Research projects

The project examined the livelihood implications of charcoal production and trade, the mechanisms of access along the charcoal commodity chain, and the environmental impacts of charcoal production.

Funding

• Total amount: DKK 8.9 mio. 
• IFRO share: DKK 3.4 mio.

Project coordinator

Former IFRO Associate Professor Christian Pilegaard Hansen

IFRO contact person

Henrik Meilby

Funding

The project was financed by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 641918.

IFRO researchers

• Associate professor Martin Reinhardt Nielsen
• Professor Carsten Smith-Hall
• Professor Jette Bredahl Jacobsen.

Findings and results

WP5 has produced eleven deliverables and a growing number of scientific publications and has thus contributed to fulfilling the expected impacts of AfricanBioServices by enabling the identification and development of more effective policies and other responses to managing drivers of change in the GSME.

Specifically WP5 has:

• Quantified adjacent communities reliance on protected areas in the GSME and its relationship with their wellbeing
• Evaluated the feasibility of manipulating substitute prices to reduce bushmeat demand; the consequence of future road development across the GSME
• Reviewed the experience with Wildlife Management Areas; evaluated the risk of violence as a consequence of environmental degradation; and tried to make sense of the current drive to fence land in Kenya.

These and many other studies carried out under WP5 has produced specific recommendations for policy development and management interventions.

• Participation in three obligatory joint doctoral courses for all candidates run in connection to the annual workshop.
• All doctorates must actively communicate their research to an external audience and conferences, popular scientific outputs, briefs and press releases, etc.
• All doctoral candidates must engage in limited teaching activities in relation to their thesis subject.

In AgTraIn, the emphasis was on applied research. Doctoral candidates therefore typically did fieldwork (in a wide sense) and it was encouraged, starting already in the project formulation phase, that fieldwork was conducted in connection with stays at Associate Partners, who contributed with hosting and co-supervising functions.

Funding and collaboration

AgTraIn was part of the Erasmus+

Erasmus Mundus programme initiated by the European Commission to enhance and promote European higher education throughout the world.

The programme was jointly developed and delivered by a six-university consortium consisting of:

• University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• Universita degli Studi di Catania, Italy
• University College of Cork, Ireland
• Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain
• Montpellier SupAgro, France
• Wageningen University, The Netherlands.

An international workshop on ammonia regulation of livestock in relation to Natura 2000 sites was held 27 November 2017 in Copenhagen. The presentations dealt with ammonia regulation in relation to livestock production in Germany (Schleswig-Holstein), The Netherlands and Denmark. At the workshop both the nature, legal and economic perspective were discussed.

The overall conclusive report in Danish

Ammoniakregulering af husdyrbedrifter i forhold til ammoniakfølsom natur (Natura 2000) – sammenligning af Tyskland, Holland og Danmark: Samlerapport

Legal reports

• National report on the legal framework for ammonia regulation of livestock installations with a particular regard to Natura 2000 sites: Denmark
• Germany: National report on the legal framework for ammonia regulation of livestock installations with a particular regard to Natura 2000 sites
• The Netherlands: National report on the legal framework for ammonia regulation of livestock installations with a particular regard to Natura 2000 sites
• Comparison of ammonia regulation in Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark – legal framework

Economic reports

• Economic analysis of ammonia regulation in Germany (Schleswig-Holstein) in relation to the Habitat Directive
• Economic analysis of the ammonia regulation in Denmark in relation to the Habitat Directive
• Economic implications of ammonia regulation in the Netherlands near nature 2000 areas
• Ammonia regulations near nature areas in Denmark and the Netherlands compared
• Economic analysis of the ammonia regulation with respect to Nature 2000 sites: Germany, The Netherlands and Denmark

The state of nature reports

• Scientific analysis on the status of designated Natura 2000 areas and the need to protect ammonia-sensitive nature. Dutch contribution
• Scientific analysis on the designation of Natura 2000 sites and the status of nature and effort: The Schleswig-Holstein situation
• Scientific analysis on the designation of Natura 2000 sites and the status of nature and effort: The Danish situation
• Scientific analysis on the designation of Natura 2000 sites and the status of nature and effort: A comparison of The Netherlands, Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark

IFRO researcher

Brian H. Jacobsen

The multi-year research programme was funded by:

• Norma og Frode Jacobsens Fond
• Svineafgiftsfonden
• Mælkeafgiftsfonden
• Kvægafgiftsfonden
• Fjerkræafgiftsfonden
• The University of Copenhagen.

IFRO coordinator

Wusheng Yu

About the project

This project aimed at understanding how income and demographic changes, climate change, and trade policy uncertainties drive the future development of the animal food sectors.

A set of model-based projections of animal food demand, supply and trade at national and global levels have been conducted under alternative scenarios.

The project studied the diversity of benthic ecosystem in European waters and the role of benthic species in the ecosystem functioning. Fisheries impacts were studied on benthic organisms and on the geo-chemistry.

The acquired knowledge was synthesized in a number of generic tools that wwre combined into a fishing/seabed habitat risk assessment method that would be applied to fisheries in the Baltic, North Sea, Western waters, Mediterranean and Black Sea.

Funding

Benthis has received funding from the EU 7th Framework programme

Amount: DKK 1.1 mill.

IFRO coordinator

Jesper Levring Andersen

As discrimination is illegal in applications such as hiring, fair AI algorithms have become a topic of research, where training a "fair" predictive model is an optimization task among "fair" solutions defined by hard constraints.

Healthcare, however, is not constrained by the law, but by ethics: We would likely not, in the name of fairness, allow reducing our diagnostic abilities for one part of the population just because we cannot diagnose another.

This project did, via large-scale registry study of major depressive disorder, statistically examine the nature of bias in diagnosis and treatment. In an interaction between ethics/philosophy and mathematical modelling, we would redefine fairness for the medical domain and develop predictive AI algorithms that are, in the new sense, fair.

Visit the project website here

IFRO coordinator

Sune Hannibal Holm

Jørgen Dejgård Jensen was leader of a work package with the objective to investigate the impact of alternative in-store interventions on sales and calorie turnover.

Funding

CASU recieved funding from the Tryg Foundation

Budget

IFRO budget: 2.074.823

IFRO coordinator

Jørgen Dejgård Jensen

Collaborations / Participating parties

• Institute of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen (IFRO)
• Centre for Research on Customer Relations in the Food Sector, Aarhus University (MAPP)
• Danish Cancer Society 

IFRO was a partner in the CAPARDUS project in its work package 2 conducting case studies in different Arctic regions. Specifically, IFRO project members (in collaboration with NORDECO) organised a workshop with participants from Greenlandic natural resource user groups, government agencies and research institutions to discuss guidelines and standards in community-based monitoring in Greenland.

The focus was on identifying new technologies for the collection and integration of data, develop knowledge-based planning and improved decision making. One such technology is Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) models that explicitly enables incorporation of different forms of information and knowledge including local ecological knowledge.

IFRO coordinators

• Henrik Meilby
• Martin Reinhardt Nielsen

Funding

The project was financed by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 869673.

About the project

Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) Models

BBN models are increasingly used to guide decision-making in complex social-ecological systems and where data is deficient. Dynamic or interactive maps can be made available through internet sites and mobile apps enabling policymakers and resource users to explore the outcome of various policies under different scenarios on their own including impacts on living conditions and quality of life.

Workshop

The workshop drawed on experience gained in the EU H2020 project AfricanBioServices to build the capacity of scientists in Greenland to use this tool. The workshop was used to develop a BBN model for a specific natural resource management problem in Greenland using present expert input. The model would be tested and adjusted through presentation, discussion and incorporation of the input of the primary resource users in a relevant municipality. Results would be presented and discussed at a research school held in Greenland in collaboration with other CAPARDUS activities.

Objective

The overall objective of CAPARDUS was to establish a comprehensive framework for development, understanding and implementation of Arctic standards.

The framework would integrate standards used by communities active in the Arctic including research and services, indigenous and local communities, commercial operators and governance bodies. This would support sustainable economic development, safe activities, emergency prevention and response, and improved understanding and conservation of the environment.

Period

2019-2023

IFRO coordinator

Jens Leth Hougaard

Website

The center website is closed.

CFEM would further design new trading mechanisms that suits better the needs of existing and new forms of e-commerce. And finally, CFEM would develop new results in algorithmics, operations research and cryptography allowing such mechanisms to be implemented efficiently and securely.

Period

1 July 2010 - 30 June 2016

Funding

CFEM received funding from Det Strategiske Forskningsråd (The Danish Council for Strategic Research)

Amount: DKK 4.774.040 (for the total project)

IFRO coordinator

Jens Leth Hougaard

IFRO participant

Kurt Nielsen

This project was part of Organic RDD 2.2 (2015).

IFRO Researchers

• Sigrid Denver
• Kia Ditlevsen
• Jørgen Dejgård Jensen

Funding

Green Development and Demonstration Programme (GUDP) under the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, 1.651.713 DKK.

Salmon farming is the cornerstone of the Norwegian bioeconomy, but negative environmental impact and fish welfare are important challenges that have to be solved. New biotechnologies such as CRISPR hold a potential great promise for the industry to become more sustainable and increase fish welfare, but is it socially and morally acceptable to use this technology on farmed salmon?

This interdisciplinary research team consisting of philosophers and biotechnicians attempted to answer this question through an empirical ethics-approach, which combined qualitative research and normative analysis. Stakeholders and consumers were interviewed about their relationship to salmon and what they think about the acceptability of using CRISPR in the salmon farming industry, and these findings were used this to inform a normative reflection on its moral acceptability.

The project asked three questions:

1. What are our relationship with salmon, and how does our perception of salmon bear on what kind of treatment is considered acceptable?
2. Is it socially and morally acceptable to use CRISPR on farmed salmon, and if so, which conditions need to be in place?
3. Can CRISPR make the salmon farming more sustainable?

Visit the project website here

IFRO researchers

• Lotte Holm
• Mickey Gjerris

IFRO coordinator

Rasmus Nielsen

Funding

The project was funded by the EU, the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

DiscardLess developed discard mitigation strategies that offered cost‑effective solutions across the seafood supply chain. The project first focused on preventing unwanted catches by promoting selective gear innovations and improved fishing tactics. It then focused on making the best possible use of unavoidable unwanted catch through technical, marketing, monitoring, and traceability innovations.

The project evaluated the environmental, economic, and societal impacts of discarding before, during, and after the landing obligation. It also assessed stakeholders’ perceptions and described the governance changes needed to support the transition.

DiscardLess proposed management approaches for diverse European fisheries and combined all innovations into an online DMS toolbox to help fishers make informed decisions under the new regime. The project also disseminated results widely and supported knowledge transfer through educational initiatives.

Visit the project website here

IFRO coordinators

• Ayoe Hoff
• Peder Andersen

The ideas must be sustainable in the sense that they must both improve resource efficiency and public health, and reduce the impact on the environment and climate.

Visit the project website here (in Danish)

Funding

DNMARK received funding from The Danish Strategic Research Council's Programme Committee on Health, Food and Welfare.

Amount - IFRO: DKK 2.05 mill.

IFRO coordinator

Brian H. Jacobsen

The project was part of UC-CARE (University of Copenhagen Research Centre for Control of Antibiotic Resistance) that targets a number of complementary and interactive topics that are central in the fight against antibiotic resistance.

Funding

UC-CARE received funding from UCPH Excellence Programme for Interdisciplinary Research.

Budget

IFRO budget: 1.750.000 DKK

IFRO coordinator

Professor Jørgen Dejgård Jensen

External members

• Jonathan Rushton (Royal Veterinary College, UK)
• Henk Hogeveen (University of Wageningen, NL)
• Liza Rosenbaum Nielsen (IPH)
• Lis Alban (IVS/DAFC)

Visit the project website here

Project lead and IFRO coordinator

Professor Mette Termansen

Funding

H2020

Partners

19 EU research and practice partners

Budget

5.000.000 EUR

IFRO coordinator

Lotte Holm

Other participants from IFRO

• Thomas Bøker Lund
• Sinne Smed

Description

The project consisted of three substudies which are mutually dependent. The work incorporated and drawed upon different scientific disciplines and methods.

• In substudy one a qualitative investigation will be carried out of coping strategies in relation to experienced food budget reductions and fluctuating market prices across different population groups.
• In substudy two micro analyses of consumer coping strategies are conducted. The analysis will be based on data from GfK (Consumer Tracking Scandinavia), which consists of an unbalanced panel of approximately 2600 food consumers who, on a daily basis, have registered their purchases of food products over the period 1999–2010.

The fine-grained quality of the data (close to barcode level) allowed us to translate the households’ coping strategies into changes in health and sustainability parameters. Based on the findings from substudy one and two, substudy three involved the design, development and application of a tool in the form of a structured questionnaire to measure and monitor at household level:

• a) the existence and extent of food budget constraints
• b) coping strategies adopted in response to such restraints
• c) the effect of the coping strategies on healthy eating, sustainability in diet and life quality.

It was a further aim of the project to provide a strong basis for future Danish participation in EU projects responding to grand societal challenges connected with climate change, population health, and welfare policy.

This project would help Danish researchers to develop important concepts and tools needed for welfare societies to gain valuable experience with research in this area, and also to develop and consolidate an international network of prominent researchers in this field.

The project also involved corporation with scientists from DTU (Technical University of Denmark) Food and Copenhagen Resource Institute.

Source of financing

The Danish Council for Strategic Research Programme Commission on Health, Food and Welfare (Det Strategiske Forskningsråd: Programkomiteen for Sundhed, Fødevarer og Velfærd)

Amount: DKK 6.3 mill.

International Advisory Group

• John Barrett, Professor of Sustainability Research, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, UK.
• Elizabeth Dowler, Professor of Sociology, University of Warwick, UK.
• Arne Dulsrud, Head of Research, SIFO, Norway.
• Spencer Henson, Professor of Food Economics, University of Sussex, UK and University of Guelph, Canada.
• Christine Olson, Professor at the Department of Nutrition, Cornell University, USA.
• Sabine Pfeiffer, Professor at the Department for Social Science Research in Munich, Germany.
• Dale Southerton, Professor of Sociology, the Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of Manchester, UK.
• Inge Tetens, Professor, DTU Food, Denmark.
• David Watson, Senior Consultant, Plan Miljø, Denmark.

National Dialogue Group

• Coop Denmark
• The Danish Agriculture and Food Council 
• The Confederation of Danish Enterprise
• The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration
• Concito: Denmark’s green think tank 
• The Danish Consumer Council
• The Danish Environmental Protection Agency

External consultants

• Inge Tetens, DTU Food
• David Watson, Plan Miljø

Publications from the project

• Holm L, Nielsen AL, Lund TB (2018): Adapting to financial pressure on household food budgets in Denmark: Associations with life satisfaction and dietary health. Acta Sociologica, DOI: 10.1177/0001699318810095
• Smed S, Tetens I, Lund, TB & Holm L. (2018): The consequences of unemployment on diet composition and purchase behaviour: a longitudinal study from Denmark. Public Health Nutrition 21 (3): 580-592. DOI: 10.1017/S136898001700266X
• Lund TB, Holm L, Tetens I, Smed S & Nielsen A (2017): Food insecurity in Denmark: socio-demographic determinants and associations with eating- and health-related variables. European Journal of Public Health 28 (2): 283–288. DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/ckx121
• Nielsen AL, Holm L & Lund TB (2017). Development of a survey tool to assess and monitor the influence of food budget restraint on healthy eating, food related climate impact and quality of life. IFRO Documentation 2017/2. Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen
• Lund TB, Watson D, Smed S, Hom L, Eisler T & Nielsen A (2016):The Diet-related GHG Index: construction and validation of a brief questionnaire-based index. Climate Change 140 (3-4): 503–517. DOI: 10.1007/s10584-016-1869-9
• Nielsen A & Holm L (2016): Making the most of less: food budget restraint in a Scandinavian welfare society. Food, Culture & Society 19 (1): 71-91. DOI: 10.1080/15528014.2016.1145003
• Nielsen A, Lund TB & Holm L (2015): The taste of ‘the end of the month’, and how to avoid it: coping with restrained food budgets in a Scandinavian welfare state context. Social Policy and Society 14 (3): 429-442. DOI: 10.1017/S1474746415000056

Illegal trade in wildlife products poses a significant threat to biodiversity conservation. The wildlife trade is also known to finance violence, contribute to destabilising national security, and hampers economic development in source countries.

The trade in rhino horn is considered one of the most organized crimes, fueled by growing demand in Asia. This demand has contributed to pushing remaining wild rhino populations to the brink of extinction.

Meanwhile the question of whether a total ban or a tightly regulated trade is the most effective means of regulation is heatedly debated. However, no study has explicitly examined consumers’ preferences and trade-offs for these two options. Moreover, despite the urgency of understanding the drivers of demand the relative importance of the attributes of consumer’s choice to purchase rhino horn remains unclear.

This project aimed to examine these questions based on an existing sample of rhino horn consumers in Vietnam. A literature review and interviews with key informants using the Consumer Culture Theory as a framework were applied to explore the aspects of Asian culture and consumerism that drive rhino horn consumption.

The project also applied the Theory of Planned Behavior to obtain a detailed understanding of the socio-psychological processes and motivational drivers of rhino horn consumption. Finally, a choice experiment design was developed to evaluate what interventions most effectively will reduce demand for rhino horn and to assess under which conditions people will comply with a ban on non-licensed rhino horn trade if a legal trade was established.

This study provided crucial information for designing behavioural modification campaigns for the conservation of rhinos and constitute an important academic contribution to the understanding of Asian culture and consumerism in relation to wildlife products. The methodology and insights developed in this study would furthermore be applicable to investigating preferences and consumer behaviour towards other illicit products.

Selected publications

• Evaluating Tiger Bone Glue Behavior and Consumption in Hanoi, Vietnam. Master's Thesis by Kasper Gadbert and Julie Vikkelsø Nielsen (2020)
• Evidence or delusion: A critique of contemporary rhino horn demand reduction strategies. Dang, Vu Hoai Nam and Nielsen, Martin Reinhardt, (Human Dimensions of Wildlife, 2020)
• Reference group influences and campaign exposure effects on rhino horn demand: Qualitative insights from Vietnam. Dang, Vu Hoai Nam, Nielsen, Martin Reinhardt and Jacobsen, Jette Bredahl (Rufford Small Grant Conference 2020)
• We asked people in Vietnam why they use rhino horn. Here’s what they said. Dang, Vu Hoai Nam and Nielsen, Martin Reinhardt. (The Conversation, 2019)
• Understanding utilitarian and hedonic values determining the demand for rhino horn in Vietnam. Dang, Vu Hoai Nam and Nielsen, Martin Reinhardt. (Human Dimensions of Wildlife, 2018)

Funding

The European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 801199.

IFRO coordinators

• Martin Reinhardt Nielsen
• Jette Bredahl Jacobsen

By studying their applications to food, nutritional, and feed security, as well as their economic and social acceptance, GREEiNSECT aimed to demonstrate the use of insects as a concrete tool for developing a new, sustainable and inclusive component of the food and feed sector.

GREEiNSECT was organized through work packages addressing:

1. Technological development, adoption and adaption capabilities of insects for feed and food, and investigation of operational and implementable business models
2. Creation of the foundation for development of institutional frameworks necessary for managing the risk of disease in the reared insects, humans and animals related to mass rearing systems, and international trade and food security standards
3. Modeling and assessing contribution of insect production systems to green economic growth and nutrition security, and exploring economic and political incentives for the development of climate-friendly food and feed sector
4. Capacity building of Kenyan research institutions and dissemination of knowledge gained
5. Development of a Kenya-based knowledge platform involving public and private sectors.

Furthermore, international partners from SE Asia advanced the progress of the project through their experiences with the edible insect sector. International knowledge dissemination would be supported by FAO.

Funding

GREEiNSECT received funding from Danida

• Amount total: DKK 10.0 mill
• IFRO share: DKK 2.1 mill

IFRO coordinator

Søren Bøye Olsen

Primary investigator (PI)

Carsten Smith-Hall

Organisation

The projekt is part of: Section for Global Development

About the project

The project raised the following questions:

1. How could natural and social science data on renewable resources be integrated and scaled up?
2. What feasible and realistic transition pathways could be identified given political realities?
3. How could these answers be used inductively to characterise and formulate a bioeconomic approach relevant to renewable resources in low-income countries?

Funding

Danish National Research Foundation

Publications

1. Smith-Hall, C., Piplani, M. and Pyakurel, D. 2024. Theorising and analysing the forest-based bioeconomy through a global production network lens. Forest Policy and Economics 159: 103128.
2. Chamberlain, J. and Smith-Hall, C. 2024. Harnessing the full potential of a global forest-based bioeconomy through non-timber products: Beyond logs, biotechnology, and high-income countries. Forest Policy and Economics 158: 103105.
3. Smith-Hall, C., Pyakurel, D., Meilby, H., Pouliot, M., Ghimire, P., Ghimire, S., Madsen, S.T., Paneru, Y.R., Subedi, B., Timoshyna, A. and Treue, T. 2023. The sustainability of trade in wild plants – a data-integration approach tested on critically endangered Nardostachys jatamansi. PNAS Nexus 2: 1-9.
4. Madsen, S.T. and Smith-Hall, C. 2023. Wild harvesting or cultivation of commercial environmental products: a theoretical model and its application to medicinal plants. Ecological Economics 205: 107701.
5. Smith-Hall, C. and Chamberlain, C. 2023. Environmental products: a definition, a typology, and a goodbye to non-timber forest products. International Forestry Review 25(4): 491-502.
6. Smith-Hall, C. and Chamberlain, J. (Eds.) 2023. The bioeconomy and non-timber forest products. London: Routledge, 270pp.
7. Smith-Hall, C. and Chamberlain, J. 2023. Why focus on non-timber forest products in the bioeconomy? In Smith-Hall, C. and Chamberlain, J. (Eds.) The bioeconomy and non-timber forest products, Routledge, London, pp. 3-14.
8. Piplani, M. and Smith-Hall, C. 2023. A framework supporting the transition to a forest-based bioeconomy and its application to Nepal. In Smith-Hall, C. and Chamberlain, J. (Eds.) The bioeconomy and non-timber forest products, Routledge, London, pp. 164-178.
9. Chamberlain, J. and Smith-Hall, C. 2023. The keys to unlocking the bioeconomy with non-timber forest products. In Smith-Hall, C. and Chamberlain, J. (Eds.) The bioeconomy and non-timber forest products, Routledge, London, pp. 251-265.
10. He, J., Smith-Hall, C., Zhou, W, Zhou, W., Wang, Y. and Fan, B. 2022. Uncovering caterpillar fungus (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) consumption patterns and linking them to conservation interventions. Conservation Science and Practice 4(8): e12759.
11. Smith-Hall, C. and Bennike, R.B. 2022. Understanding the sustainability of Chinese caterpillar fungus harvesting: the need for better data. Biodiversity and Conservation 31: 729–733.
    Piplani, M. and Smith-Hall, C. 2021. Towards a global framework for analysing the forest‐based bioeconomy. Forests 12, 1673

IFRO researchers

• Henrik Meilby
• Mariève Pouliot
• Carsten Smith-Hall
• Thorsten Treue

External researchers

• Dipesh Pyakurel
• Arjun Chapagain

INEMAD concentrated on innovative strategies to reconnect livestock and crop production farming systems. New flows of energy and materials within the agricultural sector (or linked to the agricultural sector) were analysed, creating opportunities to rethink the relation between crop and livestock production.

Various options to cope with recycling, greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation, and bio-based economy required an integral assessment on energy and nutrient flows and will cause new arrangements between firms, land use and land management. INEMAD addressed the question of what new methods and how new arrangements should be developed to restore the recycling within the context of specialisation.

To realize these ambitions, the leading principle of INEMAD was a triangular enlargement of the traditional farming systems with a “processing” system. Processing was proposed as a third system, to be linked with crop and the livestock production, in order to increase agricultural productivity while reducing external energy input and closing nutrient cycle.

Nutrient recycling uld be achieved through biogas production and the use of digestate as fertilizer. Digestate can not only replace the manure but also chemical fertiliser because of its comparable properties. INEMAD analysed improvement options for biogas plants, explored valorisation options for the digestate, improved the management by the use of optimisation models and compared organisational structures.

IFRO project coordinator

Brian H. Jacobsen

Funding

EU 7th Framework Programme

Amount - IFRO share: DKK 2.4 mill.

The idea was to map consumer barriers, motives and behaviour in order to make it possible to design more targeted and effective control measures and initiatives.

Funding

Det Strategiske Forskningsråd (The Danish Council for Strategic Research)

Amount: DKK 17.944.648

IFRO coordinator

Lars Gårn Hansen

Contact

• Carsten Lynge Jensen (IFRO, University of Copenhagen)
• Per Nørgaard (DTU Elektro)
• Poul Erik Morthorst (DTU Management)
• Erik Jørgensen (SydEnergi)
• Dorthe Gårdbo-Pedersen (Develco)
• Frank Wolak (Stanford University, USA)

Publications from INCAP

• Linking meters and markets: Roles and incentives to support a flexible demand side
• Load-shift incentives for household demand response: Evaluation of hourly dynamic pricing and rebate schemes in a wind-based electricity system
• Household electricity consumers’ incentive to choose dynamic pricing under different taxation schemes
• Risk implications of investments in demand response from an aggregator perspective
• The impact of residential demand response on the costs of a fossil-free system reserve.

Description

Based on changing macro- and microeconomic conditions, there is a growing recognition that companies are increasingly moving towards open innovation models that more heavily rely on external sources of knowledge. With universities being a particularly important source of external knowledge for innovation, university-industry relations get to the center stage of corporate innovation processes.

As such, a large part of the socioeconomic impact of university research is established through university-industry relations, which can take place through a wide variety of different knowledge transmission channels. However, the more detailed mechanisms that underlie these channels and how they ultimately lead to socioeconomic impact are not fully understood.

This project proposed that a microfoundations perspective could provide important insights into how the individual-level decisions, actions and interactions can aggregate to macro-level impact. This research project therefore explored the microfoundations that underlie the transmission of knowledge from university to industry and ultimately lead to socioeconomic impact.

The research plan consisted of a three-stage research design:

• First, we conducted an in-depth case study of the Faculty of Science (SCIENCE) at the University of Copenhagen to uncover how institutional conditions and individual actions and interactions affect knowledge transmission mechanisms of researchers.
• Second, we conducted a longitudinal ethnography of selected researchers at the Faculty of Science to unravel the detailed processes and microfoundational aspects of how these researchers engage with industry.
• Third, we conducted a controlled policy capturing experiment with university researchers and company employees to validate the underlying mechanisms of university-industry collaboration by investigating the decision-making criteria to engage with industry.

IFRO coordinator

Marcel Bogers, Professor

Involved IFRO researchers

• Karin Beukel, Assistant Professor
• Maral Mahdad, Postdoc
• Elena Tavella, Assistant Professor
• Toke Reinholt Fosgaard, Associate Professor
• Gergana Romanova, PhD student
• Sunny Mosangzi Xu, PhD student
• Alice Pizzo, PhD student

Project partners

• Erik Bisgaard Madsen, Vice-Dean of Private and Public Sector Services, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen
• Jeannette Colyvas, Associate Professor, Northwestern University
• Pablo D’Este, Research Fellow, Spanish Council for Scientific Research
• Maria Theresa Norn, Head of Analysis, DEA
• Beverly Tyler, Professor, North Carolina State University

Source of financing

Novo Nordisk Foundation

Amount: DKK 10 million

LEAKS directed the attention to new political spaces in the vicinity of extractive industries through careful ethnographic scrutiny of three cases of hydrocarbons extraction in Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador.

IFRO researcher

Mattias Borg Rasmussen

Other participants

Associate Professor Stine Krøijer, Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen

Funding

The project was financed by the Independent Research Fund Denmark.

Amount: DKK 4,041,800

The research integrated the following three components:

• Biophysical: LEAP filled knowledge gaps and developed watershed-scale nutrient modelling tools necessary for determining impacts of historical land-use patterns on current nutrient loading to surface and groundwater.
• Economic: LEAP accounted for trade-offs between initial costs of BMP implementation and delayed benefits of water quality improvements by evaluating appropriate discounting methods.
• Policy: By quantifying nutrient legacies and associated lag times, LEAP helped select appropriate (site-specific) BMPs and establish nutrient reduction goals within realistic time frames

Description

Widespread nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertiliser use threatens water quality and aquatic ecosystems. Agricultural best management practices (BMPs) have been implemented in an attempt to improve water quality, but time lags between BMP implementation and measurable water quality benefits are frequently observed.

One reason is the slow release of N and P from legacy nutrient stores that accumulated in the landscape over decades of fertiliser application. Before LEAP we lacked: 

• (a) a comprehensive characterisation of the nature, size and reactivity of agricultural N and P legacies
• (b) integrated modelling tools to predict the timing and magnitude of water quality improvements achievable through BMPs
• (c) policy instruments that acknowledge time lags and balance trade-offs between short and long-term costs, benefits and risks.

LEAP aimed to gain a predictive understanding of the release of nutrients over time and how they move and transform within water systems and address the knowledge gaps. The project objectives were:

• Identifying key controls on the accumulation and mobilisation of agricultural N and P legacies, and predicting time lags between implementation of BMPs and reductions in nutrient loadings to ground and surface waters, as a function of climate, land cover, land use, and land management
• Assessing outcomes of alternative management strategies by performing cost-benefit analyses within a hydro-economic modelling framework that explicitly represents nutrient legacies
• Developing a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) framework to evaluate uncertainties in both biophysical and hydro-economic modelling of nutrient legacies, and assessing their implications for nutrient risk management
• Creating an agro-ecosystem typology – based on EU and Canadian exemplars– that links biophysical and socioeconomic drivers of non-point source pollution to water quality impacts
• Informing adaptive agro-environmental water management practices that target mitigation of water quality impacts of N and P legacies by assessing trade-offs between short and long-term costs, benefits and risks.

Read more

Legacies of Agricultural Pollutants, Reconciling Agriculture and Water Quality

IFRO Project coordinator

Søren Bøye Olsen

IFRO Project participants

• Anne Kejser Jensen
• Brian H. Jacobsen

Coordinator

Prof. Dr. Philippe Van Cappellen

Project Partners and Institution

• Jerker Jarsjö, Stockholm University
• Søren Bøye Olsen, University of Copenhagen
• Maria Cunha, University of Coimbra
• Nandita Basu, University of Waterloo

Financing source

The 2016 Joint Call was funded under WaterWorks2015, which was supported by the European Commission (EC). WaterWorks2015 aimed at tackling water challenges at European and international levels through the development of transnational and transdisciplinary research and innovation actions.

WATER JPI are intergovernmental initiatives aiming at strengthening European leadership and competitiveness in Research Development and Innovation, while at the same time harmonizing and mobilizing National and Regional RDI Programs. In Denmark the funding came from the Danish Innovation Fund.

• Total amount: DKK 12,2 million
• IFRO share: DKK 3,0 million

Further, MYFISH redefined the term 'sustainable' to signify that Good Environmental Status (MSFD) is achived and that economically and socially unacceptable situations are avoided, all with acceptable levels of risk.

In short, MYFISH integrated the MSY concept with the overarching principals of the CFP: the precautionary and the ecosystem approach. MYFISH achieved this objective through addressing fisheries in all RAC areas and integrating stakeholders (the fishing industry, NGOs and managers) throughout the project.

Funding

MYFISH received funding from the EU 7th Framework programme

The FP7 funding programme ran from 2007 to 2013.

Amount: DKK 1.3 mill.

IFRO project coordinator

Ayoe Hoff

The purpose of this project was to support the development of future organic, plant-based convenience products by examining where processing companies themselves see the greatest opportunities and challenges.

IFRO Coordinator

Mette Weinreich Hansen

About the project

Specific objectives were to raise internal competences, create new and further develop education strategies and courses, and disseminate through new networks and activities.

One component of the OBL Project, entitled ‘Raising competencies and the organizational infrastructure across UCPH’, was implemented by the Department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO) together with the Faculty of Theology, the SAXO Institute at the Faculty of Humanities and the SCIENCE IT Learning Centre.

This component aimed at expanding Faculty pedagogical and practical knowledge of the opportunities in increasing the use of online activities in current and upcoming courses at UCPH.

Here at IFRO, we ran a lecture series called “20 minute talks”, hosted hands-on walk-in workshops, invited teachers for individual or group talks about how face-to-face and online activities could complement each other for enhanced student learning, and generated informative pamphlets, amongst other activities.

You can learn more about the OBL project on the SCIENCE IT Learning Center websites.

IFRO project coordinator

Rebecca L. Rutt

The ultimate goal of the project was to provide Danish municipalities with better knowledge and tools for optimising the acceptance of catered meals for elderly in home-care to prevent under-nutrition. Thus preparing them to become more effective for the greater demand on “meals-on-wheels” in the near future.

Better food and practices to engage in eating of the elderly in home-care situations is expected to contribute to quality of life thus “life for years” not “years to life”. Understanding individual differences among elderly can further give inspiration to new actions within individualized health prevention and health promotion that will be more sustainable and economic achievable for Denmark.

IFRO coordinator

Jørgen Dejgård Jensen

Funding

Programme Commission on Health, Food and Welfare under the Danish Innovation Fund

IFRO budget

604.800 DKK

The development objective was to ensure secure and peaceful access to land for climate change adaptation and thereby the resilience of all Kenyan citizens.

Visit the project website here

IFRO coordinator

Iben Nathan

Funding

Danida Fellowship Centre: DKK 9,999,088

The Savanna Life project evolved from the AfricanBioServices project to develop a board game for teaching purposes, and stakeholder engagement in the cross-boundary Greater Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem in Tanzania and Kenya.

The game won first place in the Ecosystem Services in Practice Award at the 10th ESP World Conference.

Visit the project website here

IFRO coordinator

Martin Reinhardt Nielsen

Funding

• AfricanBioServices, funded through the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 641918.
• NTNU innovative education.
• NTNU sustainability.

About the board game

Savanna Life has developed a board game to facilitate discussion among stakeholders in natural resource management problems in the Greater Serengeti Mara Ecosystem (GSME). The GSME is world-famous for its annual wildebeest migration attracting safari tourists from all over the world and generating significant revenue of national economic importance in both countries.

However, the GSME is also characterized by a rapidly growing surrounding human and livestock populations and high levels of illegal grassing and bushmeat hunting inside the protected areas threatening to compromise conservation objective and revenue potentials.

With new efforts to enforce existing legislation relationships between rural communities and park staff and authorities are increasingly strained. Both rural communities, managers and policy-makers struggle to grasp the realities of the constraints and the objectives of actors at different levels.

The Savanna Life board game was therefore developed to create awareness about natural resource dilemmas and explore potential avenues of development for communities adjacent to the protected areas.

The game simulates real-life challenges enabling the players to experience the consequences of human population growth and other adverse environmental trends and to explore different alternative livelihood strategies safely as well as to discuss how to co-create a sustainable future.

The game has so far been played in 24 communities as well as with district staff and protected area managers in Tanzania and Kenya in 2018 and 2019.

Objectives

Despite the increasing use of board games in natural resource management, few studies have evaluated their outcome. Hence, aside from developing and testing the game, the objective of this project was to:

• Evaluate player preferences and performance through the game comparing stakeholders at different levels.
• Evaluate how insights gained through playing the game translates into changed preferences and stated real-life actions.

The project involved investigations of management planning practices and outcomes in Nepal’s community forests and in forests managed under Participatory Forest Management in Tanzania.

IFRO project coordinator

Jens Friis Lund

Financing source

Danida, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark

• Total amount: DKK 9.0 mill
• IFRO share: DKK 4.1 mill

Project participants

• Yonika Ngaga, Tanzania project coordinator, Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation (FFNC), Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Tanzania
• Gimbale Mbeyale, FFNC, SUA
• Santosh Rayamajhi, Nepal project coordinator, The Institute of Forestry (IOF), Tribhuvan University (TU)
• Bir Bahadur Khanal Chhetri, IOF, TU
• Ridish Pokharel, IOF, TU
• Michael Eilenberg, Department of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Thorsten Treue, Department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO), University of Copenhagen (KU), Denmark
• Christian Pilegaard Hansen, IFRO, KU
• Henrik Meilby, IFRO, KU
• Christian Lund, IFRO, KU

Our analysis included several currently practiced organic and conventional ways of cotton production as well as some innovative- potentially more sustainable - ways of cotton production.

Sustainability was assessed by several indicators, e.g. pesticide residues, soil fertility, greenhouse gas emissions, competitiveness, income and employment generation, and social conditions along the value chains. The empirical studies were conducted in Benin and Tanzania, representing West and East Africa, respectively.

Project Coordinator

Arne Henningsen, Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen

Participating institutions and researchers

Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen

• Arne Henningsen
• Christian Elleby.

Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen

• Marianne Nylandsted Larsen

Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University

• Jørgen Eivind Olesen
• Inge S. Fomsgaard
• Isik Öztürk.

Laboratory of Social Dynamics and Development Studies (LADYD), University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC)

• Roch L. Mongbo
• Anne Floquet.

Laboratory of Biomathematics and Forest estimations (LaBEF), Faculty of Agronomic Sciences, University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC)

• Romain Glele Kakaï
• Eclou Innocent Senade Benjamin (PhD student).

National High School of Agricultural Sciences and Technologies, University of Parakou

• Epiphane Sodjinou
• Ghislain Boris Aïhounton (PhD student).

National Institute of Agricultural Research in Benin (INRAB)

• Attanda Mouinou Igué.

Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA)

• Joseph Hella
• Michael Baha (PhD student).

Department of Soil Science, Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA)

• Nyambilila Amuri
• Thomas Bwana (PhD student).

Publications

• Aihounton, G.B.D. and Henningsen, A. (2021): Units of Measurement and the Inverse Hyperbolic Sine Transformation. The Econometrics Journal 24(2), p. 334–351. https://doi.org/10.1093/ectj/utaa032
• Bwana, T.N., Amuri, N.A., Semu, E., Elsgaard, L., Butterbach-Bahl, K., Pelster, D.E., Olesen, J.E. (2021): Soil N2O emission from organic and conventional cotton farming in Northern Tanzania. Science of The Total Environment 785, 147301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147301
• Bwana, Thomas N., Nyambilila A. Amuri, Ernest Semu, Jørgen E. Olesen, Arne Henningsen, Michael R. Baha, and Joseph Hella (2020): Yield and Profitability of Cotton Grown Under Smallholder Organic and Conventional Cotton Farming Systems in Meatu District, Tanzania. In: Singh, Bal Ram, Andy Safalaoh, Nyambilila A. Amuri, Lars Olav Eik, Bishal K. Sitaula, and Rattan Lal (editors), Climate Impacts on Agricultural and Natural Resource Sustainability in Africa, Springer, p. 175-200. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37537-9_10
• Aihounton, G.B.D., Henningsen, A., and Trifkovic, N.: Pesticide Handling and Human Health: Conventional and Organic Cotton Farming in Benin. IFRO working paper 2021/06. Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen. https://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:foi:wpaper:2021_06
• Olesen, R.S. (2018): Forandring ligger I vores natur – En feltreportage blandt bomuldsbønder i Tanzania, Geografisk Orientering, 3/2018: 1-9. http://geografforbundet.dk/geografisk-orientering/geografisk-orientering-32018/
• Bwana, T.N. (2019): Environmental Performance of Smallholder Organic and Conventional Cotton Production Systems in Meatu, Tanzania. PhD thesis, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania. https://www.suaire.sua.ac.tz/items/4a02523f-ce04-4a9b-b8fa-0eb0c5a80b89
• Thomsen, S.N. (2016): The impacts of organic standards on global value chain dynamics: a case study of the organic cotton value chain in Tanzania. MSc Thesis, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen.
• Henningsen, A. Aihounton, G.B.D.; Baha, M.R.;  Sodjinou, E.; Elleby, C.;  Hella, J.P.; Mlay, G.I.;  Trifkovic, N. (2021): Questionnaires for a Survey of Smallholder Cotton Farmers in Benin, available at Zenodo.org. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5008811
• Aihounton, G.B.D., and Henningsen, A: Does Organic Farming Jeopardize Food and Nutrition Security? IFRO working paper 2023/02. University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics. https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:foi:wpaper:2023_02

IFRO coordinator

Carsten Smith-Hall

Funding

TGG-N received funding from Danida.

• Amount total: DKK 9.0 mill
• IFRO share: DKK 3.8 mill

About the project

Trade has the potential to drive the transition to a green economy by promoting sustainable resource use, generating employment, and contributing to poverty alleviation. However, lack of empirically-based knowledge renders this transition difficult.

The project focused on:

1. Identifying, describing and quantifying production networks for MAPs traded in and from Nepal to India and China
2. Identifying points of intervention that enhances job creation, increase earnings, and promote sustainable resource use.

Data was generated through transnational production network actor interviews, from harvesters through traders to end consumers and regulatory bodies, and ecological inventories.

The project was developed and managed by the University of Copenhagen, the Federation of Community Forestry Users in Nepal, Tribhuvan University and the Agriculture and Forestry University in Nepal, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Outputs include international papers, policy briefs, strengthening Nepalese partners’ human and social capital, and sector-wide stakeholder participation.

Policy brief

“Environmental resource income is important for earthquake-hit rural households”

Africa has untapped potential for creating monetary value from origin products in the same way ham from Parma and other highly valuable EU agricultural origin food products registered with ‘protected’ Geographical Indications (GIs) add 15 billion Euros per annum to European agriculture.

In the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) context VALOR thus promoted wise use of market forces.

VALOR involved research capacity strengthening in 3 partner countries, Ghana, Kenya & Tanzania, pursuing its objectives via 5 work packages (WPs).

Project methodology included data collection and fieldwork, involving agencies in the public & private sector. Articles, conference papers, policy briefs, website & other VALOR outputs fed into an impact pathway including country roundtables & review mechanisms of the CAADP, helping Africa towards a green economy allowing geographical indications (GI´s) to add to the monetary economy and allowing smallholders create employment and build monetary value, stewarding pollination services, and so increasing qualities and volumes of the wider food economy.

IFRO contact person

Aske Skovmand Bosselmann

Funding

DANIDA

• Amount: DKK 10.0 mill
• IFRO share: DKK 3.7 mill