EU food and agri innovation plans: overview
- EU plans AgRI 2040 and Food 2040 innovation frameworks
- Research funding will better connect SMEs investors and markets
- Farmers will receive support adopting technologies and sustainable practices
- Food security efforts target climate risks and supply chains resilience
- Fermentation and resilient crops could strengthen future food systems
The European Commission is putting its full weight behind innovation in the food and agriculture space.
The Commission’s Communication on a new Strategic Approach to Research and Innovation lays out its strategy on how food and agriculture can innovate.
It focuses on how the EU plans to boost research in these areas, and how it will implement such research within food and agriculture. It aims to support the goals of the Vision for Agriculture and Food and complement the EU Bioeconomy Strategy.
From these measures will develop two closely linked frameworks, AgRI 2040 and Food 2040.
“Research and innovation can make a real difference to how we farm and manage our rural areas: from crops that can better withstand drought and extreme temperatures, to faster ways of detecting plant diseases, more sustainable crop protection and digital tools for smarter use of resources like water,” says EU Commissioner for food and agriculture, Christophe Hansen.
“Our task is to make sure these ideas do not stay in the laboratory, but are tested, adapted to local conditions and turned into practical solutions that can be used and scaled up.”
1. Boosting the innovation ecosystem
The EU is pledging to boost the research and innovation (R&I) ecosystem.
The European Commission aims to make EU-funded R&I projects more business-friendly through getting the private sector more involved in R&I proposals, and “incentivising the valorisation and exploitation” of R&I results.
It also aims to lower barriers for the participation of small and medium economic enterprises (SMEs) in projects by Horizon Europe, the EU’s R&I funding programme.
It will explore the development of scale-up pathways, aiming to link funding sources together and make investment journeys more seamless.
It will also push for greater synergies with organisations that support deployment, such as EIT Food, the European Innovation Council (EIC), and the Enterprise Europe Network.
A mechanism will be created to identify commercially promising R&I results early, and such results could receive funding to bridge the gap between research and the market.
The Commission will aim to facilitate access to testing and experimentation infrastructures such as Living Labs, helping start-ups and SMEs to quickly validate prototypes under real-world conditions.
It will aim to use regulatory sandboxes more frequently, and work more closely with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), aiming to “harvest regulatory learnings” that are needed to ascertain what adjustments to pre-market approvals need to be made.
2. Helping farmers take up innovative methods
The EU also plans to boost innovation in agriculture. Such innovation must move beyond individual projects to become embedded in everyday practices, the EU says.
It must be scaled out, in the sense that new practices should be used in more locations and by more people; scaled up, in the sense that policies and regulations should support innovation uptake; and scaled deep, in the sense that new practices, values and beliefs should be channelled in society.
The common agricultural policy (CAP) can help support farmers in taking up new technologies and digital tools, as well as adopt new sustainable agricultural practices.
While the current CAP has already developed foundations for disseminating knowledge and innovation among farmers, according to the EU, stakeholders continue to stress the need for improvements to accelerate uptake.
3. Strengthening food security
With the impacts of climate change being felt particularly vividly in 2026, food security is more important and urgent than ever. The EU aims to strengthen it.
It will prioritise anticipation and preparedness by recognising how climate impacts, supply-chain disruptions, structural lock-ins and other risks can reinforce one another through how they interact.
The EU aims to sustainably manage natural resources, diversify supply chains and reduce its dependencies to boost food security.
The Commission can work with Member States to strengthen EU food security, supporting domestic supply chains of ingredients such as vitamins, amino acids and enzymes. The resilience of these supply chains could be improved through AI tools, the EU says.
R&I plays a key role in food security, as it can develop tools for monitoring, early warning, stress-testing and foresight.
4. Investing in fermentation
Boosting food innovation can also strengthen food security, and the EU aims to help innovations in this area prosper.
Companies producing sustainable ingredients need help in overcoming the ‘second valley of death’ between pilot scale and market, says the EU, particularly with investors often reluctant to support infrastructure funding.
Fermentation is a key method for the production of sustainable food. The Commission has identified fermentation as a lead technology in its Bioeconomy Strategy, and aims to encourage private investment in building and upgrading open-access pilot and demo-scale bioprocessing infrastructure for advanced fermentation.
This will support SMEs to test and de-risk processes without needing up-front capital.
There is significant need for industrial-scale contract manufacturing for fermentation-based technologies for food and feed ingredients at the highest levels of technology readiness, the EU says.
Therefore, the Commission will explore how to accelerate investment in these foods.
5. Investing in resilient crops
Part of the AgRI 2040 strategy includes investment in cropping systems. The EU aims to support resilient and climate-smart crops.
Such crops will be developed through a combination of breeding, biotechnology and precision technologies, and alternatives will also be used. Neglected and underutilised varieties should be reintroduced.
Furthermore, it aims to develop methods to prepare for and respond to threats to plant health, and to prevent, detect, treat and control plant pests.
Importantly, protein crops should be prioritised and protected, as a “strategic component” of a resilient and sustainable protein system.
The strategy makes no mention of using CRISPR to develop new crops, although the EU does suggest that it will aim to support pre-market approvals for products derived from genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
