In times of increasing pressure on the use and management of natural resources and high political and societal ambitions with respect to sustainable ways of food production, the EU Member States (MS) have defined visionary goals (e.g. European Green Deal) to protect the climate and sustain a healthy way of life. In this context, the timely access and ability to integrate rapidly evolving information, (scientific) knowledge, innovation and technological developments across all actors who participate in agricultural value chains is key to a successful transition towards the European vision by 2030 (EU SCAR 2019). This concern is manifest in the CAP 2021-2027 policy design that stipulates the importance of effective Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS).
It is the vision of the modernAKIS project, modernization of Agriculture through more efficient and effective Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS), that the AKIS approach will become an indispensable and effective tool for all actors in the EU MS' agri-food systems to develop sustainable, climate change proof and multifunctional forms of agriculture and resource use. Embracing the AKIS approach will contribute to removing institutional barriers to the necessary transformations and overcome inequalities and blockades in politics and society. Thus, the project's main objective is to improve AKIS actors’ capacities to leverage individual, organizational and systemic resources needed for the transformation towards more coherent, effective, and efficient AKIS systems and the transition to a more sustainable management and use of natural resources in farming and forestry.
To this end, modernAKIS has set-up and is growing a European network of key AKIS actors, including AKIS coordination bodies, from all EU MS. The project continuously builds capacities of AKIS coordination bodies and key AKIS actors towards systems understanding and engagement, enabling them to enact long-term system changes that will improve the AKIS. Capacity building will also address how to use a coherent, effective and context-aware approach accompanied by reflexive exercises, advice and coaching, to monitor, measure and improve the organization and functioning of MSs AKIS and to enhance interaction between AKIS actors. A co-designed benchmarking tool for comparing various types of AKIS as well as reference indicators enables MS to assess and monitor their AKIS, identify innovative governance solutions and suitable interventions for their individual situation. Targeting AKIS CBs, modernAKIS provides a support forum to identify change management issues arising around AKIS systems, including success factors and multi-faceted barriers, and enable them to find adequate governance solutions to improve knowledge and innovation sharing. Considering the diversity of AKIS, modernAKIS collects and facilitates exchange on practice-oriented knowledge on how advisors and innovation support can be integrated into the AKIS and how researchers can be incentivized to deliver practice-ready research and knowledge.
In synergy with the European network, each Member State will build capacities of key AKIS actors and operate at least one national/regional/local AKIS Community of Practice in each Member State. This is another link for all key AKIS actors to facilitate the update of knowledge and innovation through dynamic peer-to-peer learning experiences and enabling thus participants to act as vectors of change in their communities.
modernAKIS provides a comprehensive digital catalogue with new know-how, and at least 80 tools and methods supporting key AKIS actors to improve the knowledge flows and develop a well-functioning AKIS in line with relevant policy objectives, e.g. the Green Deal, Farm2Fork, Sustainable Development Goals. The project will deliver 100 practice abstracts to EIP-AGRI, to Member States AKIS and as digital documentation to the EU-wide interactive knowledge reservoir.
