AGENZIA VENETA PER L'INNOVAZIONE NEL SETTORE PRIMARIO

Their core work

Veneto Region's Agency for Innovation in the Primary Sector is a public agricultural research and advisory body in northeastern Italy, focused on improving farming practices across the Veneto region. They work on sustainable crop management — from weed control without chemicals to agroforestry transitions and forest genetic resource conservation. Their practical role in EU projects is typically contributing field trial infrastructure, regional agronomic expertise, and farmer engagement for testing and validating new approaches under real Mediterranean/continental farming conditions.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their early H2020 work (2017) centered on practical agronomy — weed management, tillage techniques, and organic farming methods for field and horticultural crops. By 2020-2021, their focus shifted toward broader sustainability themes: agroforestry system transitions, greenhouse gas accounting, genetic diversity conservation, and resilience-oriented breeding. The trajectory shows a move from optimizing individual farming practices toward systemic, landscape-level approaches to agricultural sustainability.

Moving from field-level agronomic optimization toward landscape-scale resilience, biodiversity conservation, and climate-adapted farming systems — likely to pursue future projects in nature-based solutions and climate adaptation for agriculture.

How they like to work

Always participates as a partner, never as coordinator — consistent with a regional public agency that contributes applied expertise and field infrastructure rather than leading large research consortia. With 84 unique partners across 20 countries in just 3 projects, they operate in large, diverse consortia (averaging ~28 partners per project). This makes them an accessible, low-friction partner accustomed to working within complex multi-country teams.

Despite only 3 projects, they have built connections with 84 unique partners across 20 countries, reflecting the large consortium sizes typical of RIA food and agriculture calls. Their network spans most of Europe, with no indication of narrow geographic clustering.

What sets them apart

As a regional public agency rather than a university or private institute, they offer direct access to the Veneto agricultural ecosystem — farmers, regional policy networks, and field trial sites in one of Italy's most productive agricultural regions. Their combination of practical agronomy, farmer engagement capacity, and regional authority makes them a valuable partner for projects that need real-world validation and demonstration in Mediterranean/continental farming contexts. They bridge the gap between EU-level research objectives and on-the-ground agricultural practice.

Highlights from their portfolio

• IWMPRAISE
  Their largest funded project (EUR 131,702), addressing the commercially significant challenge of non-chemical weed management across European cropping systems.
• AGROMIX
  Represents their evolution toward systemic sustainability, combining agroforestry, participatory research, and greenhouse gas accounting in a single integrated framework.
• FORGENIUS
  Extends their scope beyond agriculture into forest genetic resources and biodiversity conservation, signaling diversification of their expertise.