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Information System for Agriculture and Food Research

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Providing smart delivery of public goods by EU agriculture and forestry (PROVIDE)

Collaborative Project


Project code: 633838
Contract period: 01.09.2015 - 31.08.2018
Budget: 2991436 Euro
Coordinating institution: Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie

Together with food, materials and energy, agriculture and forestry contribute to the production of a wide range of public goods. Examples are landscape, biodiversity, water quality and availability, soil fertility, climate stability, flood and fire protection, food security, animal welfare and rural vitality, as well as the management of the majority of land areas in the EU.

Some of these goods are of primary importance for the environment and society welfare. However, as there is no market for such goods, they are often provided in quantity lower than socially optimal.

The objective of the PROVIDE project is to develop a conceptual basis, evidence, tools and improved incentive and policy options to support the “smart” provision of public goods by the EU agriculture and forestry ecosystems. PROVIDE will consider a wide range of public goods and legislations, and will address the issue in a multi-scale framework, working both at the EU level and at case study level in thirteen Countries of the EU.

The project will first perform a mapping and inventory of public goods and the mechanisms producing such goods, allowing to identify ’hotspots’ for mechanisms and policy development. Around these ’hotspots’, the project will then value different public goods and explore value transferability across several regions and ecosystems. Next, to meet a smart production of public goods, consistent with the current needs of productivity, bioeconomy strategy and rural development, innovative policy tools and mechanisms will be comparatively evaluated. The outcomes of these activities will feed information into a framework and toolbox.

The practical results of the project will be: a renewed ('un-packed') conceptualization of the notion of public goods; an operational framework to support the smart provision of public goods; a toolbox putting together an inventory of options, operational means for valuation and evaluation, and a selection of policy/sector mechanisms; a consolidated and long-lasting community of knowledge and practice.

Program: Horizon 2020, SC2
Call: H2020-ISIB-2014-2, Topic: ISIB-01-2014

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Collaborative Projects

WP1 - Coordination and Management

Leading institution: Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie

WP2 - Innovative Co-Construction of Knowledge - Ensuring Collaborative Research and Dissemination

Leading institution: The James Hutton Institute

WP3 - Inventory and Mapping of the Connection between Conditions, Practices and Public Goods Production

Leading institution: University of Amsterdam, Natural Resources Institute Finland

WP4 - Improved Valuation of Public Goods

WP5 - Formulation and Evaluating Governance Mechanisms for Delivery of Public Goods

WP6 - Evolving Framework and Toolbox

Leading institution: Institute for Socio-economic

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