Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 2 “Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Marine, Maritime and Inland Water Research, and the Bioeconomy” Advisory Group Recommendations Programming Period 2018-2020

The Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 2 Programme was created to develop and implement an EU research and innovation policy for more sustainable and resource efficient agriculture, forestry, inland water and marine systems that supply European society with sufficient food, feed, biomass, and other raw materials, as well as ecosystems services, and support thriving rural and coastal livelihoods. The European Commission has established Societal Challenge Advisory Groups to provide consistent and consolidated advice - by way of opinions, recommendations and reports - on relevant research objectives and scientific, technological and innovation priorities for its strategic and annual work programmes. Our Societal Challenge 2 Advisory Group includes a wide range of members with remarkably rich and diverse backgrounds and affiliations, including researchers, academics, former policymakers - stakeholders covering the whole spectrum of relevant research and innovation domains. Our Advisory Group has met twice formally since our establishment in February 2016, and has used other opportunities for extensive discussion and engagement on the issues surrounding this Societal Challenge. We see Societal Challenge 2 as not only extremely important as a challenge in itself, but also strongly linked with other Societal Challenges such as health, demographic change and wellbeing, climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials, and inclusive, innovative and reflective societies in a changing world. And as the agriculture, forestry, fisheries and food sectors comprise a very large number of smaller businesses – themselves serving large scale processing and retail business sectors – there are strong links between our contribution and the input of groups advising on innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises, international cooperation, nanotechnologies, advanced materials and advanced manufacturing and processing. Our Advisory Group‘s first task has been to prepare this report to answer five specific questions posed by the Commission and provide input into the strategic programming cycle of the Work Programme for 2018-2020. We have identified some overriding strategic priorities, and backed those with the results of a more detailed analysis of the gaps that need to be addressed. And we highlight the cross-cutting nature of this programme and the importance of an integrated approach to maximise the overall impact of the current Horizon 2020 programme. We hope that the insights in this report may also assist in the identification and prioritisation of research needs and strengthen the Commission‘s strategic and impact-oriented approach in future years.