CLIMED-FRUIT aims to broaden EIP Operational Group outcomes across borders, in the field of adaptation to climate change and mitigation for perennial crops in Mediterranean Area, by compiling and sharing knowledge ready for practice.

Building on a methodology for innovation-driven research previously developed and tested, the WINETWORK project has the ambition to stimulate collaborative innovation in the wine sector. The project will implement a methodology that has been successful in promoting demand-driven innovations in previous regional and European projects. This approach is mainly based on the interactions between a network of facilitator agents, several regional technical working groups and one European scientific working group. A participatory approach is used to translate results from science and practical knowledge into technical datasheets that are used to prepare materials adapted to end-users. A bottom-up approach is also used to identify a demand-driven innovation agenda. In the WINETWORK project, the approach will be implemented in ten regions from seven countries representing more than 90% of the EU wine production. The main topic addressed in the network concern the control and the fight against diseases that jeopardise the future production potential of the EU (Grapevine Trunk Diseases and Flavescence Dorée). As they represent a threat for the economic viability of the entire sector, these topics have been previously identified as a priority by winegrowers, scientists and decision-makers. As many winegrowers are testing innovative and sustainable approaches to fight these diseases, it is very beneficial to capture these ideas and to share them between EU countries. Innovative practices will be synthesized, tailored and translated to become fully accessible to innovation support services and to winegrowers. The project will then deliver a vast reservoir of existing scientific and practical knowledge related to sustainable vineyard management. It will also provide a methodology that will support all agriculture sectors to enhance innovation-driven research. WINETWORK involves 11 partners of excellence representing the entire innovation chain, from science to farmers.

The PLAID project (Peer-to-peer Learning: Accessing Innovation through Demonstration) will identify, compile and make publically accessible the topics, locations, best practices and innovative approaches to demonstration on commercial farms in the EU 28, Switzerland and Norway. PLAID will enable access to demonstration activities by creating a searchable georeferenced inventory and map covering all 30 countries; developing ‘virtual’ (on-line) demonstration approaches with commercial farmers; assessing governance, commissioning, financing, topic selection, access (particularly gender), mediation techniques and impact in 24 longitudinal case studies; and comparing the impact of different governance models and financing mechanisms on learning processes and accessibility. PLAID will produce recommendations for governance and best practice in both real and virtual demonstration settings, using these to develop indicators and decision support tools for farmers, advisors, commercial companies, charities, educators, policy makers and researchers. PLAID is a multi-actor consortium, using a multi-stakeholder approach, where farmers, industry stakeholders and academics work together as to design, test and validate outputs. PLAID has been designed to achieve high impact, through generation of a substantial set of knowledge exchange activities and project outputs, which will be hosted long-term on PLAID stakeholder web-sites, You Tube and the EIP Agri Service Point. PLAID will initiate a community of practice, which together with the above activities and outputs will provide a solid foundation for RUR-12-2017: “Networking European farms to boost thematic knowledge exchanges and close the innovation gap” and provide substantive input to the EIP Agri database.

AgriLink aims to stimulate sustainability transitions in European agriculture through better understanding the roles played by farm advice in farmer decision-making. To this end, AgriLink will analyse and improve the role of farmer advice in 8 innovation areas that combine challenges identified in the “Strategic Approach to EU Agricultural Research & Innovation”. AgriLink builds on the premise that the full range of advice-providing organisations need to be included in the assessment of service provision and innovation adoption. The methodology combines theoretical insights with cutting edge research methods within a multi-actor, transdisciplinary approach. It draws on ‘micro-AKIS’ (individuals and organisations from whom farmers seek services and exchange knowledge with) analysis in 26 focus regions, sociotechnical scenario development and ‘living laboratories’ where farmers, advisors and researchers work together. Research in focus regions will provide insight in farmers’ micro-AKIS, advisory suppliers’ business models, and regional farm advisory systems. This will feed an assessment of the efficacy of governance of farm-advice-research interactions across Europe. Newly developed advisory methods and new forms of research-practice interaction will be validated and further developed in Living Laboratories. A socio-technical scenario method will be used to explore, jointly with stakeholders, transition pathways towards more sustainable agriculture. Crucially, AgriLink builds on insights and experiences from both research and practice. The consortium consists of researchers from different disciplines (institutional economics, innovation studies, AKIS studies, sociology of networks), as well as of advisors (from public, private and farmer-based organisations) from across the EU. Actors from advisory services will be active in the validation and dissemination of results, to ensure that all project findings are both scientifically sound and practically useful.