How can universities in Widening countries transform strong agricultural and food science into globally competitive, open, and industry-ready bioeconomy innovation?
We are proud to announce that REACtOE (Reforms and Empowerment for Agri-food Competitiveness and Open Excellence) has been selected for funding with a full evaluation score under the highly competitive Horizon Europe WIDERA European Excellence Initiative (EEI) call (approximate success rate: 5.6%), ranking 2nd across Europe.
An Alliance Built for Systemic Institutional Change
Coordinated by Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Türkiye, under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Mecit Halil Öztop and Project Manager Dr. Ayşe Sultan Akgün, REACtOE unites 6 Widening Higher Education Institutions (METU, TFNS, UCP, UM, HUA, and VILNIUS TECH), 3 mentoring universities (DkIT, VUB, and University of Chester), and 6 non-academic innovation actors (ODTÜ Teknokent, E-Co, Science for Change, EUSEA, Kveloce, and CINK).
Five Pillars, Six Regional Living Labs
Starting on 1 January 2027, REACtOE will implement CoARA-aligned research assessment reforms, upgrade research management (RMA) workflows, train ≥250 staff through five annual Training Schools and over 70 cross-border secondments, and validate FAIR digital and AI tools across six regional TRL 3–5 Agri-Food Living Lab pilots.
Explore the REACtOE Architecture
Learn more about our five strategic pillars, 15 consortium partners, and six regional Living Lab pilot case studies.
Explore Project Overview →