The University Institute of Research in Olive Grove and Olive Oil (INUO) at the University of Jaén aims to establish a Global Network to face environmental challenges for olive cultivation in the world (NET4OLIVE) between different organisations from the academic and non-academic sector, based in Europe and beyond.
Olive cultivation is a major woody crop in many Mediterranean areas worldwide and covers approximately 11 million hectares of land. The traditional olive orchards are now being transformed into high-density and super-high-density modes of production, which presents new challenges for sustainability. In addition, climate change and this transformation must be rigorously evaluated from various perspectives, including environmental, societal, economic, and energetic, to face these challenges. This COST action aims to tackle this huge challenge of interchanging cutting-edge advances in six essential topics, with the goal of establishing the basic criteria, thresholds, and directions for olive cultivation in a sustainable way that assures food security and the maintenance of populations, and economy in the different olive cultivation areas in the world.
This proposal will involve a network of proponents – led by INUO – to carry out activities previously established in the joint work programme which will include actions such as the following:
– Scientific meetings of the Working Groups:
- Soil Health
- Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
- Climate Change and Abiotic Stress
- Water, Production and Quality
- Energy and By-products
- People
– Workshops and Seminars
– Short Term Science Missions (STSM)
– Training workshops and scientific conferences
– Dissemination activities
It is envisaged to apply for one of the European calls (COST, MSCA Staff Exchange) that fund short-term international and intersectoral exchanges of staff members involved in research and innovation activities of the participating organisations. Staff exchanges are open to international consortia of universities, research institutions, enterprises, SMEs and other non-academic organisations.
