A Mediterranean deployment project moving complete circular feed pathways through evidence-based readiness, operational validation and operator uptake.
Reduces exposure to imported feeds and volatile supply chains.
≥5 complete circular-feed pathways are targeted for validation to at least TRL 7, with ≥1 final pathway per Living Lab; ≥1 selected pathway per LL is targeted for progression to TRL 8, subject to successful full qualification.
Resource → processing → feed → animal → product → market.
Manufacturing, pelleting, storage and QC become explicit deployment gates.
Each pathway must fit local logistics, regulation and value-chain realities.
Advance, refine, hold or No-Go decisions protect scientific quality.
Environmental, economic, animal, product and social evidence are assessed together.
Tests resilience to changes in price, biomass, transport, energy and preservation.
Validation across Greece, Italy, Tunisia, Türkiye and Egypt.
DSS tools, Deployment Passports, SOP/QC packages and business pathways.
The five Living Labs expose different technical, climatic, value-chain and adoption bottlenecks while using a common evidence framework.
Pathway: brewers’ spent grains (BSG) in pellet mixes; co-ensiling BSG with pasture biomass; alfalfa and concentrate-feed replacement.
Deployment test: wet co-product preservation, feed-manufacturing compatibility, animal performance and milk/Feta composition, processing and sensory quality.
Pathway: legally eligible agri-food side streams (e.g. BSG/wheat bran) → T. molitor substrates → mealworm meal → pig diets; acorns as complementary local feed.
Deployment test: substrate eligibility and traceability, repeatable insect yield and batch safety, feed-mill compatibility, logistics and pork-quality acceptance.
Pathway: partially de-stoned olive cake + wheat/barley straw, used dry or co-ensiled; cactus and date by-products remain reserve candidates subject to G1 qualification.
Deployment test: collectable supply and competing uses, batch segregation and safety limits, storage stability, protein balance, viable delivery radius and buyer acceptance.
Pathway: sugar-beet pulp and cereal straw with FILIK additive-assisted preservation; grape, legume and oilseed residues remain G1-screened reserve candidates.
Deployment test: reproducible preservation and processing, feed quality and safety, seasonal sourcing and SME-compatible operating conditions.
Pathway: urea-treated rice straw + mungbean/wheat straw → WP2 qualification → G1-qualified ruminant diets; biological/additive routes remain G1-screened reserves.
Deployment test: batch repeatability, treatment safety and nutritional quality, animal performance, residue logistics and feed-industry compatibility under severe feed/water constraints.
The unit of innovation is the complete resource → feed → animal → product → market pathway, with evidence gates before resource-intensive validation or deployment.
Targets are proposal-stage commitments to be verified against predefined Living-Lab baselines; they are not presented as achieved results.
Nine coordinated Work Packages run in parallel, with formal evidence gates at M6, M12, M18, M30, M35 and M36 and a formal refinement/final-validation milestone at M22.
The project converts validation evidence into practical technical, business, decision-support, policy and knowledge assets.
Validated technical, QC/traceability, animal/product, environmental, economic, regulatory and boundary conditions for mature pathways.
Multi-objective pathway assessment plus LL-specific Feed Reformulation & Fair-Value Toolkits. AUA commits to hosting and maintaining the integrated DSS for at least four years after project completion, with annual LL verification of toolkit parameters and Deployment Passports.
One per Living Lab, covering costs, sourcing, logistics, actor roles, investment and financing conditions.
Operator-facing requirements for reproducible processing, manufacturing, quality control, traceability and deployment.
≥5 policy briefs, one cross-Mediterranean policy note, a Feed Practice Fieldbook and ≥5 independent replication-readiness assessments (≥1/LL) documenting Adopt/Adapt/No-Go status. At least one adopting or formally intending LL will pursue ENoLL Labelling and Certification.
≥10 peer-reviewed publications involving Southern Mediterranean researchers, ≥5 reusable datasets with relevant protocols/models, and ≥150 people trained through ≥10 activities.
A prioritised, non-exhaustive portfolio from the final proposal. Target TRLs apply only to successfully validated solutions after pathway-specific G1 qualification.
Evidence-supported ruminant feed use; optimise co-silage and pelleting.
TRL 6–7 → 7–8
Qualified substrate for T. molitor.
TRL 6 → 7–8
T. molitor meal for pigs.
TRL 6 → 7–8
Standardised ingredient for pig diets.
TRL 6 → 7–8
Partially de-stoned; dried or co-ensiled.
TRL 6–7 → 8
Spineless O. ficus-indica; LL3 reserve candidate.
TRL 6 → 8
Standardised fruit fraction for ruminant diets.
TRL 6 → 8
Ground processed ingredient.
TRL 6 → 7
Additive-assisted preserved/ensiled variant.
TRL 6 → 8
Defined matrix for additive-assisted preservation.
TRL 6–7 → 7–8
Urea-treated anchor; biological/additive reserve routes.
TRL 6 → 7–8
Defined harvested and preserved form.
TRL 6 → 7–8Research organisations, universities, cooperatives and SMEs working as one Mediterranean deployment chain.
12 consortium partners across 7 countries, spanning EU and Southern/Eastern Mediterranean contexts.
Agricultural University of Athens · Greece
Agricultural Dairy Cooperative of Kalavryta · Greece
Technical University of Munich · Germany
National Research Centre · Egypt
ISTOM · France
Sustainable Agrifoodtech Innovation & Research · France
University of Sassari · Italy
National Research Council of Italy
Institut National Agronomique de Tunisie
Nour Agricole · Tunisia
Kırşehir Ahi Evran University · Türkiye
Filik Nanobioagrotech · Türkiye
Agricultural University of Athens · Department of Animal Science