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There are some significant gaps in pan-European infrastructures. The current landscape includes mainly the medical and biological sciences RIs. However, there is a strong need of RIs on food and nutrition as well as sustainable agriculture and bioeconomy, building a natural link between the complex medical and agriculture fields (see

Figure 7).

Plant facilities – unlocking green power

Plants are the basis of all food, feed and renewable bioenergy production and are essential for the desired transfer from a fossil based economy to a bio-based economy. The increasing demand for food due to population growth, the increasing use of biomass for non-food purposes and the competition for arable land requires considerable improvement of plant yield, yield stability and quality. This challenge is compounded by the scarcity of resources, land degradation, climate change and the requirements for sustainability.

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Plant phenotyping, plant breeding

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Plant genetic resources, native seed banks, nutritional properties

There is a need for large scale and long term integrated laboratory work, greenhouse and field experiments. Whereas much progress has been made in developing genetic high-throughput tools, the progress in the fine-tuned analyses of the plant physiology, particularly for crops, is lacking behind. New infrastructure efforts are needed at EU-level aiming at:

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providing the tools and resources necessary to analyse the complex genomes and biochemistry of crops; strategies

to improve the yield, yield stability and quality of globally important crops as well as develop new resilient crops;

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integrating genetics with crop stress and yield physiology, agronomy and ecology, requiring substantial and diverse

laboratory as well as field instrumentation and phenotyping technology;

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providing tools and technologies for the capture, storage, distribution and interoperation of data;

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integrating facilities for phenomics to enable the automated high-throughput and multidimensional acquisition of

multiple correlated measurements of factors in plant development within naturally occurring multi-stress situations during the growth cycle in glasshouse and field environments, and at farm scale platforms for field trials;

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the integration, conservation, and coordination of national and international plant germplasm collections (including

wild plant relatives), providing access to genetic resources, and specialised data and metadata.

The IA European Plant Phenotyping Network22 _{has been pivotal in bringing European facilities together, encouraging}

the development of phenotyping technologies and enabling trans-national access to European phenotyping platforms. This significant infrastructure ground-work is complemented by major investments by Germany, France and UK at a value of approximately 120 million €, and is growing rapidly in other European MS. At International level, there are strong links to Australia, having invested 35 million € in its Plant Accelerator; China, India and the USA have substantial programmes underway or planned. The ESFRI Project EMPHASIS builds on this success and will accelerate research and impact in areas such as plant breeding, crop protection, crop production, soil and biodiversity management and conservation, agro-forestry industry development and landscape management, and agricultural engineering by providing robust and field suitable tools that allow predictions in yield, early detection of pathogen infection and of abiotic stress responses. The infrastructure will provide resources for data storage, and strong links to the ESFRI Project AnaEE , the ESFRI Landmarks ICOS ERIC (ENV) and ELIXIR and with the emerging project METROFOOD.

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Livestock facilities – optimising the food value chain

In the context of a changing environment, an increasing human population and pressure on land, it is critical that a concerted effort bringing together national facilities under a European RI is made to address the challenge to produce safe, healthy and sustainable food.

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Animal genetic resources, phenotyping and breeding

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Livestock/fish clones/gene banks, nutritional content analytics, animal breeding, modelling efficacy and CO2

emission

New RI efforts at EU-level are needed to provide livestock genetic resources, phenotyping and breeding, including large farm animals, poultry and fish; genetic resources for adaptation to climate change and protein production; genomic selection and genetic modification and sustainable intensification for higher feed efficiency, precision livestock farming and precision feeding; platform of technologies and capabilities for epidemiological modelling, including host-pathogen interactions and vaccinology towards countering the threats of animal-borne disease. There is a need to combine world-class facilities for the integration, conservation, and coordination of national and international animal genetic stock, and potential stock lines for adaptation to climate change. New efforts should include integrated facilities for bioimaging, digital imaging, genomics, proteomics and metabolomics along with field and veterinary facilities with farm-scale experimental platforms for animal studies and phenotyping,

including aquaculture and animal disease facilities, e.g. building on AQUAEXCEL and NADIR23_{. Animal genotype-to-}

phenotype infrastructures will have a positive impact on global food production and on European competitiveness.

Food and nutrition – improving health and life-long wellbeing

Food related diseases are costly; the EU national health systems are the most under pressure. The key is to fully understand the interrelation between nutrition and health, particularly the digestive process and the role of food consumption, including the gut microflora, food pathogens, immunology and many other factors, that together can help develop new strategies to deliver healthy and nutritious food and encourage favourable changes in consumption patterns. Regulatory demands relating to health and novel foods impose comprehensive safety assessment procedures and scientific evidence. European research base and expertise in nutrition and food science

is unique but it remains highly fragmented and, in some areas and countries, it is below the critical mass24, 25, 26_.

New infrastructure efforts are needed at EU-level to help address a number of key questions including what constitutes a nutritious, healthy diet; what are the dietary effects on epigenetics; what are the potential novel nutrient supplies from plants; how can we optimise product formulation through new uses of existing ingredients, novel ingredients, utilisation of nano-microstructured ingredients, and novel formulations of ingredients; how does food structure determine the rate of digestion and nutrient absorption? There is a need to integrate:

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interdisciplinary facilities working in immunology, cell biology, epigenetics, physiology and ecology of commensal

gut bacteria and microbiome, food structure, food technology, nutrition, and plant and animal breeding and others, and providing training opportunities for researchers;

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advanced microbiology and bio-processing facilities to improve food products towards healthier diets;

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facilities for small scale production of test foods, with strong links to SMEs and large companies;

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facilities with close links to clinical facilities in order to carry out clinical trials on new food products and other

human dietary studies.

23 _{Aquaexcel. See: http://www.aquaexcel.eu/ and NADIR (The Network of Animal Disease Infectiology Research Facilities).} See: http://www.aquaexcel.eu/

24 _{JRC Foresight study, Tomorrow’s healthy society – research priorities for foods and diets. 2014.} See: https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/default/files/jrc-study-tomorrow-healthly-society.pdf 25 _{3rd and 4th SCAR foresight exercises}

LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS

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Health & Food

The emerging METROFOOD RI project aims at providing high quality metrology services in food and nutrition, comprising an important cross-section of highly inter-disciplinary and inter-connected fields throughout the food value chain, including agro-food, sustainable development, food safety, quality, traceability and authenticity, environmental safety, and human health. In addition several IA addressing complementary aspects on food and nutrition are breaking ground for future infrastructure, e.g. FoodManufuture EuroFIR, NuGO, Food4Me, Eurogene,

EURRECA, QuaLiFY, and EURODISH27_{. The combination of fundamental science, translational research and clinical}

trials, positioned alongside a major clinical gastroenterology service and tissue repository, will ensure a seamless interface between research, clinical practice and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, also cross linking with RIs at the boundary areas.

27 _{EuroDISH. See: www.eurodish.eu}

ENERGY SOCIAL & CULTURAL INNOVATION

ENVIRONMENT HEALTH AND FOOD

Climate change Crop yields stagnated

ICOS

Reduced land

Pressures on land for food and energy

LifeWatch

Plant genetics, breeding and phenotyping

Bioenergy and biomass

Nutrition and human health Food and

nutritional value

Increased demand for meat and dairy products

Animal genetics, breeding and phenotyping Healthy ageing Healthy, sustainable food production for a growing population

Figure 7: some interactions of Health and Food RIs with other ESFRI SWGs Health and nutrition, Food security and

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