginalised rural areas across the EU, Associated States and other countries, with a particular focus on the Mediterranean region, including non-EU Mediterranean countries.

• A systematic theoretical framework and a systematic operational framework will be developed for categorising, understanding, and operationalising social innovation in different settings and across scales.
• A categorisation/classification (‘catalogue of diversity’) of the social innovations observable in rural areas considering the varying specificities in terms of social needs, priorities and social relationships/collaboration types etc., will be carried out.
• An integrated set of methods will be developed for the evaluation of social innovation and its impacts in rural areas across the target region.
• A co-constructed evaluation will be carried out (by academic and practice community) of success factors for social innovations across selected case studies (CSs),
• New/improved knowledge of social innovations and novel governance mechanisms coming from the analysis (primarily CSs).
• Collaborative learning and networking opportunities created and innovative actions (IAs) launched by integrating.

• Clarify the different dimensions of social innovation and its dynamics in agriculture, forestry and RD.
• Identify pathways to unfold the territorial capital of rural regions and thus shape sustainable development trajectories in different types of rural areas.
• Support more sustainable agro-food and forestry systems and RD, thus contributing in the medium term to smart, inclusive and sustainable growth in rural areas.
• Improve territorial governance and pave the way for an integrated approach to RD.
• Deliver analyses of different innovative governance mechanisms with respect to SI in different contexts.
• Allow policy-makers and the local communities to improve the formulation and delivery of relevant policies and to shape such programmes that explicitly foster the creation of sustainable SI.

iSAGE enhanced the sustainability, competitiveness and resilience of the European Sheep and Goat sectors through collaboration between industry and research. iSAGE had a powerful consortium with 18 industry representatives from various EU production systems and socioeconomic contexts. The sheep and goat sector was investigated because it is sensitive to general socio-economic, demographic, and ecological and market challenges; nevertheless, the project’s approach and results were made available and disseminated to other EU livestock industries. Therefore, at the core of iSAGE is a participatory approach centred on a multi-actor internal and external communication (WP) to build the project from the farmer level. This approach ensured that relevant issues were addressed and the project outcomes were applicable in practice and created a farm-level observatory and knowledge exchange network on the sustainability of livestock. This WP also assisted three assessment work packages that dealt with the sustainability assessment of sheep and goat farm systems and related supply chains, with socio-economic demographic and consumer trend analyses, and with the impacts of climate change. Assessment WPs informed action WPs that would: (1) redesign holistic farming systems to best reconcile the various demands concerning productivity, sustainability and societal values, (2) identify industry solutions that aimed to improve sustainability and productivity of sheep and goat systems through breeding, including new phenotypes linked to sustainable animal productivity. iSAGE, together with stakeholders and end-users, drafted a roadmap for further research and policy-making. The stakeholder groups would be the key players in disseminating project outputs through case studies and demonstrations to act as a blueprint to other producers across Europe and create networks to assist wider implementation of iSAGE outputs.

The primary objective of iSAGE was to improve the overall sustainability and innovative capacity of the sheep and goat sector in Europe. This would be achieved by enhancing the efficiency and profitability of the sector at the farm level, whilst increasing its societal acceptance and improving the delivery of ecosystem services. To achieve these objectives, iSAGE industry partners would collaborate closely with the multidisciplinary research teams to develop new socio-economic, animal welfare and sustainability assessments for the whole supply chain. The outcomes of these assessments will be used to understand the potential future barriers that limit the innovative capacity and development of the sector and the opportunities that may provide a future market niche against other type of animal products. Additionally, assessing the attitudes of the consumer and society to the EU sheep and goat sector will assist in re-designing critical aspects to increase society acceptance and the place of sheep and goat products (meat and milk) in future diets. iSAGE provided solutions for the industry including re-designed production systems, genetic resources and new management approaches for sheep and goat populations. These solutions were packaged and shared with industry partners and new communication networks within the sheep and goat sector. Each WP has been carefully developed to include objectives that cover the important issues outlined by the EU programme.

• By identifying and promoting examples of sustainable sheep and goat industries we developed approaches to production and the supply chain that would address environmental and socio-economic issues whilst also improving the competitiveness of the whole sector.
• Breeding strategies incorporating resilience, adaptation and welfare traits will constitute population-level solutions that, when implemented at farm-level, increased the efficiency (i.e. reduce cost or maximize output per cost unit) and net profitability of the enterprises.
• Identification of consumer attitudes to sheep and goat products (meat and milk) would help to position them better in the market place and thus to strengthen related supply chains.
• Identifying suitable sustainability indicators for the sheep and goat sector and using them in assessments was a key first step to assess current levels of and improve sustainability.
• Approximately 400 farm level multi-criteria sustainability assessment of a range of farm types and at least 4 LCA based assessments of supply chains would allow relationships between economic, environmental and social aspects to be uncovered and identify of trade-offs and areas of synergy. Case studies included innovative approaches on farms (such as use of by-products and new varieties of pasture, vaccination programmes, treatment approaches for (new) parasites, individual animal identification, specific milk attributes) and within the supply chain (e.g. direct-marketing, marketing based on local/regional produce,) found the best ways to improve competitiveness.
• Breeding solutions would encompass, for the first time, novel traits related to animal resilience and adaptability. These traits were combined with productivity, health and welfare traits in an index, thereby leading to an improvement of the overall sustainability and competitiveness of the small ruminant sector in future environmental and socio-economic circumstances, while enhancing its innovation capacity.
• The identification of animal welfare indicators for sustainability assessment of the sheep and goat sector focused on an area of importance to societal acceptance of consumers with regards to animal products demonstrating the performance of the sector.
• iSAGE also developed strategies to improve positioning of sheep and goat products in the future diets, based on a sound understanding of the reasons for the decline in sheep and goat meat products consumption, and the identification of consumer attitudes to such livestock products and barriers to purchase.
• The identification and selection of social indicators for the assessment of livestock systems contributed to sustainable development within the sector and helped to protect rural livelihoods. Furthermore, the identification of social indicators enabled assessment of the impact of sheep and goat production on local communities in terms of creation of employment, input into the local economy, effect on socio and geo-demographics. Social indicators included indicators related to gender and impacts on members of the farm household (male and female) and were assessed through such indicators. An understanding of the role of sheep and goat farms in local communities would highlight the importance of this form of production in certain areas of Europe and may allow policy-makers to better target policy to support certain communities.

• Increased efficiency and profitability of animal agriculture.
• Improved overall sustainability and innovative capacity of the livestock sector.
• Increased societal acceptance.
• New efficiency traits to be incorporated into breeding schemes of various farm species enabling selection of animals more adapted to environmental changes.
• Increased level of animal welfare.
• Improved social well-being and rural development.