ACE-EX offers its contribution to the transformation of European agriculture through the integration of Circular Economy principles to promote a sustainable and environmentally friendly agricultural production model. The project is perfectly harmonious with the European Green Deal directives. It aims to minimise environmental impact, train highly qualified experts, engage in the fight against climate change and promote environmentally friendly economic growth. ACE-EX emphasises the importance of constantly updating skills in the agricultural and industrial sectors to keep pace with technological developments and the challenges imposed by climate change.
Project Background
ACE-EX acts in a context in which agricultural innovation plays a crucial role in responding to the challenges imposed by climate change and the need to protect biodiversity. The current method of agriculture production must use by-products to their full potential and necessitates a shift towards a more sustainable system. Projections underline the urgency to act: by 2050, the impact of a failure to change current production methods could also translate into many lives lost each year.
In the face of rapid technological and climatic change, constantly updating the skills of those working in the sector is essential. ACE-EX emphasises the importance of the Circular Economy, a practice embraced in agriculture and industry and a driving force for professional training. It aligns with the Action Plan for the Circular Economy and the European Green Deal objectives, promoting sustainable and respectful economic growth.
ACE-EX recognises and addresses the issues of the small business sector, highlighting the need for specialised curricula to facilitate the adoption of Circular Economy practices.
Our perspective focuses on the importance of designing innovative and targeted professional curricula that promote the adoption of circular and sustainable practices in the day-to-day activities of enterprises.
Social
Ace-ex Project
When an agricultural business considers investing in a biogas plant or a precision irrigation system, the first question is almost always: how much does it cost? The right question, however, is a different one: how much does it cost not to? 💰
The ACE-EX Economics, Resilience and Diversification course addresses the economic analysis of the circular transition using cost-benefit analysis, risk assessment and return on investment calculations. Direct costs, opportunity costs, market risks, environmental and social benefits — all factors that enter the equation. 📊
The module also explores funding opportunities: public-private partnerships to share costs and risks, green bonds and sustainability-linked loans, government incentives such as those provided by the EU Circular Economy Action Plan, subsidies and tax breaks for circular technologies. 🏛️
A practical course exercise asks students to develop a business case for a local circular initiative — for example a recycling project or a renewable energy plant for an agricultural cooperative. From context analysis to cost estimation, stakeholder mapping to project presentation.
Because circularity, to work, must also add up in the numbers.
🔗 Link in bio
#ACEEX #CircularEconomy #Economics #GreenFinance #Agriculture #ErasmusPlus #CostBenefit #Investment #Euproject
🇪🇺 Co-funded by the European Union
Ace-ex Project
The real challenges, on the farm
🎙️ A technology that works on paper can prove complicated once it reaches the farm. What are the real challenges of the circular economy in agriculture?
We discussed this with Trevor Donnellan (Teagasc, Ireland's agriculture and food development authority) at the ACE-EX final event in Brussels on 22 June. ACE-EX is the Erasmus+ alliance behind a European training pathway for the circular economy in agriculture, with 20 partners across nine countries.
His view is grounded. He takes the case of biomethane from farm and animal waste, heavily promoted across the EU: channelling all the waste into a single digester is difficult, and the payment farmers actually receive remains uncertain. There is also the risk of land being caught between food and energy use.
The point, for him, is that these technologies have to be genuinely viable in economic terms. Because scaling them up, he warns, "can prove far more complex than expected.»
A complexity best met with the right skills: the ground ACE-EX works on.
🔗 Link in bio
#ACEEX #CircularEconomy #Agriculture #ErasmusPlus
🇪🇺 Co-funded by the European Union
Ace-ex Project
Competitiveness for whom, and for when?
🎙️ Competitiveness and the environment are often described as opposing forces. What if they actually moved together?
That is the view of Théo Paquet (European Environmental Bureau), whom we interviewed at the ACE-EX final event in Brussels on 22 June. ACE-EX is the Erasmus+ alliance behind a European training pathway for the circular economy in agriculture, with 20 partners across nine countries.
His invitation is to ask two questions first: "competitiveness for whom? And competitiveness over what time horizon?" Maximising yields and short-term profit, he warns, makes no sense if it undermines tomorrow's harvests.
On circularity, his priority is clear: diversify farms and bring animals back into mixed holdings, for a real circularity rooted in the land, rather than relying on technology alone to treat waste.
A long-term view, the same one that inspires the work of ACE-EX.
🔗 Link in bio
#ACEEX #CircularEconomy #Agriculture #ErasmusPlus
🇪🇺 Co-funded by the European Union
ITS Academy Giulio Natta
CEP- Center for European Projects
OpenCom Italy
Sostenibilidad Cámara Valencia
AINIA Consumer
Softcare Studios
Střední průmyslová škola chemická a gymnázium Brno
Patrimonio Natural
Fagskolen Innlandet
Klaster Gospodarki Cyrkularnej i Recyklingu
Ies Federico García Lorca De la Puebla de Cazalla
Επιμελητήριο Φθιώτιδας
Confagricoltura
Ace-ex Project
Competitiveness and the environment, together
🎙️ Environmental sustainability fills the debate; the long-term economic sustainability of farming gets far less attention.
What truly makes an agri-food system competitive when it also sets out to be circular?
We put the question to Paolo Di Stefano (Eat Europe) at the ACE-EX final event in Brussels on 22 June. ACE-EX is the Erasmus+ alliance behind a European training pathway for the circular economy in agriculture, with 20 partners across nine countries.
His argument brings together two terms too often kept apart: competitiveness and the environment. Agriculture, he says, can deliver real answers on food, energy and the circular economy, but it needs to step up. His key phrase is "produce more": according to a study presented by Eat Europe, meeting the EU's 2050 decarbonisation targets would require 25% more biomass.
To get there, he points to a CAP able to back digitalisation, water management and investment, and a European fund that recognises the strategic role of farming.
It is the same challenge ACE-EX takes on from the side of skills.
🔗 Link in bio
#ACEEX #CircularEconomy #Agriculture #ErasmusPlus
🇪🇺 Co-funded by the European Union
ITS Academy Giulio Natta
CEP- Center for European Projects
OpenCom Italy
Sostenibilidad Cámara Valencia
AINIA Consumer
Softcare Studios
Střední průmyslová škola chemická a gymnázium Brno
Patrimonio Natural
Fagskolen Innlandet
Klaster Gospodarki Cyrkularnej i Recyklingu
Ies Federico García Lorca De la Puebla de Cazalla
Επιμελητήριο Φθιώτιδας
Confagricoltura