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(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)).
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/(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)). 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(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie). 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/(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)) and the Zenodo community liaisonh2020 present all LIAISON output mentioned above.
