European Innovation Partnership "Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability"   EIP-Agri

The University for Sustainable Development Eberswalde is known for its successful research, focussing on the university’s two main research areas: ‘Sustainable Rural Development’ and ‘Sustainable Production and use of natural products’. Among the German universities for applied sciences, HNEE comes third in third-party funding with more than 120 national and international research projects. A large number of these projects — and in particular the organic farm partner network ‘InnoForum’ â€“ are based on the concept of cooperation on eyes-level between the university’s teams, farmers/foresters, entrepreneurs from the agro-food and forestry sectors, advisors and various stakeholders from NGOs. For that reason, HNEE was designated to engage in EIP-Agri implementation on the regional and local level from the beginning.

• Since 2004, HNEE has developed the ‘Innovation Forum Organic Food and Farming in Brandenburg’, a network of food and farming enterprises in the Federal State of Brandenburg, with representatives of related organisations and institutions, advisory, scientists and students. The forum’s vision is to close the gaps between farming, farm advice, agricultural research and university studies as well as administrative and policy bodies. More information under: www.innoforum-brandenburg.de

• Dr Carsten Mann coordinates the H2020 Multi-Actor-Project InnoForst: More information under www.innoforest.eu
• HNEE also coordinates the H2020 Multi-Actor-Project LIAISON with 17 European partners. More information under www.liaison2020.eu
• The H2020 project Projekt SUFISA was not required to be organised as a multi-actor-project but the project‘s concept is based on an intense involvement of producers and stakeholders in the agri-food and fishery/aquaculture sectors. The team ‘Policy and Markets‘ in the Agri-Food-Sector are responsible for the Work Package ‘Stakeholder Involvement‘ : www.sufisa.eu

• Three Operational Groups were granted recently. More information for the OG ‘Organic-Vegetable’ under www.innoforum-brandenburg.de/forum-gemuese. Another HNE-Team participates in the  OG ‚pH-Brandenburg‘ and in the OG ,SunBot'.

• Three groups, supported by HNEE-teams, applied for funding under Art. 35 of the Brandenburg Rural Development Plan. As soon as these EIP-Agri regional network projects will start their activities, more information will be available here.
• Five regional network projects get funding under measure M16 within the development programme for rural areas in Brandenburg and Berlin : Netzwerk Schäfer schützen (Prof. Häring) | Kompetenznetzwerk Ökologischer Acker- und Pflanzenbau Nordost Brandenburg - Cropping School (Prof. Häring)| Implementierung einer einzelbetrieblich optimierten Grünlandnutzung auf organischen Standorten - BOGOS (Prof. Luthardt, Prof. Schleip) | Netzwerk Moorschonende Stauhaltung - NeMoS (Prof. Luthardt) | Kompetenzstelle Brandenburger Streuobstwiesen (Prof. Peters) .
  

Workshops and Activities

Since 2013, HNEE-teams organised or participated in various workshop events in the thematic field of EIP-Agri and innovation projects or networks. Herewith, methodological approaches for the reflexive evaluation of participative projects were a particular focus. Presentations and conference papers are available for download.

• 5th Nordic Conference for Rural Research ‘Challenged Ruralities: Nordic Welfare States under Pressure’ that will take place in Denmark, May 14-16th 2018. Please, join our workshop in Theme 1, WG4 (1.4) ‘Evaluating Policy and Implementation of Innovation Programmes in Agriculture and Forestry’

  Organisers: Katarina Eckerberg, Department of Political Science, Umeå University, Sweden, Susanne von Münchhausen, University for Sustainable Development Eberswalde, Germany

• ESRS Working Group 21 ‘Evaluation of ‘innovation’ projects and partnerships: challenges, practical experiences and methodological innovations ; XXVII European Society for Rural Sociology Conference, 24-27 July 217, Krakow/Poland

• 14. Scientific Conference on Organic Farming: Workshop ‚Operationel Groups for and with Organic Farmers — Status-Quo; Conveners: Münchhausen, S. and Häring, A.M., HNEE, in cooperation with Rocha, B. and Orthen, N., German Networking Agency at the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food on the 9^th of March 2017 in Weihenstephan-Freising

• 12th European IFSA Symposium 12th to 15th July 2016, Harper Adams University, UK; Working Group 1.10: ‘Practical experiences and methodological concepts from the first years of EIP-Agri implementation’; Conveners: Münchhausen, S. and Häring, A.M., Policy and Markets of the Agri-Food-Sector, HNEE

• IFSA-Workshop 1.2 ‘Evaluation of policy schemes supporting innovation and advisory services: new concepts, methodologies and case studies’; IFSA Symposium, Berlin, April 1st to 4th, 2014; Conveners: Labarthe, P., INRA, France; Münchhausen, S.v., Häring, AM, Rieken, H., HNEE; Davis, K. GFRAS, Switzerland; Knierim, A., Hohenheim Universiy; Kügler, M. EUFRAS, Brussels; O’Hara, S., Columbia University, USA

• Discussion on "Operational Groups" within the framework of the "European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability" (EIP)