CONCAT LL: Creating Shared Agendas for Agricultural Resilience in Catalonia

CONCAT LL: Creating Shared Agendas for Agricultural Resilience in Catalonia

The European Commission's 2023 report on climate change impacts revealed that certain regions in Europe could face up to a 30% reduction in crop yields by 2050, especially concerning the Mediterranean region¹. In Catalonia, some of the most affected crops are olives, apples, wheat and oats, poultry and aquaculture fish. 

Naked Innovations is joining forces with the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA) and the Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives of Catalonia (FCAC) to address the impacts on our local crops through CONCAT LL. CONCAT LL is a Living Lab set to redefine how we address climate change through an innovative, collaborative approach.

The 'What' and the 'Why'

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CONCAT LL is a dynamic Living Lab that explores how to make agriculture for Catalonia’s most popular crops not just resilient, but actively mitigating climate impact through better management. This innovative approach allows for real-time data collection and hypothesis testing, enabling the ecosystem to extract actionable insights and use them for practical solutions.

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To get a closer look at the initiative’s impact we spoke with Claudia Grossi, a Naked Innovations collaborator, Professor in the Department of Physics and researcher at the Institute of Energy Techniques at UPC. Claudia is leading CONCAT LL alongside Naked Innovations' Managing Director, Ayman Moghnieh, the IRTA and FCAC team, and the wide range of participants, who will be bridging knowledge gaps and finding creative solutions together.  

As Claudia explains, “This project involves a diverse group of stakeholders from scientists, farmers, producers, policymakers, and more. Together, we are focusing on five critical products—fruit, olives, fish farmed in aquaponics systems, poultry, and wheat—to develop tailored strategies that go beyond traditional adaptation methods.” 

Some examples are: 

• Olives: Particularly concerning the Catalonia region and its extensive droughts. Modelling various scenarios managing their water consumption and effects on yield. 
• Chickens: Testing new methodologies to enhance animal welfare in rising temperatures, including adjusting their activity patterns and sleep cycles. 
• Other crops: Different strains of apples will be tested in Catalonia to find the most resilient to water scarcity and replace the current varieties. 

Approach

CONCAT LL will be an 18 months project, kicking off this October with the first of many workshops. During the CONCAT LL workshops, Naked Innovations, IRTA and FCAC will be uniting top scientists, leading Catalan organisations and companies, and other key stakeholders to tackle the pressing challenges of Catalonian agriculture. 

These labs and workshops will be a platform for discussing the real-life impacts of climate change, setting the foundation for collaborative solutions. This Ecosystem approach encourages open knowledge sharing and shared agendas, ensuring that solutions are not only innovative, but also practical and scalable, for all.

“The partnership of NI with IRTA and FCAC brings in-depth local expertise and extensive networks. This collaboration ensures that our approaches are well-informed and grounded in the local context, which is crucial for the success of any agricultural innovation. Together, we can address regional challenges while contributing to broader, global solutions", emphasises Claudia Grossi. 

Why are Living Labs key for climate change solutions?

A Living Lab is an innovative platform where stakeholders collaborate to co-create, test, and refine solutions in real-world settings. What sets a Living Lab apart is its ability to tailor solutions to the specific challenges of different territories, acknowledging that each area has unique needs. By operating in real-life environments and adopting a user-centred approach, Living Labs emphasise feedback at every stage of development, ensuring that solutions are closely aligned with local communities' needs, making them more effective and impactful than one-size-fits-all approaches.

Next steps for CONCAT LL

The goal extends beyond local initiatives.

Ayman Moghnieh highlights, “Over the next three years, we aim to scale our efforts to a European level, collaborating with other Living Labs to ensure our methods are dynamic, transparent, and effective. By focusing on the Mediterranean region, we’re aligning our strategies with broader European objectives for maximum impact.”

Leveraging the similarities in conditions between the participating countries such as Italy, Spain and Greece.

As a reflection of our work across borders, CONCAT LL is supporting EcoReady, an EU funded project aiming to promote sustainable practices and innovation in the agricultural and food sectors across Europe. Through our involvement with EcoReady, we aim to enhance food security and develop practical solutions to face current challenges and mitigate future risks triggered by climate change in Europe.

EcoReady has established a unique network spanning 10 European countries, who are crafting opportunities and solutions unique to their regional scenarios, whilst sharing knowledge across borders to find global solutions. These innovative, user-centred labs foster public-private collaboration to: 

- Investigate food products and crops to create model-based scenarios.

- Test these scenarios against climate-related challenges (e.g. exposure to climate shocks and management of water and land resources).

- Contribute to the development of contingency plans for ensuring food supply and security.

- Provide valuable input for policy recommendations and adjustments at EU level.

The next steps for CONCAT LL are crucial. Kicking off our workshops in the next months, we look forward to what diverse perspectives these sessions will bring to help drive agricultural resilience, food security, and empowerment of all stakeholders affected by the drastic effects climate change is having on Catalonia’s agriculture.‍

Sources:

¹European Commission(EC). Climate Change Impacts in Europe. 2023.