Work

Deliverable D4.6 - Living lab-adapted SWOT-Trend-Action method, including supporting videos of experts

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: This deliverable presents and illustrates the foresight-inspired living lab-adapted SWOT-Trend-Action method developed in DIVINFOOD to identify the most relevant actions and priorities for future plant breeding approaches concerning neglected and underutilised crops (NUCs). Implemented across 8 Living Labs (LLs) and 7 countries in Europe, the approach begins with providing the participants the basic knowledge to enable each of them to make informed participation. It progresses from a multi-actor diagnosis of current systems to an exploration of major drivers of change, with the support of videos of experts, and then on the identification of future breeding configurations and related actions. The method was designed to facilitate strategic assessment in a technically complex field while remaining adaptable to different territorial and organisational contexts. Breeders, farmers, seed actors, researchers, processors, public authorities, civil society organisations and citizens contributed with different types of knowledge and experience. Shared background material and locally adapted facilitation supported the transition from knowledge acquisition to deliberation and collective exploration of potential future plant breeding and seed systems. The advantages and limitations of this method are set out in this report, with a view to facilitating its application in other contexts or to other complex issues. The implementation of the living lab-adapted SWOT-Trend-Action method to plant breeding issues showed that breeding landscapes are plural and crop-dependent in Europe, while NUCs face recurrent structural constraints linked to small markets, discontinuous investment, breeding and seed-development fixed costs, weak value chain coordination and uneven access to genetic resources and innovation. Environmental, technological, regulatory and food-system trends may create both opportunities and threats, depending on how innovation, markets and policies are organised. No single breeding model emerged as sufficient to support NUCs breeding in the future. Three future configurations have been suggested from current orientations across the LLs and complementary inputs from breeders: technology- and market-driven professional breeding; diversity- and participation-driven breeding; and a public/common-good oriented breeding ecosystem. These are possible relevant configurations rather than harmonised scenarios. Proposed actions for the future are to diversify seed and breeding systems, to develop stronger links with farming, processing and markets, and to organise multi-level governance, enabling policy and financing, and collective stewardship of genetic resources. The foresight work calls for a more in-depth study of the functioning and funding of diversified seed and breeding ecosystems. Overall, DIVINFOOD suggests that sustaining cultivated biodiversity requires attention not only to genetic and varietal diversity, but also to the diversity and organisation of seed and breeding systems themselves.

Source: Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22847960

Authors: Gasc, David, Desclaux, Dominique, Menez, Cécile, Lazzaro, Mariateresa

Institutions: Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement, Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau, Forschungsinstitut für Biologischen Landbau

Language: English

Topic: Innovative Approaches in Technology and Social Development

Subfield: Management of Technology and Innovation

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Zero hunger

Open Access status: green

Funder: European Commission