Faced with Europe’s search for alternatives to fossil-based materials, crops such as rapeseed, sugar beet, hemp and flax are becoming increasingly important sources of renewable raw materials, even though understanding their true environmental impact remains a challenge. This is the context in which SUSTAINCrop was born (Knowledge Exchange for Assessing Environmental Impacts of Crop Production in Bio-based Industrial Systems).
SUSTAINCrop will provide farmers, businesses and policymakers with practical tools to compare crop production systems and assess their effects on land use, water resources, biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions and future market opportunities.
The project will also strengthen cooperation between Europe and Latin America, supporting knowledge exchange and helping to build more sustainable and resilient bio-based value chains. In doing so, SUSTAINCrop aims to translate scientific criteria into practical, everyday guidance: better-informed policies, improved practices on the ground, and digital tools that help optimise the environmental performance of bio-based value chains across Europe and beyond.
Expected outputs from SUSTAINCrop include:
- A geo-referenced database covering crop production systems across different regions.
- An interactive dashboard for comparing scenarios and exploring sustainable options.
- A digital modelling framework for assessing environmental impacts.
- Practical guidance materials, training resources and policy recommendations.
The project is coordinated by INNOMINE Digital Innovation Hub (Hungary) and brings together 12 organisations from 9 countries across Europe and Latin America: IFAU (Denmark), CluBE and NTUA (Greece), ZALF, inter3 and ATB (Germany), CTA (Spain), Greenovate! Europe (Belgium), INTECH/CONICET (Argentina), Universidad San Pablo de Guatemala (Guatemala) and Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga (Colombia).
SUSTAINCrop is funded by Horizon Europe. It will run for 36 months, having started on 1 May 2026.