ASOCIACION RED ANDALUZA DE SEMILLAS CULTIVANDO BIODIVERSIDAD

Their core work

Red Andaluza de Semillas (RAS) is a civil society association based in Sevilla dedicated to conserving and promoting agricultural seed biodiversity across Andalusia, southern Spain. Their core work involves running community seed networks, supporting on-farm conservation of traditional crop varieties, and connecting local farmers with seed exchange practices that keep agrobiodiversity alive outside of gene banks. In EU research projects, they contribute something academic partners rarely have: direct access to farming communities, lived experience with traditional variety management, and the grassroots networks needed to embed diversity practices at the farm and household level. They act as a bridge between scientific research on crop diversity and the rural communities who must actually adopt and sustain it.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

RAS's two H2020 projects ran almost simultaneously (starting 2015 and 2016, both ending 2019), making it impossible to trace a temporal shift within the H2020 period itself. What can be read across the two projects is a consistent deepening: DIVERSIFOOD addressed crop diversity broadly in local food systems, while CERERE narrowed that lens specifically to cereals and organic/low-input contexts in rural Europe — suggesting a movement from general agrobiodiversity advocacy toward more crop-specific and farming-system-specific expertise. Given no later projects are recorded, it is not clear whether this trajectory continued after 2019 or whether RAS's EU research engagement has paused.

RAS appears to be specialising from broad agrobiodiversity advocacy toward concrete crop-system integration — specifically cereals in organic and low-input contexts — which positions them well for future projects on sustainable grain systems and food sovereignty.

How they like to work

RAS has participated exclusively as a consortium partner, never as a project coordinator, which is consistent with their profile as a civil society network rather than a research-leading institution. Despite their modest funding share, they worked within large, internationally diverse consortia — 31 unique partners across 15 countries across just two projects — suggesting they are valued for the community access and legitimacy they bring rather than for technical leadership. Working with them likely means gaining a well-connected civil society voice and a direct channel to Andalusian farming communities, but project management and scientific coordination would need to rest with other partners.

RAS has built a notably wide European network for an organisation of their size: 31 unique partners across 15 countries from just two projects, indicating participation in large, pan-European research consortia. Their geographic footprint spans far beyond Andalusia, though their practical community work remains rooted in southern Spain.

What sets them apart

RAS occupies a niche that very few EU research partners can fill: a practitioner NGO with deep roots in farmer seed networks in one of Europe's most agriculturally significant regions — Andalusia, a major producer of vegetables, olives, and cereals. Unlike university gene banks or agri-food companies, they bring social legitimacy with smallholder farmers and a proven ability to run participatory seed exchange systems at the community level. For any consortium working on agrobiodiversity, food sovereignty, or the farmer-facing side of sustainable agriculture, they provide the critical link between research outputs and real-world adoption.

Highlights from their portfolio

• CERERE
  The larger of their two funded projects (EUR 126,250), CERERE addressed cereal renaissance in rural Europe with a specific focus on organic and low-input systems — a topic of growing policy relevance under the EU Farm to Fork strategy.
• DIVERSIFOOD
  RAS's first H2020 engagement, focused on crop diversity networking for local food systems — a project that directly mirrors their organisational mission and likely established their credibility as an EU research partner.