The European Commission has identified a distressing shortage of new farmers, based on an assessment of statistical figures showing that the number of young farmers in the EU27 is declining and older farmers are not passing on their farms to the new generation at a sufficient replacement rate.
The Newbie Network was designed to address the challenge of enabling new entrants to successfully establish sustainable farm businesses in Europe. The Newbie network facilitated the development and dissemination of new business models, including new entry models, to the full range of new entrants.
The primary objective of the Newbie network is to increase innovation, entrepreneurship, and resilience in the European farming sector by enabling new entrants to successfully establish sustainable farm businesses in Europe.
Specific objectives of the Newbie project are:
• To collect, critically review and publicize existing and potential new farm business models and new entry models and associated communication channels across a broad range of international contexts.
• To increase the flow of practical, educational and scientific information on new business models and new entry models between and within the geographical areas in Europe.
• To produce and disseminate practice-based, educational and scientific information on business models and entry models in an easily accessible form, for new entrants through traditional and non-traditional agricultural knowledge systems making this information available long-term.
• To increase awareness and user acceptance throughout the agri-food industry and in rural businesses of the available new business and entry models, through establishment of stakeholder-led steering and discussion groups and development of practical ‘toolkits’ for new business model establishment.
• To foster creative experimentation within practice, education and research on new entrant business models, through training and/or study visits, and promotion of innovative business models, thus leading to increased economic, environmental and social gains from these enterprises.
• To provide support for the implementation of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) 'Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability', through interaction with Operational Groups, and in particular through the delivery of a substantial number of “practice abstracts” in the common format of the EIP-AGRI, including a library of new entrant visual ‘stories’ illustrating successful new entrant business models.
• To provide input for research agendas and policy on new business models and new entry models for new entrants, including the identification of current barriers to the up-take of innovative new models (both within farming and associated support systems), helping to develop more resilient European agriculture and rural areas, as well as strong interactions between rural-(peri-) urban areas.
