WG 1.10: ‘Practical Experiences and Methodological Concepts from the First Years of EIP-Agri Implementation’

12th European IFSA Symposium 12th to 15th July 2016, Harper Adams University, UK 

Conveners: Münchhausen, S. and Häring, A.M., Policy and Markets of the Agri-Food-Sector, HNEE

The ‘European Innovation Partnership Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability’ (EIP-Agri) is a policy concept implemented since 2012. Various EIP-Agri measures aim to close the innovation gap between research and farming/forestry practice. What are the main issues emerging from the realisation of this innovation concept? The IFSA-Working Group 1.10, organised by the HNEE-team Policy and markets of the Agri-Food-Sector, aimed to discuss practical and theoretical experiences from the first years of EIP-Agri implementation. 

WG 1.10 called for papers presenting theoretical and practical approaches which had been developed and applied since the start of EIP-Agri in 2012/2013. Authors presented lessons learned so far in respect to: the implementation of EIP-Agri through the programming processes of national and regional policy and administration; the role of specific policy/legal requirements; the improvement of overall sustainability and innovative capacity of the different agricultural sectors; the collection of knowledge on innovative solutions effectively and efficiently; the improvement of the flow of information and knowledge between academia and practitioners, and between European regions. Moreover, we called for papers that showed approaches for the evaluation of EIP-Agri. 

These papers were presented in our Working Group sessions:

• Ulrich Gehrlein, Nicola von Kutzleben: First Experiences in Implementation and Evaluation of the EIP-Approach in two federal states of Germany Final paper, Workshop 

• Patrizia Proietti, Simona Cristiano (not participating): The implementation of EIP-AGRI in Italy: regional and national perspectives

• Lívia Madureira, Artur Cristovão, Dora Ferreira, Timothy Koehnen: How to design and develop inclusive knowledge and innovation agricultural networks: The case of the Portuguese Cluster of small-fruits Final paper,  Workshop

• Monica Commandeur: Administrative intimidation discourages innovation under the EU-Rural Development Programme (RDP) Final paper,  Workshop 

• Marjolein Visser: On the use and abuse of Q-methodology as a semi-quantitative tool to study stakeholder subjectivity Final paper,  Workshop