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aWISH Stakeholder Workshop Series

On 7 February 2025, the first aWISH Stakeholder Workshop brought together 35 participants from across the farm-to-fork value chain.

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Value Chain Actors’ Needs, Perceptions, and Constraints

Organised by White Research, this event provided a collaborative platform for stakeholders—including farmers, policymakers, researchers, industry professionals, and NGOs—to discuss the barriers, perceptions, and opportunities related to adopting welfare-friendly animal production practices. This workshop was the first in a series of stakeholder discussions designed to bridge the gap between research and real-world implementation. Through a highly interactive session, participants engaged in validating research findings, debating key issues, and proposing practical solutions for advancing animal welfare (AW) standards.

Setting the stage

To ensure that discussions were grounded in real-world insights, the workshop was structured around key research findings from the aWISH project’s ongoing work. Under Task 5.4, White Research, with the support of task partners, conducted 50 in-depth interviews with actors across the farm-to-fork value chain, engaging both those before and after the slaughterhouse stage. These discussions shed light on motivators, barriers, and priorities influencing AW adoption. Alongside the stakeholder interviews, White Research also conducted a large-scale EU-wide consumer survey designed to assess attitudes, behaviours, and willingness to support AW-friendly meat products. The survey was launched in April 2024, gathering 5,000 valid responses, and revealed valuable trends in ethical consumption and the economic realities that influence consumer choices.

Key Findings from the Workshop

The interactive discussions throughout the workshop provided valuable insights into the complex factors influencing AW adoption and helped validate the findings from the stakeholder interviews and EU-wide consumer survey. The discussion revolved around important topics, including:

  • Key factors affecting the adoption of welfare-friendly approaches.
  • Consumer willingness to pay a premium price for meat produced with higher animal welfare standards.
  • The role of certification schemes in the uptake of animal-welfare friendly product.
  • Key recommendations to improve animal living conditions throughout the entire supply chain.
  • Challenges in implementing consistent and effective monitoring systems

The workshop discussions highlighted several key barriers to adopting AW-friendly practices, with cost emerging as the primary challenge. Farmers face financial constraints that discourage investment in welfare improvements unless supported by subsidies or market incentives. Regulatory inconsistencies across EU countries add complexity, making compliance difficult for businesses operating across borders. Additionally, consumer awareness gaps and misconceptions about AW certifications contribute to scepticism and limit demand for certified products. While 65.9% of consumers expressed willingness to pay a premium for higher-welfare meat, economic constraints still influence purchasing decisions. Stakeholders emphasized the need for standardized EU-wide AW certifications, clearer labelling, and stronger auditing measures to enhance credibility and encourage adoption.

Efforts to improve AW across the supply chain focused on key recommendations, including reducing high-density farming pressures, enhancing transport regulations, and reforming slaughterhouse practices to minimize stress and suffering. Strengthening EU-wide enforcement mechanisms was seen as essential for long-term progress. However, implementing effective monitoring systems remains a challenge due to high costs, regulatory inconsistencies, and data privacy concerns. Trust in monitoring frameworks varies across sectors, making harmonization difficult. To address these issues, participants proposed EU-wide monitoring systems, financial incentives, and investment in advanced technologies.

Looking Ahead

The workshop played a key role in confirming and validating the results of T5.4 through expert input. The insights shared reinforced the robustness of the findings and provided valuable perspectives for their practical application. This validation strengthens the project’s approach, ensuring that the outcomes of T5.4 effectively support improvements in AW standards across Europe. The event also marked the launch of a series of stakeholder workshops, with the next session already scheduled for 4 March 2025. Titled ‘Detection and Remediation through Sensor Technology,’ the workshop will be hosted by the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Innotech, and the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

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1. aWISH Introduction

We would like to invite you to participate in the aWISH Expert Panel, as we believe that your experience and knowledge will contribute greatly to a key consultation body of the project. aWISH is a 4-year project funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation programme. Before you decide to participate in the aWISH Expert Panel, please take the time to read this document carefully to understand what your involvement will be in our project’s activity. If there is anything you do not understand, please feel free to ask questions.

1.1 What is the aWISH project about?

In the EU, a challenge that still remains is to reconcile the social and moral demand for a high level of animal welfare with other pillars of sustainable livestock production. Indeed, 82% of Europeans believe that farm animals should be better protected than they currently are. A broad definition of animal welfare refers to the feelings and physical well-being of an individual animal. Broilers and pigs are the farm animals EU citizens care most about, and they are also the most important meat-producing animals in the EU and worldwide. Both pigs and broilers have significant welfare problems at all stages of production (on-farm, loading and transport, unloading and slaughter), leading a growing number of citizens to question the social license to produce. Ambitious and effective, but also practical and efficient solutions are needed. This is where the aWISH project comes in to fill this gap! The aim of aWISH is to develop and provide a cost-effective solution for assessing and improving the welfare of meat-producing livestock in Europe. The aWISH solution is based on the automatic monitoring of animal-related indicators at slaughter. The necessary technologies will also be developed to collect complementary data on farm or during transport. Pilot and development activities will be carried out in 6 broiler and fattening pig production chains across Europe using a lean multi-actor approach to test and validate the project results. A catalogue of animal welfare indicators will disseminate all validated indicators and standardised data collection methods. Best practice guides will be developed to improve key aspects of animal welfare in pigs and broilers and to help external stakeholders use aWISH technologies and tools. In this context, the aWISH project will set up expert panels that will be composed of representatives of actors from the entire farm to fork value chain across the EU. The expert panels will have the function to retrieve and share feedback on technology, processes, farming practices, industry, sector regulation and markets, as well as society and perceptions. In this way, stakeholder participation in expert panels could help initiate interdisciplinary dialogue, promote interaction with target groups and associations, and strengthen trust between different actors.

2. Useful Information

2.1 Is my participation voluntary and what does it involve?

Your participation in the aWISH project is entirely voluntary. If you decide to participate in an aWISH activity, we will ask you to sign an Informed Consent Form to collect and process your data. The project will last 48 months, but you will only participate for as long as you wish.

2.2 Purpose of personal data collection

As mentioned above, the expert panel will have the function to retrieve and share feedback on technology, processes, farming practices, industry, sector regulation and markets, as well as society and perceptions. In order to do this effectively, we need to process some of your personal data:
  • Your contact information
  • Demographic information (age, gender, country of origin)
  • Professional information (where do you work, what position do you hold, what is your area of expertise)
  • Personal opinions on the subject

2.3 What we will do with your data

The information you provide is confidential. Your consent form will be kept separate from the observations collected during the course of the project activity. We will share your data with other aWISH project partners involved in the data analysis and reporting process. Once the data is analysed, a report of the findings may be submitted for publication. The project's deliverables that will be derived by this activity will not include your personal data or any other information that could identify you. The results of this project activity may also be shared with representatives of the European Union (e.g. the Project Officer evaluating the project's or the reviewing EU agencies). Only broad trends will be reported and it will not be possible to identify any individuals.

3. Access, deletion of information or withdrawal of consent

Under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have the right to request to: (i) provide you with a copy of your data; (ii) correct your data if you believe they are inaccurate; (iii) erase your data; (iv) restrict or stop processing your data; or (v) provide your data in an appropriate format and transfer them to another organisation. In addition, you may withdraw your consent and therefore your participation at any time without consequence. Anonymous data already collected will be used as we cannot trace the information back to you. No further data will be collected or other procedures carried out in relation to your information. If you wish to have the personal data we hold checked, amended, corrected or deleted, or if you wish to withdraw your consent, you can contact the responsible partner listed below.

4. Contact Information

Partner name: WHITE RESEARCH SRL
e-mail: akyriakidis@white-research.eu

5. Informed Consent Form

I confirm that I understand that by ticking each box below I am consenting to this element of the study. I understand that it will be assumed that unticked boxes mean that I DO NOT consent to that part of the study. I also understand that by not giving consent for any of the elements, I may be deemed ineligible for participating in this project’s activity.
 

6. Declaration of Acceptance

I, the undersigned
acknowledge that I have read and agree to be bound by the aWISH Expert Panel Terms of Reference. I agree to participate in the aWISH Expert Panel in my individual capacity and, as such, may not assign or be substituted for any other person to perform the work without prior written agreement with the aWISH Expert Panel Consortium. I agree not to disclose any information given in the course of the Expert Panel’s work unless the aWISH Consortium agrees to releases me from this obligation, and to respects the confidentiality requirements. I declare that I fully and unconditionally accept my appointment as an aWISH Expert Panel member as described in the Terms of Reference. I agree that any contribution I make as an aWISH Expert Panel member may be used by the aWISH consortium for reporting purposes or to align project activities to the needs of relevant stakeholders. I consent to the processing of my personal data necessary for my participation in the aWISH Expert Panel.

Welcome to the awISH Project website

Before we dig in we would like to know a little more about you. Group that describes you the best is: