INNOVATIONSCENTER FOR OKOLOGISK LANDBRUG P/S

Their core work

Innovation Center for Organic Farming (ICOEL) is a Danish research centre focused on advancing organic agriculture through participatory research and practical innovation. They work on replacing contentious inputs in organic farming (synthetic pesticides, copper, peat, plastic), improving mixed farming systems, and transitioning food chains toward sustainability. Their applied research connects farmers, consumers, and food system actors to develop tools and strategies for ecological farming that is both productive and environmentally sound.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 period (2018-2020), ICOEL focused heavily on the practical mechanics of organic farming — replacing specific contentious inputs like copper-based pesticides, finding natural vitamins and livestock bedding alternatives, and improving mixed farming performance through participatory research. From 2020 onward, their work broadened significantly toward whole-system thinking: food system sustainability, circular economy, biodiversity, human nutrition, greenhouse gas reduction, and consumer-facing short food chains. The shift is from solving specific organic farming problems to redesigning entire food systems for ecological and social sustainability.

ICOEL is moving from farm-level technical fixes toward full food-chain sustainability, making them increasingly relevant for projects addressing consumer behavior, dietary transitions, and circular bioeconomy.

How they like to work

ICOEL operates exclusively as a participant or third-party contributor — they have never coordinated an H2020 project. With 129 unique partners across 21 countries, they are well-networked across large European consortia (typical for RIA projects in food and agriculture). Their consistent participant role and broad partner base suggest they are a trusted specialist that consortia invite for their organic farming expertise and participatory research methods, rather than an organization that initiates or leads large-scale projects.

ICOEL has built a wide European network of 129 unique partners across 21 countries through six projects, indicating deep integration into the EU organic agriculture research community. Their partnerships span universities, farm advisory services, and food chain actors across Western and Northern Europe.

What sets them apart

ICOEL occupies a distinctive niche as a dedicated organic farming innovation centre — not a university department, not a government agency, but a focused research SME embedded in the Danish organic sector. Their combination of participatory action research methods with practical organic farming challenges makes them a bridge between academic research and on-farm implementation. For consortium builders, they bring credibility in the organic sector plus hands-on farmer engagement capacity that most academic partners cannot offer.

Highlights from their portfolio

• DIVINFOOD
  Their largest funded project (EUR 308,760), focused on co-constructing short food chains that value agrobiodiversity — represents their strategic shift toward consumer-facing food system work.
• PATHWAYS
  A broad sustainability transitions project (EUR 217,800) combining livestock, biodiversity, nutrition, and circular economy — their most interdisciplinary engagement to date.
• Organic-PLUS
  Core to their identity: finding practical replacements for contentious organic farming inputs across multiple categories (copper, peat, plastic, vitamins) through transdisciplinary research.