SCAR - Standing Committee on Agricultural Research

Rye field
Photo: BMLFUW / Alexander Haiden

SCAR plays a key role in the establishment of a European Research Area for agriculture and forestry as well as bioeconomy. SCAR member organisations advocate cooperation, coordination and information exchange between the Member States.

SCAR Foresight

Since 2005, SCAR has initiated five foresight processes to work out solutions for the multitude of complex and interrelated challenges in agriculture and the wider field of bioeconomy.

SCAR's foresight activities develop possible future scenarios for European agriculture to serve as a basis for medium- and long-term priority definitions in research activities. Conclusions and recommendations from these foresight processes are used by the European Commission and also by the Member States to plan research activities and for coordination purposes.

As it is represented in SCAR and the following SCAR working groups, Austria plays a valuable supporting role in determining research objectives of European agriculture and forestry as well as bioeconomy.

SCAR governance bodies

  • SCAR Plenary
  • SCAR Steering Group

Besides these two governance bodies, the Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism is likewise represented in strategic working groups (SWG Bioeconomy, SWG Food Systems, SWG AKIS, SWG Forests) and collaborative working groups (CWG AHW, CWG SAP).