Founded in 2024, the Network for Evidence Synthesis in the Agri-food Sector (EU NESA) is building an international, Europe-based network dedicated to supporting and promoting the use of evidence syntheses to inform decision-making across agri-food systems.
Background and Objectives
As the global population grows, meeting the escalating demand for food production necessitates increasing productivity and efficiency through sustainable intensification. To achieve this aim, decision-making in the agri-food sector must be guided by the best available evidence.
Evidence synthesis methods compile and evaluate existing research to support robust, efficient, and transparent decision-making. The value of evidence syntheses has been proven in other sectors such as medicine, where they have been used to inform a wide range of decision-making processes. Despite their growing use in the agri-food sector, the community remains fragmented, limiting their overall efficacy and uptake.
The EU-NESA network brings a diverse community together to address these issues through the following key objectives: 1. raise awareness among decision-makers and academia about the value of evidence synthesis 2. enhance the European capacity for delivery of robust evidence syntheses 3. to facilitate the use of evidence syntheses to support informed decision-making
Scientific Program
The scientific programme of EU-NESA is organised into five interdisciplinary Working Groups, each tasked with addressing a specific component of the Action’s research agenda, over the four-year duration of the project.
Working Group 1
Assessing the current state of evidence synthesis in agri-food
Working Group 2
Improving competencies in evidence synthesis
Working Group 3
Developing / identifying new methods of evidence synthesis
Working Group 4
Capacity building with decision and policy makers
Working Group 5
Community building, dissemination & communication