Search

Successful transitions to agroecology require shared understanding of the sustainability implications of transitions for food systems. To gain such understanding, a transdisciplinary approach is increasingly called for by funders, end users of research and scientists. Transdisciplinary processes were used in the UNISECO project to develop strategic pathways that enable transitions to agroecology in case studies across Europe. These strategic pathways were combined with scenarios of EU food systems in 2050, in which combinations of agroecological farming and food consumption practices were assessed. These were then reviewed considering selected UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a reference for discussing the sustainability implications of transitions to agroecology. Sustainability implications were identified for several SDGs including Zero Hunger (SDG 2), Quality Education (SDG 4), Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG 12), Climate Action (SDG 13) and Life on Land (SDG 15). Key factors contributing to the sustainability of transitions to agroecology are: i) mature social capital and improved farmer knowledge of the benefits of agroecological practices; ii) strengthened collaborative actions and collective institutions to increase negotiating power within the value-chain; and, iii) changes in consumer behaviour and diets. These factors highlight the need for a food system perspective in transitions to agroecology and supporting policies. This in turn highlights the meaningful role of transdisciplinary research in strengthening the sustainability of European food systems.

The overall aim of the UNISECO project is to provide recommendations on how the sustainability of agro-ecological farming systems (AEFS) in Europe can be promoted. These recommendations build upon multi-actor engagement and practice-validated strategies. The project explores both of these approaches in 15 case studies across Europe. Every case study reflects an AEFS at a certain point of transition towards agro-ecological farming systems. A first step in all of the case studies was to characterize the status quo of the farm systems. Along with other methods to describe the status quo, three decision support tools (DST) were applied in the case studies to provide information on the environmental, economic and social performance of current AEFS. The tools applied were COMPAS, an economic performance assessment tool, Cool Farm Tool, a greenhouse gas inventory tool, and SMART, a multidimensional sustainability tool. This deliverable presents the overall approach taken to assess the farms along the agro-ecological transition, describes the tools, and presents results from their application in the case studies. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N° 773901.

Presentation at the UNISECO H2020 Final Conference, 18-19 March 2021 https://uniseco-project.eu/final-conference UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901

This report provides methodological briefs that provide short, step-by-step, guidance and lessons learnt on applying key methods used in the H2020 UNISECO project. The briefs are available in electronic form and can be accessed via the Agro-ecological Knowledge Hub as a part of information content for the different target audiences. UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901. This publication reflects only the authors' view and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Story maps are a specific form of website to tell stories by making use of multimedia elements such as pictures, maps and videos. The purpose of story maps in UNISECO is to share the results of the assessment of social-ecological systems (SES) in the case studies with a wider public. The story maps also build on the results of sustainability assessments in Task 3.2 (Landert et al., 2019) and the governance and network assessment in Task 5.2 (Vanni et al., 2019). These story maps comprise easily understood messages from farmers, rural communities and civil society, businesses and authorities referencing environmental, social, economic and governance issues across rural areas in 15 countries of Europe. The story maps were the basis for co-constructing strategies to support transition of farming systems towards agroecology. The final UNISECO outcomes informed then again an update of existing and new story maps, leading to an updated set of story maps published on the website of the European Network for Rural Development, on WWF Globil and in Deliverable D3.6.

In 15 case studies representing different European farming systems and stages along the agro-ecological transition, related barriers have been analysed and strategies co-constructed with the Multi-Actor Platforms over the course of the UNISECO project. The strategies are the result of different assessments (such as sustainability assessment or social network analysis), interviews and workshops with local stakeholders. Narratives that derive the main lessons learnt on governance changes and sustainability implications of agro-ecological transitions have been developed in a set of web pages (story maps) to make the research outcomes accessible in an easy to understand language to practitioners, policy stakeholders and the wider public. While there are unique lessons learnt in each case study, there are three common domains of lessons learnt, namely (1) knowledge and social capital, (2) market access, processing and value added and (3) innovative policy support. Based on existing policies such as support for organic farming, the latter needs specially to focus on fostering cooperation, supporting of the knowledge system, result-based payments and green public procurement. UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901. This publication reflects only the authors' view and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Agro-ecological approaches are fundamental for sustainable food production in the future, and the overarching objective of UNISECO is to co-develop improved and practice-validated strategies and incentives for the promotion of improved agro-ecological approaches. The key dilemma is how to produce public goods whilst maintaining viable production of private goods, securing economic and social sustainability at a farm level. In this context, it is important to identify the farm management changes and innovative agro-ecological practices with win-win relationships and those with fewer trade-offs between social, ecological and economic dimensions. In this report (Deliverable report D3.5), we investigate this question by exploring, in thirteen European case studies, the sustainability implications of implementing a range of different agro-ecological practices (AEPs) as part of different transitions strategies towards more sustainable agriculture. We implemented an analytical framework including the use of decision support tools (DSTs) to convey process-based information on the performance of 28 different AEPs, co-developed with local stakeholders, that are expected to improve the resilience and sustainability of farms. In particular, through the DSTs we identified and analysed 17 sustainability indicators that convey information on the potential environmental and socio-economic synergies and trade-offs, arising from the implementation of different AEPs at farm level. We classified different AEPs across three different categories: i) Efficiency increase, ii) Substitution practices, and iii) Farm re-design. The category “Efficiency increase” included technological AEPs such as the installation of weather stations to integrate real time pest monitoring with fast prevention activities in vineyards, or improvement of mineral balance in ruminant diets through the provision of enriched boluses, or the re-configuration of canopies in tree orchards to enhance their productivity and resilience. Overall, these AEPs showed only win-win situations generated from livestock and crop health and yield provision. The category “substitution practices” included the simulation of distinct AEPs, such as soil organic fertilization, use of biofertilizers and biofuels, as well as more complex strategies such as organic agriculture. Overall, this category emphasised the centrality for agro-ecological practices in reducing the use of external inputs and the simultaneous improvement in the quality and use-efficiency of input at farm level. Depending on the approach applied in the simulation of the AEPs, the transition from mineral to organic fertilization generated trade-offs between the increase of biodiversity benefits and the provision of yield, and between the carbon footprint and yield at farm level. Finally, the “re-design” category includes single or bundle of AEPs, which are aimed at soil conservation and biodiversity benefits and increasing the diversification of farming systems. These included conservation agriculture practices, such as reduced tillage, permanent soil cover through cover crops or mulching, and intercropping with nitrogen fixing crops, the extensification of mixed crop-livestock systems, and more complex farm re-design driven by the reorganization of the resources in the farms and the reshuffling of arrangements ‘downstream’ of farms. Given the heterogeneity of this category, the environmental and socio-economic sustainability of the above agro-ecological strategies depended on several external factors such as farm type and size, initial farm infrastructure, as well as the dilemmas and objectives characterising the agricultural decision context in each case study. In this report, we outline the effect on the relationships between different farm-level sustainability indicators, as a result from the implementation of agro-ecological practices. UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901. This publication reflects only the authors' view and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Along with other methods to describe the status quo in the case studies, the three decision support tools (DST), namely SMART, Cool Farm Tool and COMPAS, were applied to provide information sustainability performance of current agroecological farming systems. Whereas SMART performs a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) and covers a wide range of sustainability themes, COMPAS focuses in depth on economic parameters, and Cool Farm Tool calculates the carbon and water footprint for a given farm enterprise. Cool Farm Tool also offers a biodiversity rating of the whole farm, based on a multi-criteria assessment, similar to SMART. This methodological brief is one of a set produced by the H2020 UNISECO project. Others are accessible on the Zenodo repository under the UNISECO Community. UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901. This publication reflects only the authors' view and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

The overall objective of this report is to summarise the analysis of barriers and drivers hindering or facilitating the implementation of agro-ecological practices, and the strategies identified that address the barriers and drivers of agro-ecological transitions in the context of the 15 UNISECO case studies. The co-construction of the transition strategies with the local actors aims to propose changes in the governance of the farming system to address the key barriers and drivers of implementing the practices, and to identify market and policy incentives that are expected to support an agro-ecological transition. Particular attention is paid on how cooperation between actors can help to address the key drivers and barriers. Key aspects for successful agro-ecological transitions are improved knowledge on the benefits of agro-ecological practices and economic opportunities, the importance of education, training and life-long learning, and mature social capital and strengthened collaborative action and collective institutions in agro-ecological value chains. This would enable higher prices to be charged for agro-ecological products and utilise the potential of agro-ecological farming to be economically viable. Such processes need to be supported by policy and the public sector, to address issues of economic exploitation and power relations as well as problems of over-consumption and food waste in food chains, with implications for public health, social justice and food security. The outcome of the co-construction of the strategies has informed: i) the assessment of trade-offs at farm level (Albanito et al., 2021, Deliverable D3.5) by providing information on the farm management changes and agro-ecological practices that are seen as effective and acceptable; ii) the multi-criteria assessment of policy instruments and incentives (Galioto et al., 2021, Deliverable D5.4) by identifying innovative market and policy incentives that are suitable to promote agro-ecological transition; and iii) the lessons learnt for agro-ecological transitions reflecting the different local and place-based context of the story maps from each case study (Landert et al., 2021, Deliverable D3.6). This document is Deliverable D3.4 in Work package “Assessment at farm level” of the EU Horizon 2020 project UNISECO. UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project on: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901. This publication reflects only the authors' view and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Issue Brief of the Swiss case study in the H2020 UNISECO project. UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901. This publication reflects only the authors' view and that the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Along with other methods to describe the status quo in the case studies, the three decision support tools (DST), namely SMART, Cool Farm Tool and COMPAS, were applied to provide information sustainability performance of current agroecological farming systems. Whereas SMART performs a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) and covers a wide range of sustainability themes, COMPAS focuses in depth on economic parameters, and Cool Farm Tool calculates the carbon and water footprint for a given farm enterprise. Cool Farm Tool also offers a biodiversity rating of the whole farm, based on a multi-criteria assessment, similar to SMART. This methodological brief is one of a set produced by the H2020 UNISECO project. Others are accessible on the Zenodo repository under the UNISECO Community. UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901. This publication reflects only the authors' view and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Policy Brief of the Swiss case study in the H2020 UNISECO project. UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901. This publication reflects only the authors' view and that the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Policy Brief of the Swiss case study in the H2020 UNISECO project. UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901. This publication reflects only the authors' view and that the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Story maps are a specific form of website to tell stories by making use of multimedia elements such as pictures, maps and videos. The purpose of story maps in UNISECO is to share the results of the assessment of social-ecological systems (SES) in the case studies with a wider public. The story maps also build on the results of sustainability assessments in Task 3.2 (Landert et al., 2019) and the governance and network assessment in Task 5.2 (Vanni et al., 2019). These story maps comprise easily understood messages from farmers, rural communities and civil society, businesses and authorities referencing environmental, social, economic and governance issues across rural areas in 15 countries of Europe. The story maps were the basis for co-constructing strategies to support transition of farming systems towards agroecology. The final UNISECO outcomes informed then again an update of existing and new story maps, leading to an updated set of story maps published on the website of the European Network for Rural Development, on WWF Globil and in Deliverable D3.6.

Agro-ecological approaches are fundamental for sustainable food production in the future, and the overarching objective of UNISECO is to co-develop improved and practice-validated strategies and incentives for the promotion of improved agro-ecological approaches. The key dilemma is how to produce public goods whilst maintaining viable production of private goods, securing economic and social sustainability at a farm level. In this context, it is important to identify the farm management changes and innovative agro-ecological practices with win-win relationships and those with fewer trade-offs between social, ecological and economic dimensions. In this report (Deliverable report D3.5), we investigate this question by exploring, in thirteen European case studies, the sustainability implications of implementing a range of different agro-ecological practices (AEPs) as part of different transitions strategies towards more sustainable agriculture. We implemented an analytical framework including the use of decision support tools (DSTs) to convey process-based information on the performance of 28 different AEPs, co-developed with local stakeholders, that are expected to improve the resilience and sustainability of farms. In particular, through the DSTs we identified and analysed 17 sustainability indicators that convey information on the potential environmental and socio-economic synergies and trade-offs, arising from the implementation of different AEPs at farm level. We classified different AEPs across three different categories: i) Efficiency increase, ii) Substitution practices, and iii) Farm re-design. The category “Efficiency increase” included technological AEPs such as the installation of weather stations to integrate real time pest monitoring with fast prevention activities in vineyards, or improvement of mineral balance in ruminant diets through the provision of enriched boluses, or the re-configuration of canopies in tree orchards to enhance their productivity and resilience. Overall, these AEPs showed only win-win situations generated from livestock and crop health and yield provision. The category “substitution practices” included the simulation of distinct AEPs, such as soil organic fertilization, use of biofertilizers and biofuels, as well as more complex strategies such as organic agriculture. Overall, this category emphasised the centrality for agro-ecological practices in reducing the use of external inputs and the simultaneous improvement in the quality and use-efficiency of input at farm level. Depending on the approach applied in the simulation of the AEPs, the transition from mineral to organic fertilization generated trade-offs between the increase of biodiversity benefits and the provision of yield, and between the carbon footprint and yield at farm level. Finally, the “re-design” category includes single or bundle of AEPs, which are aimed at soil conservation and biodiversity benefits and increasing the diversification of farming systems. These included conservation agriculture practices, such as reduced tillage, permanent soil cover through cover crops or mulching, and intercropping with nitrogen fixing crops, the extensification of mixed crop-livestock systems, and more complex farm re-design driven by the reorganization of the resources in the farms and the reshuffling of arrangements ‘downstream’ of farms. Given the heterogeneity of this category, the environmental and socio-economic sustainability of the above agro-ecological strategies depended on several external factors such as farm type and size, initial farm infrastructure, as well as the dilemmas and objectives characterising the agricultural decision context in each case study. In this report, we outline the effect on the relationships between different farm-level sustainability indicators, as a result from the implementation of agro-ecological practices. UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901. This publication reflects only the authors' view and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Improving farmer knowledge of the benefits of agro-ecological practices and economic opportunities is a key aspect for successful agro-ecological transitions. This can be achieved by: i) on-farm peer-to-peer learning; ii) actor-led knowledge and innovation and active sharing of place-based knowledge; iii) principles and practices of agro-ecology in school curricula covering principles of food production and consumption, agricultural practices, and social responsibility. This underlines the importance of policy to support advice, education and life-long learning by: including principles and practices of agro-ecology in school curricula, continuing professional development, and citizen focused learning; increasing the capacity of local actors to create agro-ecological networks, and cooperation with schools through public learning and procurement programmes. This Policy Brief is one of a set produced by the H2020 UNISECO project. Others are accessible on the Zenodo repository under the UNISECO Community. UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901. This publication reflects only the authors' view and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Improving farmer knowledge of the benefits of agro-ecological practices and economic opportunities is a key aspect for successful agro-ecological transitions. This can be achieved by: i) on-farm peer-to-peer learning; ii) actor-led knowledge and innovation and active sharing of place-based knowledge; iii) principles and practices of agro-ecology in school curricula covering principles of food production and consumption, agricultural practices, and social responsibility. This underlines the importance of policy to support advice, education and life-long learning by: including principles and practices of agro-ecology in school curricula, continuing professional development, and citizen focused learning; increasing the capacity of local actors to create agro-ecological networks, and cooperation with schools through public learning and procurement programmes. This Policy Brief is one of a set produced by the H2020 UNISECO project. Others are accessible on the Zenodo repository under the UNISECO Community. UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901. This publication reflects only the authors' view and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

In 15 case studies representing different European farming systems and stages along the agro-ecological transition, related barriers have been analysed and strategies co-constructed with the Multi-Actor Platforms over the course of the UNISECO project. The strategies are the result of different assessments (such as sustainability assessment or social network analysis), interviews and workshops with local stakeholders. Narratives that derive the main lessons learnt on governance changes and sustainability implications of agro-ecological transitions have been developed in a set of web pages (story maps) to make the research outcomes accessible in an easy to understand language to practitioners, policy stakeholders and the wider public. While there are unique lessons learnt in each case study, there are three common domains of lessons learnt, namely (1) knowledge and social capital, (2) market access, processing and value added and (3) innovative policy support. Based on existing policies such as support for organic farming, the latter needs specially to focus on fostering cooperation, supporting of the knowledge system, result-based payments and green public procurement. UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901. This publication reflects only the authors' view and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Issue Brief of the Swiss case study in the H2020 UNISECO project. UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901. This publication reflects only the authors' view and that the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Large dams can have major ecological and biogeochemical impacts on downstream ecosystems such as wetlands and riparian habitats. We examined sediment removal and carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) cycling in Itezhi-Tezhi Reservoir (ITT; area = 364 km(2), hydraulic residence time = 0.7 yr), which is located directly upstream of a high ecological value floodplain ecosystem (Kafue Flats) in the Zambezi River Basin. Field investigations (sediment cores, sediment traps, water column samples), mass balance estimates, and a numerical biogeochemical reservoir model were combined to estimate N, P, C, and sediment removal, organic C mineralization, primary production, and N fixation. Since dam completion in 1978, 330 x 10(3) tons (t) of sediment and 16 x 10(3), 1.5 x 10(3), 200 t of C, N, and P, respectively, have accumulated annually in ITT sediments. Approximately 50% of N inputs and 60% of P inputs are removed by the reservoir, illustrating its potential in decreasing nutrients to the downstream Kafue Flats floodplain. The biogeochemical model predicted substantial primary production in ITT (similar to 280 g C m(-2) yr(-1)), and significant N-fixation (similar to 30% for the total primary production) was required to support primary production due to marginal inputs of inorganic N. Model simulations indicate that future hydropower development in the reservoir, involving the installation of turbines driven by hypolimnetic water, will likely result in the delivery of low-oxygen waters to downstream ecosystems and increased outputs of dissolved inorganic N and P by a factor of similar to 4 and similar to 2 compared to current dam management, respectively.

Issue Brief of the Swiss case study in the H2020 UNISECO project. UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901. This publication reflects only the authors' view and that the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

The overall objective of this report is to summarise the analysis of barriers and drivers hindering or facilitating the implementation of agro-ecological practices, and the strategies identified that address the barriers and drivers of agro-ecological transitions in the context of the 15 UNISECO case studies. The co-construction of the transition strategies with the local actors aims to propose changes in the governance of the farming system to address the key barriers and drivers of implementing the practices, and to identify market and policy incentives that are expected to support an agro-ecological transition. Particular attention is paid on how cooperation between actors can help to address the key drivers and barriers. Key aspects for successful agro-ecological transitions are improved knowledge on the benefits of agro-ecological practices and economic opportunities, the importance of education, training and life-long learning, and mature social capital and strengthened collaborative action and collective institutions in agro-ecological value chains. This would enable higher prices to be charged for agro-ecological products and utilise the potential of agro-ecological farming to be economically viable. Such processes need to be supported by policy and the public sector, to address issues of economic exploitation and power relations as well as problems of over-consumption and food waste in food chains, with implications for public health, social justice and food security. The outcome of the co-construction of the strategies has informed: i) the assessment of trade-offs at farm level (Albanito et al., 2021, Deliverable D3.5) by providing information on the farm management changes and agro-ecological practices that are seen as effective and acceptable; ii) the multi-criteria assessment of policy instruments and incentives (Galioto et al., 2021, Deliverable D5.4) by identifying innovative market and policy incentives that are suitable to promote agro-ecological transition; and iii) the lessons learnt for agro-ecological transitions reflecting the different local and place-based context of the story maps from each case study (Landert et al., 2021, Deliverable D3.6). This document is Deliverable D3.4 in Work package “Assessment at farm level” of the EU Horizon 2020 project UNISECO. UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project on: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901. This publication reflects only the authors' view and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

This report provides methodological briefs that provide short, step-by-step, guidance and lessons learnt on applying key methods used in the H2020 UNISECO project. The briefs are available in electronic form and can be accessed via the Agro-ecological Knowledge Hub as a part of information content for the different target audiences. UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901. This publication reflects only the authors' view and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Policy Brief of the Swiss case study in the H2020 UNISECO project. UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901. This publication reflects only the authors' view and that the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Presentation at the UNISECO H2020 Final Conference, 18-19 March 2021 https://uniseco-project.eu/final-conference UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. Learn more about the project: https://uniseco-project.eu/ This project has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 773901.