In the first year, EUREKA analysed more than 100 Horizon 2020 multi-actor projects (MAPs) to identify best practices, or ‘do’s and don’ts,’ when working as multi-actor teams to co-create and share knowledge. The implementation of the ‘multi-actor approach’ and communication and dissemination in these projects were specific areas of interest. A second major goal was to gain a better understanding of information needs, preferred communication and search channels, and common challenges of the main target users of an EU-level online knowledge platform for agriculture and forestry called the EU FarmBook. This was achieved through a series of workshops, interviews and online surveys to learn about their needs. From the information and personal stories gathered, 18 different ‘user personas’ and associated ‘journeys’ that represent real farmers, advisors, and other potential users of the platform were created.
In year two (and a little longer due to Covid-19), the results and insights from the analysis of and interviews with MAP participants and potential users of the FarmBook were used to update and improve the prototype EU FarmBook platform itself. A major part of this effort was “Feeding the FarmBook” with valuable content from other multi-actor projects. This required a huge effort by the ‘EUREKA Annotation Team’ to add the necessary ‘metadata’ (a description, keywords, language, date of creation,etc.) to these ‘knowledge objects’ to make them ‘FAIR’: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. The team annotated almost 900 knowledge objects before the end of the project.
Another significant achievement that is hidden beneath the surface of the EU FarmBook was the finalization of the EUREKA subject model – a set of keywords related to agriculture and forestry that are essential pieces of metadata associated with each knowledge object. Why is this so important? Because it allows content in the FarmBook database to be categorized and organized in a meaningful way, and thereby enable users to find what they are looking searching for in the platform.
The pilot version of the EU FarmBook was released and underwent the first series of user tests, starting within the consortium and followed by more in-depth tests with farmers, foresters and advisors across the EU. Feedback about the pilot EU FarmBook was also collected in several forums, including more than 50 national-level webinars given by all EUREKA partners in their own countries plus in the final EUREKA outreach event.
Two guides or manuals related to the FarmBook were also produced. The first is a user manual for submitting knowledge objects to the EU FarmBook that includes explanations and practical examples of the FAIR data principles. The current version, along with a supporting how-to video, can be found on the EUREKA website (
https://h2020eureka.eu/eufarmbook(öffnet in neuem Fenster)). The second is a comprehensive visual guide to all the features and functions of the FarmBook itself, and can be found on the EU FarmBook Help page via the following link:
https://drupal.eufarmbook.eu/sites/default/files/2022-06/20220328_manual_eufarmbook.pdf(öffnet in neuem Fenster)Communication, dissemination and exploitation was ramped up significantly in the second year with the release of the pilot EU FarmBook and a series of high-quality videos. Five filmed videos that bring some of the user personas and journeys to life were produced, all creatively shot by our partners in Lithuania because of the Covid-19 travel restrictions. All videos are available on the EUREKA YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdIdXENhLoY7OetQ1UHuL3A(öffnet in neuem Fenster).
