Support: European Union’s Horizon Europe programme (2021-2027), with co-funding from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).
Duration: May 2025 – April 2029
Coordinator: FiBL Europe, with scientific leadership from FiBL Switzerland
Consortium partners: 36 partners from 12 EU Member States, along with institutions from Switzerland, the UK, Turkey, and Australia
The project aims to reduce reliance on contentious inputs in organic farming – such as copper, mineral oil, fertilisers from conventional sources, antibiotics, antiparasitic drugs, Spinosad, and GMO-based or synthetic vitamins – by developing, demonstrating, and promoting cost-effective, scalable alternatives.
SCALE-it will help scale up the production and adoption promising alternatives through a systems-based approach. The project combines scientific validation with practical application, advancing promising solutions from Technology Readiness Levels to demonstration and adoption.
Through Living Labs and participatory methods, the project will:
- Demonstrate and validate application and efficacy of non-contentious alternatives in real organic farm environments
- Provide data for environmental, economic, and social impact assessments
- Explore market acceptance and user behaviour
- Support companies with roadmaps for upscaling, registration, and protection of intellectual property
- Facilitate policy co-creation and regulatory dialogue
By integrating non-contentious natural products, decision support systems, and technical solutions with preventive management practices, SCALE-it aims to reduce dependency on contentious inputs, contributing to a fair, healthy, and climate-smart food system.
Demonstration trials
A cornerstone of SCALE-it is its network of over 65 on-farm demonstration trials, taking place across 13 countries. These trials are led by Local Ambassador – regional partners with strong ties to organic communities – who will organise local events, share best practices, and collect data for assessing environmental and economic impacts.
The trials will test and validate the proposed alternatives, ensuring practical relevance and supporting broader adoption among farmers.
ÖMKi’s role
ÖMKI participates as the Hungarian Local Ambassador in the Plant Health Work package.
- Demonstrate and validate application and efficacy of non-contentious alternatives for copper reduction in real organic farm environments in grapewine.
- Organise local dissemination events and generate novel data for the environmental and economic impact assessments.
Contact person
Dr. Anna Divéky-Ertsey
Head of horticultural team
Horticultural engineer, PhD, certified sustainability manager
anna.diveky-ertsey@biokutatas.hu
SCALE-it is funded under the European Union’s Research and Innovation Programme 2021-2027 under the call HORIZON-CL6-2024-FARM2FORK-02, with co-funding from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).
Related research
Support: European Union's Horizon Europe programme (2021-2027), with co-funding from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). Duration: May 2025 [...]
Funding: Funded by the European Commission, Horizon Europe programme Coordinator: Coordinated by Aarhus Universit Time period: July 2022 - June 2025. Consortium partners: PREPSOIL project is supported [...]
Funding: Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, European Union Coordinator: French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment , Institut national de [...]
Funding: Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, European Union Coordination:Institution for Agrotechnique and Bioeconomy of Leibniz (Leibniz-Institut für Agrartechnik und Bioökonomie, ATB), Germany Duration:October [...]
Funding: Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, European Union Coordination: Centro Nacional de Tecnologia y Seguridad Alimentaria (Spain) Duration: October 2020 – April 2024 co-fresh.eu [...]
Support: Horizon Europe, European Union Coordinator: IFOAM Organics Europe Duration: September 2022 - February 2026 Consortium partners: 18 consortium partners from 12 European countries [...]
Funding: Funded by the European Commission, Horizon Europe programme Coordinator: Institut de l'Élevage (IDELE) Duration: October 2022 – October 2029 Consortium partners: Climate Farm [...]
Funding: Horizon Europe, European Commission, Coordination and Support Action Coordinator: Hungarian Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (ÖMKi) Consortium partners: The consortium is composed [...]
Funding: Funded by the European Commission, Horizon Europe program Coordinator: INRAE, National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (France) Time period: [...]
Precision recording of the experiments of the national organic post-registration cereal variety test network The pace of technological progress is outpacing the digitisation of the [...]
Supporting coordination tasks and participation in international agricultural policy relevant research, development and innovation projects (AGROECOLOGY Partnership, BIOEAST) The European Commission operates the world's [...]
Coordination of the Organic Research, Development & Innovation Working Group (ÖKO KFI) to support the implementation of the National Action Plan for the Development of [...]
Development of a national standard for regenerative organic farming (RÖG), approval of its trademark, and introduction into certification practice and subsidy policy Farmers need [...]
The main aim of the research This study continues the previous study on recognising complex forms of movement in ruminants using the RumiWatch noseband, [...]
The main aim of the pasture research In Hungary, the beef cattle herds are mainly kept on pasture. Monitoring rumination with digital sensors and [...]
The main aim of beef cattle reproduction research We investigate the potential of digital sensors for detecting heat (estrus) and predicting calving in grazing-based [...]
The main aim of animal welfare research The primary goal of organic, pasture-based livestock farming is to ensure animal welfare and prevent diseases. This [...]
Setting up a dish experiment to test nitrogen release rates of modern product forms Organic farming focuses on the natural nutrient supply capacity of [...]
Testing and improving organic horticultural production systems based on soil cover without rotation in an on-farm research system The importance of seasonal, healthy food production [...]
Legume production in organic horticultural farms Climate change is increasingly affecting horticultural production practices, with some crops being particularly sensitive to changes in environmental [...]
Peat substitution in seedling production - development and implementation of local green compost-based growing media The use of peat-based growing media has become a [...]
Ancient wheats in adaptive crop production Ancient cereals can be grown successfully on less favourable soils, even under extensive conditions, without the use of [...]
Increasing the safety of the domestic organic protein base for food and feed purposes, through varietal and cultivation trials in a national small plot and [...]
Development and demonstration of a reduced tillage system aiming regenerative agriculture optimised for organic farming using cover and catch crops in an on-farm experiment Regenerative [...]
Developing organic cereal production, increasing agro-ecosystem service capacity, maintaining crop security Cereal crops, mainly winter wheat, occupy a dominant share of organic arable land, almost [...]
Systematic collection and dissemination of data on national retail sales and consumption trends of organic products Currently, there is no data available on domestic retail [...]
Exploring the economics and cost-effectiveness of the organic transition by developing a farm-specific assessment methodology Exploring the economic impact and cost-effectiveness of the organic [...]
Képzési programot indított az Agroökológiai Hálózat Egyesület és az ÖMKi. Az EIT Food által támogatott a Regeneratív mezőgazdaság forradalma program magyarországi megvalósítását a Magyar Agroökológia Hálózat Egyesület (Agroökológia Magyarország) az ÖMKi-vel együttműködésben valósítja meg.
LIVESEEDING - Ökológiai vetőmag és növénynemesítés a fenntartható és sokszínű európai élelmiszerrendszerek előmozdítására
Funding: International Visegrad Fund Coordinator: University of Life Sciences in Lublin (Poland) Time period: October 2023. - October 2025. Consortium partners: The project [...]
Klímaváltozáshoz alkalmazkodó, fenntartható szőlőművelés
Funding: European Commission, European Horizon Programme Coordinating body: Wageningen University (WU) Duration: 1 September 2023 - 31 August 2028 Consortium partners: Alerce Environmental, [...]
Investigation of the effects of different cover crop mixtures on the qualitative and quantitative composition of arthropod predator assemblages and production success in plantations In [...]
Funding: European Union, Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) Duration: 1 April 2024 - 31 March 2028 Coordinator: IFOAM Organics Europe [...]
Funding: Horizon Europe, European Commission; Co-fund between European Commission and EU Member States, Associated countries and third countries. The Hungarian national contribution is provided [...]
Funding: HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions Duration: 2024.04.-2030.03. Coordinator: EV ILVO Consortium Partners: ClimateSmartAdvisors (CSA) is a pan-European multi-actor network covering 27 countries. climatesmartadvisors.eu [...]
Funding: Horizon Europe, European Unio Coordinator: Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI), Germany Duration: January 2024 – December 2026 Consortium partners: The FORTUNA project brings together 11 [...]
Funding: Horizon Europe, European Union Coordinator: European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL), Belgium Duration: January 2024 – December 2025 Consortium Partners: The project [...]
What kind of spiders live in Hungarian gardens? And what does this tell researchers and garden lovers? The first year of the citizen-science study [...]
Funding: Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, European Union Coordinator: Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) Duration: January 2023 – January 2026 Consortium partners: PATH2DEA [...]
Grant programme: Horizon 2020-EU.3.2.1.3., European Union Coordinated by L’Assemblee permanente des Chambres d'agriculture, France Start date: 1 November 2019 End date: 31 October 2024 [...]
Viticulture is an intensive form of farming, which is heavily affected by climate change. Periods without precipitation are more frequent and last longer, and they are often followed by heavy rainfall bringing a huge amount of water rapidly.
Funding: Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, European Union Coordinator: NRAE – French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (France) Consortium partners: [...]
Grant programme: Erasmus+ programme (KA220-VET - Cooperation partnerships in vocational education and training) Start date: 1st of November 2021 End date: 31rd of October [...]
Funding: Horizon Europe, European Commission Coordinator: Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL Europe) Duration: February 2024 - February 2028 Consortium partners: The Organic Yield [...]
The development of a customized feeding and disease prevention system in free-range dairy farms using precision sensors To date, the use of precision farming technology [...]
Current status With the expansion of remote spectral sensing techniques and platforms, new forms of remote sensing have emerged in the field of agriculture, [...]
The evaluation of ancient grain varieties The evaluation of heterogeneous populations of durum wheat (Triticum durum) and various ancient grain varieties, including einkorn, [...]
