EU Short Food Chain Advisory Network: the meeting point for 25 European sustainable food system projects
Next 25th of October, Brussels, with the participation of the EU CAP Network (Building EU-AKIS), EC Policy Officers and over 25 EU-funded projects working to improve sustainability in food systems, the COREnet and EU4Advice projects have organized a networking day with a dynamic and interactive programme to discuss about the most relevant topics for the sector, share knowledge and good practices and ensure the effective use of existing resources, tools and experiences.
The COREnet and EU4Advice are the first projects funded under Horizon Europe (HORIZON-CL6-2021-GOVERNANCE-01-27) aiming at establishing an advisory network on SFSC, which will be establish through the collaboration of both projects.
This networking event will give the possibility to all participants to share their projects key results, supporting synergies and promoting future exploitation opportunities among them.
Given the importance of some key factors and gaps in the SFSC advisory network implementation, and to better tune the discussions, three different sessions were organised addressing some specific topics, such as integration of advisory networks into AKIS, interoperability, impact and replicability of projects knowledge.The integration of advisory networks into national AKIS
Advisory networks are a new tool introduced under Horizon Europe. Advisors play a key role in steering and influencing farmers’ decisions. The advisory networks facilitate the exchanges between farm advisors across the EU, increasing the speed of knowledge creation and sharing, capacity building, demonstration of innovative solutions.
Advisors should then be able to translate the research results into concrete opportunities for the end users and adapt those to specific local circumstances.
The integration of these advisory networks at national and EU level is being addressed by AKIS coordination bodies across de EU, with open questions with regards to what kind of policy instruments and plans could be more effective, considering the new CAP, the diversity of AKIS coordination bodies in terms of composition, key actors, language or cultural dynamics.
Knowledge exchange, training and interaction among advisors
The EU digital ecosystem for the agrifood sector is complex: digital platforms for Innovation and Support Services, national AKIS, resource repositories, advisors data bases,have been funded by the EU through different projects and initiatives. In this context questions related to interaction among advisors, interoperability among platforms -criteria, topics, categories-, will be addressed during the event, which will enable in depth discussions and will bring light to the next steps for the creation of the EU Network of SFSC Advisors, as innovation brokers in local short chain projects and key actors in member states national AKIS.
To this aim, the following projects will actively participate and contribute in this relevant networking event
ATTRACTIS, CLEVERFOOD, CO-FRESH, COACH, DIVINFOOD, DRG4FOOD, EUFARMBOOK, FAIRSHARE, FOOD TRAILS, FOOD2030, HUMUS, i2connect, LOFT, MODERNAKIS, PLAN EAT, SCAR AKIS, SFS INNOVATION PLATFORM, SKIN, SMARTCHAIN, STRATUS, STRENGTH2FOOD
Agenda and organizing committee contact information available here.
Picture: Reisefotos. Gemüsemarkt por Grasser, Franz (Herstellung) (Fotograf) – Deutsche Fotothek, Germany – Public Domain.