The World Health Organization estimates that about 80% of premature heart disease cases, strokes, type 2 diabetes and 40% of cancers could be avoided if the major risk factors for non-communicable diseases, such as unhealthy diets, were eliminated.
The EU food system is an important part of the economy and society in Europe. Given the current context of societal, environmental and economic changes, there is need for constant improvement in terms of productivity, quality, safety, market orientation, adaptability, and international competitiveness. Knowledge of the potential of microbial systems, or microbiomes, throughout the food chains, is a promising means to this end.
In the search for new biological resources, a large unexploited biomass has been identified in the mesopelagic zone (water column between 200 and 1000 m). This largely unknown zone includes micro-organisms, copepods, krill and plankton feeding fish that are lower in the food chain, as well as squids and other higher trophic level fish. This zone is known to play a significant role in the global carbon cycle, where the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide would be ~50% higher without its activities.
Research plays a significant role in helping the agriculture, fisheries, aquaculture and food sectors to cope with the various challenges these sectors face among which ensuring sustainable use of natural resources, and mitigating and adapting to climate change. Yet little information exists on the levels of investments in public and private research and innovation at European and other levels of governance.
Most of the biowaste produced in cities (such as garden and park waste, food and kitchen waste from households, restaurants, caterers and retail premises), as well as sewage sludge from urban wastewater treatment plants are processed into compost and biogas used for energy recovery or even landfilled without fully exploiting in a smart and innovative cascading fashion its potential as feedstock for valuable and precious compounds. New and emerging processing technologies can enable the recycling and valorisation of urban biowaste into higher-value biobased products (e.g.
The northern seas of Europe - the Baltic Sea and the North Sea - are at the forefront of the global surge to enhance and realise marine and maritime potential. This enormous economy is directly and critically dependent on the quality and extent of the ecosystem services provided by the two regional seas and their coasts.
Aquatic biomass from the seas and oceans, rivers and lakes has a large potential to ensure future food and nutrition security and to supply raw materials for other high added value chains and products, such as bioenergy, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics while factoring in environment and climate change risks. These so-called provisioning ecosystem services could ensure private and public benefits, while demonstrating synergies or trade-offs with a broader range of ecosystem services.
“Social sciences and humanities research will be fully integrated into each of the priorities of Horizon 2020 and each of the specific objectives and will contribute to the evidence base for policy making at international, Union, national, regional and local level. In relation to societal challenges, social sciences and humanities (SSH) will be mainstreamed as an essential element of the activities needed to tackle each of the societal challenges to enhance their impact”.
There are signs that conventional conceptions of democratic governance are disrupted. The legitimacy of traditional democratic institutions appears challenged by decreasing trust in their capability to provide solutions to pressing societal problems. Also phenomena such as rising populism and extremism, including violent extremism, pose a challenge to sound democratic deliberation and to liberal-democratic norms.
Extreme ideologies can lead to social disruption, distrust and lack of empathy, diminished civic capacity, social tensions, clashes, hate speech, hate crime, conflicts and violence. The challenge is to produce a solid knowledge base on how extreme ideologies and accompanying behaviours affect the social fabric, bonds and cohesion of our societies, communities and cities. A better, more operational understanding of why, when and how extreme ideologies lead to societal polarisation is needed.