The project proposal AgriSpin (Space for Innovations in Agriculture) of the consortium led by the Danes, to which I have contributed, has been honoured. We got a whopping 13.5 of the 15 points that could be assigned at maximum by the reviewers. This means for me 2 ½ years of fascinating work in Europe.
We will start in March 2015. ' We' are 15 partner organisations
The project proposal AgriSpin (Space for Innovations in Agriculture) of the consortium led by the Danes, to which I have contributed, has been honoured. We got a whopping 13.5 of the 15 points that could be assigned at maximum by the reviewers. This means for me 2 ½ years of fascinating work in Europe.
We will start in March 2015. ' We' are 15 partner organisations in 12 European countries, including 4 academic institutes. The aim is to learn from and with each other about support structures for innovating agricultural entrepreneurs. Therefore we will visit each other in mixed teams, to understand what is going on in the systems of the partners, where they are proud of, and what they encounter. That is the starting point to inspire each other and learn together. Eventually we hope that a professional network of intermediaries in agriculture will emerge, that is interesting enough for other organizations to there to hook up. With the academic partners we work on a methodology for the ' cross-visits ' to get the most out of it.
The partner organizations are:
SEGES (agricultural knowledge centre), Denmark (lead partner)
ZLTO (farmers organization), Netherlands (formally I am now ' in house consultant ')
Hohenheim University, Germany
CIRAD, (Scientific Institute), France
Region of Tuscany, Italy
Innovatiesteunpunt Boerenbond (Flanders), Belgium
VLK (United farmers' organisations), Germany
University of Athens, Greece
Teagasc (intermediate), Ireland
ACTA (Scientific Institute and intermediate), France
IFOAM EU Group (Organization for organic farming), EU wide
ProAgria (intermediate Etelä-Pohjanmaa region), Finland
HAZI (farmers' organization, Basque Country), Spain
ADEPT (intermediate, Transylvania), Romania
LLKC (knowledge centre, intermediate), Latvia
My first task is to retrieve stories in all partners as to what they find interesting innovations. With these we make a first book as a starting point for our joint journey. It will be interesting at the end of the project period to see what has changed. Have views changed? Did new insights arise? And have practices and structures changed as well? This will be part two of the story.