LIFT is an EU project, which unites five countries in a Living Lab network for agroecological transformation of food systems through public procurement. It is part of the Agroecology Partnership (see below). LIFT runs from 05/2025 til 04/2028.
We will work with Organic Denmark, Videnscenter for Holistisk Management, Frie Bønder (Danish La Via Campesina) and other farmers and associations, as well as the municipalities of Kolding and Copenhagen, and hopefully many others in our Living Lab process.
Introduction in Danish here.
The Danish Living Lab is coordinated by John Martin Pedersen.
- Get in touch if you want to network on public procurement as leverage for agroecology in Denmark
- Hvis du vil være med i et aktionsforskningsnetværk omkring offentlige indkøb som løftestang for ‘agroøkologi’, så skriv til os!
LIFT is an EU project with three principal objectives:
The project has the following three main objectives:
- Facilitate multi-stakeholder Living Labs
Bring together actors from the entire food chain to develop agroecologically sound production, delivery, procurement, and consumption of food in regional landscapes and connect these in an international network of Living Labs - Identify drivers and barriers
Explore factors that support or hinder the transition to more collaborative, regional, and agroecologically sound food systems, and to develop concepts and tools for improving such a transition. - Develop a participatory framework
Develop a framework to evaluate the impact of the Living Labs activities on the implementation of agroecological principles and practices as well as on the ecological, economic, and social sustainability of farms, landscapes and the food system.
The project builds on Living Labs in southwestern (Portugal, Spain) and northern (Sweden, Denmark, Norway) Europe, enabling learning between regions with different conditions.
“To strengthen the sustainability of food systems, we need a shift from decoupling and competition between actors in the value-chain to increased proximity and collaboration,” adds Breland. “This is a complex challenge, a ‘wicked problem’, where different perspectives must meet and find common paths forward.”
The tools and solutions developed will be disseminated through “lighthouse cases”, successful examples of agroecological transformation, and via the learning platform developed within the Agroecology for Europe project.
Partners
The LIFT project, running from May 2025 to April 2028, is coordinated by the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) and involves partners from:
- University of Lisbon – Association for Research and Development of Sciences (Portugal)
- Svensk Kolinlagring (Sweden)
- University of Córdoba (Spain)
- University of Southern Denmark (Denmark)
- Miljömatematik Malmö AB (Sweden) – responsible for communication and knowledge dissemination
- Halmstad University (Sweden)
- University of Extremadura (Spain)
For more information:
Associate Professor Nina Isabella Moeller
University of Southern Denmark
Sustainable Food Transitions
Email: ninam@sam.sdu.dk
~ Find other projects here ~
Summary presentation of LIFT: https://www.agroecologypartnership.eu/lift
Our approach is transdisciplinary, participatory and change-oriented by using action research in Living Labs (LLs). This means bringing together an array of actors with diverse perspectives to collaboratively address challenges, explore solutions and drive tangible change in the real world. The LLs will operate iterative cycles of action and research, each of which will imply mapping the current situation, envisioning desired futures, and planning and taking informed actions. Accompanying research by the project scientists will examine the LL processes and their outcomes in terms of agroecological transformation of landscapes.
The project builds on LLs in the southwest (PT, ES) and north (SE, DK, NO) of Europe, in locations where the consortium partners are actively engaged in initiatives encompassing multiple actor groups such as farmers, agricultural advisers, food distributors, canteen personnel and users, citizenry, municipalities and counties, including decision and policy makers.
Source: Tor Arvid Breland
Source: Tor Arvid Breland
The LL objectives are to:
1. facilitate multi-stakeholder LLs for developing agroecologically sound production, delivery, procurement and consumption of food in regional landscapes and connect these in an international network of LLs,
2. explore forces that support and hinder a transition to a more collaborative, regional, agroecologically sound food system and to develop concepts and tools for improving such a transition,
3. develop a participatory framework for evaluating impacts of the LL activities on the implementation of agroecological principles and practices and on ecological, economic, and social sustainability of farms, landscapes and the food systems under development.
These objectives will be achieved by participatory, multi-criteria and mixed methods, contributing to societal learning about sustainability pathways. Additional agroecological innovations will be:
· a roadmap for organising actors to develop place-based, agroecological, collaborative food systems with enhanced social, economic and environmental sustainability,
· multi-criteria sustainability analysis tools tailored to each LL and adaptable to new contexts
By addressing challenges in the southwest and north of Europe, the consortium not only promotes agroecological transformation in the landscapes concerned but also contributes to an international learning network and a transnational paradigm shift in how to tackle sustainability challenges in agrifood systems across varied environmental and socio-economic conditions.
Source: Tor Arvid Breland
The methods, tools and solutions generated in the LLs will be disseminated and scaled out through collaboration with stakeholders in “lighthouse” cases—examples of excellence that are trailblazing pathways to agroecological transformation—a partnership webpage, articles in social media and local and national newspapers and magazines, presentations at scientific conferences, scientific publications, and a network and learning platform developed in the Agroecology for Europe project (https://www.ae4eu.eu).
Source: Tor Arvid Breland
PI/Coordinator
Tor Arvid Breland
Norwegian University of Life Sciences – Department of Plant Sciences (NMBU), NORWAY
Email: tor.arvid.breland@nmbu.no
AGROECOLOGY Partnership: Coordinator: Projektträger Jülich (Germany) / Co-coordinator: Agence nationale de la recherche, ANR (France)
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
