The CARINA Project is reshaping European and Mediterranean agriculture by pioneering sustainable, diversified farming systems through its Lighthouse Model. These Lighthouses serve as regional innovation hubs where science meets practice – connecting farmers, researchers, and local stakeholders to co-develop, test, and validate innovative cropping systems centered around two promising oilseed crops: camelina and carinata.
At each Lighthouse site, real-life experimentation is underway to optimize sustainable farming practices that improve soil health, boost biodiversity, and build climate resilience. These sites are more than demonstration fields – they are collaborative centers of knowledge exchange, where best practices are documented and shared across the CARINA community and beyond.
The Lighthouses play a key role in ensuring CARINA’s solutions are practical, replicable, and scalable. By placing farmers at the center of innovation, the model strengthens both local economies and the bioeconomy value chains across Europe and the Mediterranean.
As the project evolves, the Lighthouse network will continue to expand its impact – supporting the transition toward a climate-smart and resource-efficient agriculture.
From the very beginning of the project, CARINA partners have been actively engaging regional stakeholders through participatory workshops and field demonstrations. Together with farmers and agricultural advisors, they have co-designed innovative cropping systems based on camelina and carinata, tailored to the specific challenges of local reference systems and regional pedoclimatic conditions.
To explore the full potential of these crops, partners have tested a wide range of land-use strategies, including double cropping, intercropping, and the use of marginal or underutilised land.
Between 2023 and March 2025, partners implemented 73 lighthouses across Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Poland, Serbia, Spain, and Tunisia. In total, 1,059 stakeholders participated in this collaborative and hands-on approach.
This work will continue throughout the project’s duration, helping to validate key success factors and identify new solutions for the remaining challenges – ultimately supporting the large-scale adoption of climate-resilient, sustainable cropping systems.
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Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
