FACCE-JPI was adopted by the European Council in October 2010 and aims to address the challenge of providing sufficient high-quality food through sustainable agriculture in the context of climate change. The initiative involves 21 European countries and was established to enhance European research capacity in the light of the projected increase in the world's population to about nine billion people by 2050.

The FACCE-JPI Scientific Research Agenda defines core research themes to address these challenges and the 'Knowledge Hub' will be its first funded initiative. It is designed to help reduce the current uncertainties in climate change scenarios by enhancing the modelling of impacts of climate change on European agriculture and food security.

All participating research groups worked together to submit a single proposal for the funding and developed a joint research plan that includes three coordinated and integrated networks: Crops; Grasslands and livestock; Economics and Trade. In the UK 12 research groups are involved, of which eight are funded by BBSRC and four from the Scottish Government.

The Knowledge Hub was positively reviewed by an independent panel of outstanding scientists from the field and so will now receive funding to start this exciting initiative. The Knowledge Hub will start in June 2012 for three years, with the possibility to be extended a further two years. This is the first step in the process of aligning research programmes across the 21 countries that are participating in FACCE-JPI.