BOERENBOND

Their core work

Boerenbond is Belgium's largest farmers' union, representing Flemish agricultural producers and rural communities. In H2020 projects, they contribute real-world farming perspectives, market knowledge, and policy insights to European research consortia working on crop diversification, livestock farming, urban agriculture, and plant health. Their role bridges the gap between academic research and on-the-ground agricultural practice, ensuring project outcomes are relevant to working farmers across Europe.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Boerenbond's earliest H2020 involvement (2018) focused on plant health diagnostics through VIROPLANT. From 2020 onward, their scope broadened considerably into beef farming networks, urban agriculture policy, and crop diversification — reflecting a shift from narrow technical topics toward systemic questions about food system resilience and agricultural transformation. Their most recent project (CROPDIVA, 2021) explicitly targets market analysis and novel value chains, suggesting growing engagement with the business side of agricultural innovation.

Boerenbond is moving from participating in single-commodity research toward broader food system transformation topics — crop diversification, urban agriculture, and new value chains — making them increasingly relevant for projects addressing climate adaptation in European farming.

How they like to work

Boerenbond consistently participates as a partner rather than leading consortia, which is typical for a farmers' union bringing practitioner perspectives to research-driven projects. With 71 unique partners across 18 countries from just 4 projects, they operate in large, diverse European consortia. Their value lies in providing real-world farmer feedback and market validation rather than conducting primary research.

Despite only four projects, Boerenbond has built connections with 71 distinct partners across 18 countries, reflecting participation in large pan-European consortia. Their network spans agricultural research institutions, universities, and farming organizations across most of the EU.

What sets them apart

As one of Belgium's most influential agricultural unions, Boerenbond offers something most research partners cannot: direct access to tens of thousands of active Flemish farmers. For any consortium that needs farmer engagement, field validation, or dissemination to the agricultural community, they are an exceptionally credible and well-connected partner. Their combination of policy influence, market knowledge, and farmer trust makes them a strong dissemination and exploitation partner.

Highlights from their portfolio

• EFUA
  Largest funded project (EUR 148,638), connecting rural farming perspectives with urban agriculture policy at the European level.
• CROPDIVA
  Most forward-looking project (2021-2025), exploring underutilized crops and novel value chains for climate-resilient agriculture.
• BovINE
  Built a European beef innovation network, directly engaging farming communities in knowledge exchange across borders.