Spain's national farmer federation connecting EU agricultural research with practicing crop and livestock farmers across the country.
COAG is one of Spain's principal national federations representing farmers and ranchers, giving voice to practicing agricultural communities at both national and EU policy levels. In research consortia, they do not bring laboratory capacity — they bring something harder to find: legitimacy, real-world field access, and direct channels into the farming community. Their H2020 participation shows them acting as the practitioner bridge, validating whether new technologies and disease control strategies are workable for the people who actually grow food and raise livestock. Any project that needs farmer buy-in, end-user testing, or credible dissemination into the Spanish agricultural sector benefits from their involvement.
In both VACDIVA and WeLASER, COAG contributed as the practitioner voice, providing the farmer-side perspective essential for validating research relevance and driving adoption.
COAG participated as third party in VACDIVA (2019-2024), a major EU effort to develop a DIVA vaccine for African Swine Fever affecting wild boar and domestic pig populations.
As a funded participant in WeLASER (2020-2023), COAG engaged with autonomous laser-based weed management, representing farmer needs in the development of sustainable crop management technology.
COAG's earliest H2020 engagement centered on livestock disease — specifically African Swine Fever, one of the most economically devastating animal diseases in Europe — where they contributed as a third party, likely providing farmer network access and ground-level input into vaccine development strategy. Their subsequent project shifted entirely to crop production technology, with laser-based autonomous weed control reflecting the concerns of arable and mixed farmers within their membership. The trajectory suggests COAG is broadening its research footprint from reactive disease response toward proactive smart farming tools, mirroring the wider modernization agenda in Spanish agriculture.
COAG is moving from a passive supporting role in animal health research toward active participation in precision agriculture, suggesting growing organizational appetite for technology-adoption projects where farmer acceptance is the critical success factor.
COAG has not coordinated any H2020 project, consistently joining as participant or third party — a pattern consistent with their nature as a representative body rather than a research institution. Despite only two projects, they appear in large, internationally diverse consortia (30 partners, 17 countries), which suggests they are deliberately sought out for the reach and legitimacy they add rather than technical outputs. Partners should expect COAG to contribute farmer access, dissemination channels, and end-user requirements rather than data, IP, or laboratory results.
Through just two projects, COAG has connected with 30 unique consortium partners across 17 countries — a wide geographic spread that reflects the large pan-European consortia typical of Innovation Actions in the food and agriculture pillar. Their network is broad rather than deep, shaped by the projects they join rather than long-standing bilateral research relationships.
What COAG offers that universities and research institutes cannot is direct organizational access to Spain's farming community — the actual end-users whose adoption determines whether agricultural technology succeeds or stalls in the field. Their federation status means they can mobilize farmer pilots, gather ground-level feedback at scale, and lend credibility to project dissemination in ways that no academic partner can replicate. For consortium builders needing a Spanish agricultural end-user partner with genuine farmer representation, COAG is a rare and specific asset.
