Maybe Core Organics could answer this question and be relevant as EU funded research project.

http://www.coreorganic.org/

I'm affilliated with CAWR - Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience - who have an outspoken focus on food sovereignty and participatory research. Worth checking out. At Coventry University, UK. Good luck.

Apart from Berkeley and Coventry, the Organic Agricultural Science Faculty at the University Kassel/Witzenhausen (Germany) springs to mind.

https://www.uni-kassel.de/fb11agrar/en/faculty.html

They also run an English language MSc Programme in Sustainable International Agriculture in conjunction with the nearby University of Göttingen (AgSc Faculty). http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/96913.html

Also check out FiBL, the Swiss/Austrian/German Research Institute of Organic Agriculture http://www.fibl.org/en/themes.html

 In Sweden there is not "a hotspot" but a hot growing network of researchers, practitioners and officials engaged in agroecology including agroforestry and permaculture. You would find researchers at Örebro University, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Stockholm University, Inspire Action & Research, in Gothenburg and more places. Interesting is the MSc in agroecology given at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences with connections to Mekelle University in Ethiopia and Uganda Martyrs University.

Surprisingly the United States has a number of University research centres that focus on Agroecology. See the book 'Sustainable Agroecosystem Management' by P.J. Bohlen and Gar House , 2009, CRC Press . it has a select group of contributors including Miguel Altieri , Kirschenman, Ikerd, Pimental, Stinner etc. Spain is also doing some terrific work on traditional agroecological systems (e.g. olive production)compared to industrialised systems - results are very telling.

I´m part of these two organisations that work on agroecology from a transdisciplinary and multi-actor perspective:

- Latin American Scientific Society of Agroecology (SOCLA, according to its name in Spanish), www.socla.co, whose honorific president is Miguel Altieri. Soon there will be branches of SOCLA in Europe and the USA, and the English version of its website. SOCLA emphasises on collaborative research on technical aspects of agroecological production, agroecology-based peasant agriculture, climate resilient agriculture, economic aspects from ecological economics, ecological restoration through agroecology, food and energy sovereignty, and related issues.

- AGRUCO, from the Faculty of Agricultural, Livestock and Forestry Sciences, University Mayor de San Simón, in Bolivia. AGRUCO is quite known in the Latin American region for its work on agroecology, endogenous development, traditional knowledge, food sovereignty and related policies. Unfortunately, its website is on Spanish, only www.agruco.org 

Hope this is useful,

You may be also interested on seeing the work of:

- Ivette Perfecto and John Vandermeer from the University of Michigan. They do biodiversity and ecological research with agroecological focus.

- Stephen Gleissman, from the University of California - Santa Cruz. 

- Center for Research on Sustainable Livestock Systems (CIPAV, according to its name in Spanish), from Colombia www.cipav.co (only Spanish). Although it is not an academic institutions, they do and publish research on agroforestry, silvopastoral systems, and ecological restoration through agroecology.

Best wishes,

International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague is no doubt a center for food sovereignty research in the social science side of things. Jun Borras heads up many projects there (Initiatives in Critical Agrarian Studies; Land Deal Politics Initiative; BICAS; etc) that are sources for much of the recent scholarship on food sovereignty and global agrarian movements. ISS was also co-organizer with Yale's Agrarian Studies program of the "Food Sovereignty: A Critical Dialog" colloquia. Lots of scholar-activists/activist-scholars.

I also know a fair number of folks at UC Berkeley who are more on the agroecology and hard sciences side. Lots coming together through the Diversified Farming Systems group and listserve, and the new Berkeley Food Institute. Lots of participatory projects working with farmers.

I'd love to see your list! And let me know if you would want any contacts at the above...

Thanks, everyone, for your comments. This is very useful!

There is nothing on my list that doesn't appear here. Though I will emphasize the awesomeness of what's happening at the Centre for Agroecology, Water, and Resilience at Coventry University in the UK!

I am associated with the University of WI -Madison's Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems. We've been engaged in participatory research on sustainable ag and food systems for 26 years. Last year we hosted a group of French researchers to discuss agroecology and develop trans-Atlantic research partnerships. I am involved with a transnational research group on sustainable food supply chains, including South Africa, China, Switzerland, Britan. We added a graduate degree in agroecology about 15 years ago and have a very active undergrad group maintaining a student garden, Slow Food chapter, etc. active since 1979. We participate in the USDA working group on Agriculture of the Middle. www.cias.wisc.edu

Hi Rafter, you can check also ISOFAR (The International Society of Organic Agriculture Research). There is a working group on the topic you are interested in.

Good luck

Hi Rafter, you can check also ISOFAR (The International Society of Organic Agriculture Research). There is a working group on the topic you are interested in.

Good luck

http://www.isofar.org/isofar/

You can check institut.inra.fr 

Check out also V. Ernesto Méndez  at the University of Vermont.

https://www.uvm.edu/agroecology/about-us/

Peter Rosset at El Colegio de Frontera Sur - San Cristobal, Mexico

https://www.ecosur.mx/departamento/dasa/

Pablo Tittonel at: Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

http://www.gfar.net/organizations/instituto-nacional-de-tecnolog-agropecuaria-inta-argentina

Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands.

https://www.wur.nl/en/Education-Programmes/master/MSc-programmes/Msc-Agroecology-European-Master.htm

If you are still at it, check out the research group on massification of agroecology at Ecosur, Chiapas, Mexico. Cheers!

https://www.ecosur.mx/masificacion-agroecologia/

In my institution, the most critical problem is the limited access to material resources to replenish the infrastructure of the laboratories that are already somewhat worn out and that is why some investigations are slowed down and others neither the researchers nor the students can think about them.

It would not be honest to blame my institution for these shortcomings, but rather the government of the United States of America, which has imposed an economic and financial blockade on my country for more than 64 years. To give you an idea, this blockade does not allow my country to access international credits and during the past Republican mandate in the United States, 143 additional measures were imposed against the economic performance of the Cuba.

As if that were not enough, the communicational supremacy of the United States means that the truths of Cuba are silenced on the Internet, Cuban academics cannot publish in many specialized magazines in the world for the simple fact of residing in Cuba.

There are friends who, in their naivete and lack of political culture, say that there is no such blockade, that what there is is a bilateral problem between two countries, so I ask those friends if they know that the United Nations Organization in its General Assembly, approves a Resolution Condemning this criminal blockade for 28 years.

If the blockade does not exist, why is it condemned by 184 countries in the United Nations General Assembly?

If my country had access to credits to finance its development, then my institution would have support to finance better research in food production, and in this way be able to guarantee better contributions to food sovereignty, but the most powerful power in the world is determined to drown to my country because of the famine, in this attempt it takes 64 years.

These are the critical points that make research on agroecology and food sovereignty difficult from the institutional point of view.

Greetings

Reinaldo

My PhD (2019)from the University of Western Australia concerned the ecology and history of food production systems in Australia from prehistory to present.

My Thesis has been published as a book by Australia's pre-eminent research organisation CSIRO y it's Publishing department.

Nicole Y Chalmer (2021) 'Ecoagriculture for a Sustainable Food Future'. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, Australia. Available from CSIRO Publishing or online booksellers, including Amazon.

You may find this of use for your questions.

Good luck,

Dr Nicole Y Chalmer