Remember the PERGRASS project? We talked about a preparatory meeting, held at the DISAFA Department of the University of Turin, which was attended by Riccardo Beltramo, Stefano Duglio and Paolo Cantore.
The PERGRASS project, built with professionalism and diligence by Dr. Gianni Bellocchi of the INRA, allowed Scatol8 to face the Horizon 2020 calls. It was a cyclopean work, which involved 22 research organizations in the design phase, 14 countries, over 60 researchers. Appropriately integrated experiences, to harmoniously organize an orchestra ready to play a demanding score. The summary description of the project reported the main contents in these terms:
“PERGRASS develops research outputs to promote awareness of, and provide guidance on, the mainstreaming of ecosystem services into farm scale management and policy making of permanent grasslands in Europe.
PERGRASS will inform public policy development in EU and member states while strengthening cooperation within farmers’ networks and with a broad range of stakeholders addressing grassland-based farming systems. The core analytical spine is a series of geographically-balanced case studies combined with experimentation and socio-economic assessment at regional and European levels to explore innovative management, value chain creation and policy scenarios for the grasslandlivestock sector. The designed scenarios are enriched by experimental breakthroughs at field and farm scales, integrated at regional scale, and used to assess policy options and their environmental and socio-economic consequences.
PERGRASS will:
- Assess with common protocols and frameworks status, trends and drivers of productivity, biodiversity and ecosystem services from European permanent grassland systems
- Revise and derive agro-environmental and ecological indicators for the monitoring of ecosystem services by permanent grasslands
- Develop decision support systems for grassland farming in operational smart app tools
- Experimentally design and assess innovative strategies for sustainable management and approaches to monitor, maintain, restore and create permanent grasslands
- Recognize, capture in decision-making processes and communicate the socio-economic benefits of biodiversity and ecosystem services from permanent grasslands
- Identify policy tools and governance practices for incorporation of ecosystem services from permanent grasslands into policy and governance mechanisms.”
The strict selection process, conducted by the EU, allowed PERGRASS to reach the final and, unfortunately, another team has conquered the summit.
However, the fine-tuned concept retains its validity and, over time, the professional relationships that have arisen from the long design process are consolidated.
Riccardo Beltramo and Gianni Bellocchi participated in a competitive tender, the WOW! “Wide Open to the World!“, whose goal is to attract the Clermont to the best researchers and teacher-researchers on an international scale. They have developed a convincing proposal of collaboration, which includes a stay at INRA to deepen the relationship between the functionality of Scatol8 and the needs of monitoring and organization of the supply chain, from pastures, to processing, to the sale of products. Well, the proposal has won!
Together with Gianni Bellocchi, we are developing the activities to be carried out, starting with the brief presentation of Scatol8, which will take place on 22nd January 2019, at INRA in Clermont Ferrand. We offer you the first slide of the presentation, but stay connected, we will update you, step by step, on this exciting collaboration.
