Better Rural Innovation: Linking Actors, Instruments and Policies through Networks

Project Information

LIAISON

Grant agreement ID: 773418

DOI

10.3030/773418

Project closed

EC signature date 4 May 2018

Start date 1 May 2018

End date 30 April 2022

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Total cost

€ 4 999 143,75

EU contribution

€ 4 999 143,75

Coordinated by

HOCHSCHULE FUR NACHHALTIGE ENTWICKLUNG EBERSWALDE
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - LIAISON (Better Rural Innovation: Linking Actors, Instruments and Policies through Networks)

Reporting period: 2020-11-01 to 2022-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Innovation in rural areas can play an important role in stimulating green and socially-inclusive economic growth, mitigating geographic isolation and avoiding economic and social marginalisation. It can contribute to ensuring long-term food and nutrition security, bolstering environmental care and climate action and strengthening the socio-economic fabric of rural areas.

The EIP-AGRI was a new concept to agricultural research and innovation in Europe introduced in the EU funding period 2013-2020. The underlying Interactive Innovation Approach aimed to speed-up rural innovation. This idea of cooperation for innovation (co-innovation) will also be applied in the future: Funded multi-actor projects bring together innovation actors (farmers, advisors, researchers, businesses, NGOs, etc.) to find solutions for specific problems or to develop new and concrete opportunities.

The overall project goal of LIAISON was to make a contribution to optimising project-based co-innovation by addressing three main challenges:
(a) how can the 'Interactive Innovation Approach' be optimised through the improved operation of current instruments;
(b) how can the high-level EU policies behind these specific policy instruments be adjusted to facilitate the necessary changes; and
(c) how to align the wider variety of existing EU and national policies / initiatives that may potentially contribute to innovation in agriculture and forestry.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The outputs planned of LIAISON have been completed as foreseen. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, some adjustments to the methodology of the field work were necessary and minor deviations from the work schedule were seen. As part of the development of an enriched conceptual framework, the team has undertaken a critical review of innovation approaches, investigated the innovation fostering role of different actors and governance bodies, and conducted an analysis of concrete mechanisms in support of innovation. Based on these and the lessons learnt from the field work, a Common Framework for Capacity Building for Facilitating Co-innovation was developed.

The team focusing on the communication and collaboration processes within LIAISON was working towards two main objectives. One was internal and focused on the functioning of the project, and the other was external and focused on the capitalization of the LIAISON multi-actor experience for other projects. The results were a substantial increase in competencies and skills of actors involved, and the Guide for methods and tools for faciliating co-innovation processes, translated in the major EU languages.

In 2019, the ‘European Rural Innovation Contest' (EURIC) called for ‘under the radar’ innovation partnerships from across Europe. The online 'Story Map' on the LIAISON website shows the entries. The EURIC concluded with the official nomination of 15 Rural Innovation Ambassadors at an award ceremony held in Brussels. The Ambassador videos are excellent examples for co-innovation practiced by initiatives from across Europe, and were used as intros for several occasions (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6EKMM7Gh4wkhfA98RK9AMg).

The first step of the LIAISON field work was the light-touch review of 200 innovation partnerships. The second step was the data collection and analysis of the in-depth case studies. A catalogue of 32 Case study portraits presents the collected data (https://liaison2020.eu/our-network/case-studies/). Moreover, 35 Practice Abstracts summarising lessons learnt are available on the EIP-AGRI platform: https://ec.europa.eu/eip/agriculture/en/find-connect/projects/better-rural-innovation-linking-actors-instruments. The results of the field work are available through the project's deliverables, several scientific papers, the Guides for co-innovation practitioners, LIAISON's and partners' homepages and newsletters.

One group of LIAISON partners was dedicated to addressing the question of “better quantitative and qualitative measurement”. The group and stakeholders from other EU or national projects co-designed tools for effectively evaluating/assessing both the impact of the multi-actor project as well as the cooperativeness within the co-innovation partnership. These co-design and testing processes resulted in the preparation of 37 ready-for use tools with a Guide that helps users to find the best suitable tool(s) for their particular needs.

The integration of all findings was connected with the analysis of cross-cutting issues of the macro-regional context and the gender dimension. The identification of the main target groups, their challenges and needs linked the analytical work with the development of target-group specific output. Two sets of stakeholder workshops were held in the four LIAISON macro-regions: Danube-Balkan, Mediterranean, Atlantic/North Sea, Nordic-Baltic. LIAISON partners contributed regularily to networks such as the SCAR AKIS Group, Thematic Network projects and other EIP-AGRI-related events.

The dissemination and exploitation of results played a key role in underpinning the lasting impact of the project. The team focused in particular on the editing, translation and design in order to deliver user-friendly material. The LIAISON homepage with ToolBox (https://liaison2020.eu/your-material/) and the Zenodo community liaisonh2020 present all LIAISON output mentioned above.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Progress beyond the state of the art has occurred in several ways. LIAISON's multi-actor consortium has developed a common understanding of key terms and concepts related to interactive innovation that built the foundation for the conceptual and analytical framework as well as the resulting Common Framework for levelling up the EIP-AGRI. This work built on international frameworks from FAO, OECD, UNIDO and World Bank. In particular through the research and cooperation with FAO, LIAISON teams were able to expand upon the EIP-AGRI focused approaches.

Moreover, the initial work defining the four 'pathways of innovation' and their incorporation into the typology of projects and initiatives under investigation ensured the project to move beyond state of the art. Through the 'light-touch' review of 200 interactive innovation project approaches and the European Rural Innovation Contest, LIAISON demonstrated that co-creation for innovation can occur in a wide variety of situations.

Speeding up innovation in farming, forestry and the agri-food sector in Europe requires a supportive environment for innovation as LIAISON’s results show. The analyses studied the diversity across the EU in its ability to facilitate co-creation for innovation. The findings were distilled to formulate best practices of co-creation for innovation and associated support mechanisms. The output was disseminated according to the needs of various target groups: 7 practice Guides, various conferences and other outreach activities including the development of Policy Briefs together with the SCAR AKIS Group lasting far beyond the official end of the project.

If co-creation can increase the speed of development and uptake of innovation, it will not only contribute to the economic and environmental sustainability of rural areas, but also to their social and cultural sustainability. The engagement and support of co-creators will result in their empowerment. With an increased incentive to remain in agriculture, they will help their communities thrive.

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