Behavioural, Ecological and Socio-economic
Tools for Modelling Agricultural Policy

BESTMAP is wishing you all a delightful Christmas holidays and a happy, and bright New Year!

BESTMAP aims to establish ecological and socio-economic tools for modelling agricultural policy, which will enhance the sustainability of agricultural landscapes, while ensuring farmers’ livelihoods. Along the way of fulfilling BESTMAP’s goal, the project members have created a collection of deliverables, which holds an overview of the projects’ activities and achievements.* While BESTMAP is actively working towards significant outcomes, the deliverables delineate the path...

A press release on the AGRIMODELS Cluster is now available in the online science news portal EurekAlert! and the European Commission’s news and events service CORDIS Wire. The announcement informs about the collaboration between the three EU research projects - AGRICORE, BESTMAP and MIND STEP in their common goal to design modelling capabilities in the agricultural sector, while at the same time contributing to the creation of a new agenda of the agricultural policies within the...

BESTMAP held its annual meeting from 21 to 23 September 2020, where all partners gathered to discuss the project’s achievements in the past year, along with the vision for upcoming tasks. Each of the project teams’ representatives introduced their accomplishments and further agenda. After thorough deliberation, the meeting resulted in brainstorming for future updates within the different branches of the consortium. There are yet a number of time-sensitive tasks that await to...

 A recent publication in the Agricultural Sciences journal reviews the different methods through which soil erosion can be estimated. The article states that the process of soil erosion is greatly affecting the soil fertility and causes its loss, and land degradation throughout a great number of lands worldwide. There are various methods for detecting the occurrence of soil erosion and the factors which have caused it. However, due to the complexity of the issue, the estimation of...

The concept, aims and expected outcomes of the BESTMAP project were presented during the poster section of the GEO BON Open Science Conference & All Hands Meeting 2020 held online from 7 to 9 July 2020. GEO BON is a global biodiversity observation network that contributes to effective management policies for the worldwide biodiversity and ecosystem services. The main objective of the organisation is to improve the acquisition, coordination and delivery of biodiversity observations...

On 14 and 15 July 2020 BESTMAP held a workshop entitled "Improving the environmental and social capacity of EC impact assessment tools" in an entirely online environment. The event was divided in plenary sessions with three thematic breakout discussion groups, where the attendees were mainly from the European Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC). Additionally, the workshop has been...

Do you want to be part of a project aiming to improve the sustainability of the European agriculture? BESTMAP is looking for an enthusiastic Post-Doctoral researcher with a background in computer simulation, agent-based modelling, farmer behavioural modelling or microsimulation to join the BESTMAP team in the University of Leeds and contribute to the development of individual-farm agent-based modelling on farmer decision making, in dealing with challenges in land-use intensification,...

BESTMAP’s grant proposal is now part of the RIO Journal. The document provides extensive information about the project’s specific objectives, overall aims, concept and methodology. It also highlights the specific approaches to achieve the expected impacts of BESTMAP on the agricultural sector, stakeholders, EU government policy makers, farmers and many others.  Find the paper here. RIO publishes outputs across the research cycle, including research proposals, ideas,...

In the spring of 2020 BESTMAP conducted a large-scale interview campaign among farmers in the project’s five case study areas: the UK, Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic and Serbia, ranging from individual hobby farmers to large agro-businesses in different environmental conditions. About 25 telephone or face-to-face interviews across each case study area collected information on general and behavioural characteristics of the farms, farmers’ attitudes towards farming, and...

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, BESTMAP keeps on taking action towards the project's ultimate goal - to develop a new modelling framework and transform future EU rural policies’ design and monitoring. About 20 members of the BESTMAP team met online from 27 to 29 April 2020 for a virtual workshop, in order to develop the BESTMAP modelling directives together. The goal is to build on open-source modelling platforms and predict policy change impacts on biodiversity, delivery of...

BESTMAP joins forces with two European projects to enhance agricultural policies in the European Union. AGRICORE, BESTMAP and MIND STEP build a strong cluster, which aims at developing a highly modular and customisable suite of tools to model capabilities in the agriculture sector. On 31 October 2017, the European Commission opened a call for projects aiming to improve the modelling capabilities for agriculture which would ultimately support evidence-based policymaking in the...

BESTMAP wishes you a very happy holiday season and a joyful and prosperous New Year!      

BESTMAP held its official kick-off meeting from 23 September to 25 September in Brussels, Belgium, where partners met for the start of the four-year research and innovation action. Twelve partner organisations from seven European countries gathered to discuss the first steps towards developing behavioural, ecological and socio-economic tools for modelling agricultural policy.  The main goals of the project are to: develop a behavioural theoretical modelling framework...

Nearly half of the EU land is farmland. The livelihood of over ten million farmers and the sustainability of agro-ecosystems, including food, bioenergy, water, carbon storage and biodiversity, are directly affected by EU policy instruments. These policies have, so far, failed to stop environmental degradation. BESTMAP (Behavioural, Ecological and Socio-economic Tools for Modelling Agricultural Policy) aims to develop a new flexible, interoperable and customisable framework that will take...