Diverse consequences relating to inevitable climate changes including changed weather patterns and invasive species, globalization and the urgent need for the development of sustainable food production systems present enormous challenges for the agricultural sector. The need for sustainable, however, also sufficiently high agricultural production is primarily a scientific challenge because of insufficient knowledge of processes related to changing conditions and competing economic and environmental goals. The specific situation in Slovenia, characterized by overall small enterprises consisting of small fields or orchards in mainly hilly areas require the development of novel concepts for resisting global changes.CropSustaIn aims at significantly improving scientific research for the development of sustainable crop production and environmentally friendly plant protection strategies in Slovenia at changing climatic conditions. A key objective of the project is the creation of a new network integrating the Agricultural institute of Slovenia (KIS), through the collaboration of national and international research institutions, agricultural holdings and companies.Newly established links of KIS with leading European agricultural research institutions will provide access to foreign knowledge flanked with technological modernizations through CropSustaIn. The project therefore allows integration of Slovenia into the European Research Area.Implementation of CropSustaIn will be beneficial for the scientific and applied community in Slovenia dealing with plant health and also other European countries can profit from it. CropSustaIn enforces close collaboration between researchers at KIS and the industry and allows optimized result exploitations. Once the network is established it will allow the dissemination of innovations and renewed collaborations between any partners also beyond the project’s life time.