Socio-economic impacts of the BASC project

There are four principal types of stakeholders that are interested in the BASC project: start-ups and small enterprises, technical institutes for counsel and R&D, large enterprises in the environmental and agricultural production sectors, and decision makers at local, national and European levels that are seeking expertise, assessments and knowledge transfer in support of action, learning, know-how and organisational changes (e.g., public policy development).

Innovation and expertise in partnership with private sector and public environmental agencies

Almost all BASC labs provide expertise for or carry out research projects in partnership with various non-research oriented institutes or companies with the aim of producing high quality science and, at the same time, tools, innovative systems, indicators or models that have immediate applications. For our partners, such relationships also increase their cognitive resources for innovation, action and organisational changes. Research and innovation produced in BASC are in demand by stakeholders in several areas:

♦ Development of novel crops, farming systems and territorial land use schemes. This objective is shared by small and medium sized firms (e.g. Force-A, the development of sensors for precision agriculture), technical institutes for counsel, expertise and innovation in agriculture (e.g., Arvalis and Cetiom) and large agricultural cooperatives and agricultural supply companies (e.g., In Vivo and Limagrain) that are heavily influenced by national and European directives that will require substantial changes in modes of production. Expertise on bioenergy production is also of considerable interest for both private enterprise (e.g., EDF, Suez Environnement) and public agencies (e.g., ADEME).

♦ Ecological engineering for preserving and restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services. Both small enterprises (e.g., Kinomé) and large firms in the environment sector (e.g., Suez Environnement, Veolia) are seeking expertise on restoration activities. In most cases both BASC and our private partners will benefit form such collaborations; for example, tropical reforestation projects being undertaken by Kinomé can become ‘living labs’ for our experimental and modeling strategies, while Kinomé will benefit from the quantification of the impact of their actions on the regional climate.

♦ Expertise concerning the impact of human activities on the environment. This includes expertise on exposure, impacts and mitigation of air, soil and water pollution for a wide range of partners (e.g., ADEME, ANSES, INERIS, ONEMA, Suez Environnement), as well as ecological and societal impacts of climate change (e.g., ADEME, CLIMPACT, CLIMMOD).  For example, BASC teams have and will continue to provide expertise on the use of urban organic wastes for fertiliser, on the presence and impacts of pollutants in surface and drinking water or on the impacts of air pollution on crops.

Knowledge transfer to the public and policy makers

Teams in BASC have and will continue to provide expertise for a wide range of governmental organisations and agencies at local levels, at the national level including for the Ministries of agriculture, ecology, and justice and at international levels for the climate and biodiversity assessment bodies (IPCC and IPBES) and conventions (CBD and UNFCCC). BASC teams are also involved in numerous public conferences and debates at local and national levels.