ExpectedOutcome:
In support of the Green Deal, Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and farm to fork objectives and targets, the successful proposal will focus on improving the preparation of multi-actor projects to enable the relevant actors to work in a more co-creative way. The expected outcome of this topic are approaches for developing sound, coherent and well-prepared multi-actor projects, enabling project coordinators to use the complementary knowledge of partners to prepare actions to find ready-to-use solutions. Member States’ authorities and AKIS actors need insights and tools to improve the interaction, connections and drafting skills in particular in the stage before putting down the multi-actor project proposals for selection. This will lead to better informed and engaged stakeholders and users of innovative project results leading to more effective Agriculture Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) and related platforms.
Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:
1. Improve the drafting of multi-actor project proposals[1] and in particular the involvement of relevant actors with complementary knowledge in a balanced way in the preparatory stage.
2. The policy objectives linked to Cluster 6, such as for instance agroecology, climate, pesticide reduction, reduction of water use etc, as well as the European Green Deal, the Farm to Fork Strategy and the CAP, the Biodiversity Strategy and the wider bioeconomy research and policies,.
3. The CAP cross-cutting objective of modernising the sector by fostering and sharing knowledge, innovation and digitalisation in agriculture and rural areas, and encouraging their uptake[2] . It will provide overall knowledge to the CAP supported projects related to knowledge creation, organisation and sharing.
4. The outcomes will be connecting actors, policies, projects and instruments to speed up innovation, in particular:
(a) create added value by better linking research, education, advisors and farming practice and encourage the wider use of available knowledge and innovation;
(b) connect innovation actors and projects at all levels; resulting in faster and wider co-creation and transposition of innovative solutions into practice and communicate to the scientific community the research needs of practice.
Scope:
Proposals should:
- Develop ways to improve in particular the preparation of Horizon Europe multi-actor projects to better include at an early stage the needed variety of relevant practice actors in a balanced way and to be able to find useful information for the topic, with the view of strengthening co-creation between all actors even before the start and selection of the project. Make use of potential capacities of national/regional AKIS and AKIS coordination bodies to this effect.
- In particular, test out the effect of providing seed funding to fund the preparation phase as happens successfully in European innovation partnership "Agricultural productivity and sustainability" (EIP-AGRI) Operational Groups[3] to improve the overall multi-actor quality of project proposals.
- Find ways to improve the connection and interaction between Horizon Europe Multi-actor projects and EIP-AGRI Operational Group innovation projects on specific topics before the very start of the multi-actor project, thus improving the interaction between the local/regional/ national level and the EU level and the quality of project proposals. Explore what are multi-actor consortia experiences and questions related to the preparation phase, to better understand which hurdles should be solved to ultimately result in more integration of EIP-AGRI Operational Groups in Horizon Europe Multi-actor projects and a better uptake of the results of EU multi-actor projects at national/regional/local level and vice versa. This should help sharing knowledge across the EU at all levels and between the projects from different funding sources and ultimately result in better prepared project proposals.
- Resulting from experience gained during the project, develop guidelines and pathways, maybe at institutional level, to improve the overall quality of the preparation phase of multi-actor projects. As soon as possible, find effective and efficient ways to profit from the initiatives of the EU-wide interactive knowledge reservoir (HORIZON-CL6-2021-GOVERNANCE-01-24), boosting women-led innovation in farming and rural areas (HORIZON-CL6-2022-COMMUNITIES-01-01) and the project interlinking national AKISs (HORIZON-CL6-2021-GOVERNANCE-01-23). Make use of Member States’ knowledge and innovation experts in the SCAR-AKIS Strategic Working Group to discuss the project strategy and progress in the various stages of the project.
- Cover all 27 EU Member States in the project. Make use in all those countries of experts who understand and are able to make an accurate interpretation of the national/regional contexts of practitioners and its impact on improving preparation of multi-actor projects.
- Provide all outcomes and materials to the EIP-AGRI, including in the common 'practice abstract' format for EU wide dissemination, as well as to national/regional/local AKIS channels and to the EU-wide interactive knowledge reservoir (HORIZON-CL6-2021-GOVERNANCE-01-24) in the requested formats.
The project should run for 5 years and result in guidance on how to improve preparation of multi-actor projects to enable the relevant actors to work in a more co-creative way. The project must implement the multi-actor approach, including partners of multi-actor consortia, of EIP-AGRI Operational Groups, policy makers and AKIS coordination bodies and AKIS actors in Member States. Outcomes should be presented to policy makers at all levels, with a view to adapt policies and governance to improve multi-actor project proposals. The results of the projects should also be disseminated to all those who may start up multi-actor projects or EIP-AGRI Operational Groups.
Cross-cutting Priorities:
Digital Agenda
[1]See definition of the 'multi-actor approach' in the introduction to this work programme part
[2]Art 5 CAP post 2020 proposal
[3]Art 114 and 71 (1)(a) of the CAP post 2020 proposal
