FACCE-JPI Knowledge Hub: Overall Coordination

FACCE MACSUR focuses on modelling European agriculture with climate change for food security. The work is organized in three themes on crop, livestock and trade modelling. The partnership consists of 73 partners from 16 countries all over Europe. The overarching challenge is to develop a pan-European capability in the development, use and interpretation of models to perform risk assessments of the impacts of climate change on European agriculture. To address this the following challenges must be met:
1. Identify and address a range of issues between models in different themes to enable their closer integration including issues of scale and data processing.
2. Train a new generation of scientists to work across models which contribute to greater integration of models. This challenge can be described as focusing on the creation of integrated modellers as opposed to integrated models.
3. Determine the contribution that can be made to reducing uncertainty over the impacts of climate change on European food security by adopting integrated models of crop production, animal production and trade.

Tiffin will lead WP1 of the overall co-ordination module. This work package will focus on establishing and coordinating the link across the three themes of FACCE-MACSUR to facilitate model and data improvements. This overarching WP combines the methodological improvements of tools achieved in WP6 of CropM, WP4 of LiveM and TradeM. A key component of this will be the sharing of best practice amongst the different modelling teams both within and between the themes of the project. This is expected to lead to a strengthening of less experienced groups and a strategic approach to capacity building within the partnership. This WP prepares for overall WP2 'Hot Spot analysis'. The backbone of WP1 will be the selected partial case studies which will provide the opportunity to couple crop, livestock and/or trade models. These case studies will be selected in association with the theme (Crop, Trade and Livestock) leaders in order to consider a range of interlinking isssues whilst at the same time providing the opportunity to deliver outputs which have real value in a policy environment. The work packages emphasises the coordination of the efforts focussed on decision making in relation to climate change climate variability and extreme events.
Deliverables:
D 1.1: Review of the opportunities for using cloud computing to develop the potential for model intercomparison and interlinkage in MACSUR (month 12)
D 1.2: Review of models at different regional scales for the EU, and the methods commonly used when modelling outcomes of the implementation of climate change mitigation polices for models applied in the area of crop and livestock production as well as in economic models (month 16).
D 1.3: Review of upscaling methodologies and European sources of data available to characterize the structure of farming systems at the regional scale (month 24)
D 1.4: Report on model integration approaches for the assessment of climate change effects.

Considerable uncertainty surrounds the impacts of climate change on European Agriculture. This uncertainty stems from a number of sources including the models used to simulate agriculture together with uncertainty over the climate change impacts. The improved quatification of these uncertainties which this project will provide will allow policy makers to better identify the range of measures that can be taen to adapt to and mitigate climate impacts. The projct also seeks to explore the ways in which crop, livestock and trade models can be integrated to deliver a better understanding of the inter-sectoral linkages that exist in adaptation and mitigation strategies. This will reduce the scope for unforeseen circumstances nullifying the impacts of within sector strategies. The project is therefore of direct relevance to policy makers and the producers and users of food in the European Union. It has very high profile and is certain to attract considerable interest from these communities as it progresses.