Proposals should address the following activities:

• Connect advisors possessing a broad and extensive network of farmers across all EU Member States in an EU advisory network dedicated to pesticide use and risk reduction, including farming techniques which support pesticide use and risk reduction, with a view to sharing experiences on how to best tackle the issues, building on the outcomes of the EIP-AGRI Focus Groups and Workshops as well as the Horizon 2020 Thematic networks related to pesticide use and risks reduction;
• Share effective and novel approaches among the EU advisory network on pesticide use and risk reduction, which are sustainable in terms of economic, environmental and social aspects;
• Fill gaps on emerging advisory topics beyond the classical sectoral advice, which is useful in particular in relation with the new obligation for Member States to integrate advisors within their AKIS and their obligation to cover a much broader scope than in the past;
• Provide overall support related to knowledge creation, organisation and sharing;
• Take strong account of cost-benefit elements. Collect and document good examples in this regard, connecting with farmers, intermediates and consumers in Member States to be able to take into account financial aspects and local conditions. Select the best practices, learn about the key success factors, possible quick wins and make them available for (local) exploitation, to ensure financial win-wins for producers, citizens and intermediate actors;
• Integrate the advisors within the EU pesticide use and risk reduction network into their MS AKIS as much as possible. They should give hands-on training to farmers and local advisors, lead national thematic and learning networks on the subject, deliver and implement action plans to make farming systems with a reduced use of chemical pesticides, more efficient, reduce farmers’ yield losses, inspire new and incoming farmers or farms at the cross-roads of intergenerational renewal, connect with education and ensure broad communication, support peer-to-peer consulting, develop on-farm demonstrations and demo films distributed widely via social media, and provide specific back-office support for generalist advisors within the national/regional AKIS;
• Explore if the activities of the EU advisory network on pesticide use and risk reduction can be scaled up at the level of a number of Member States under a cooperative format.
• Include all 27 EU Member States in the EU advisory network, using local AKIS connections which can more accurately interpret the national/regional contexts to help develop the best solutions for that Member State or region. Use the support of the Member States’ knowledge and innovation experts of the SCAR-AKIS Strategic Working Group to discuss project strategy and progress in the various stages of the 2 projects.