After 12 months of project implementation, much of the meeting focused on the consolidation of work to-date and preparation to promote the first results.  A comprehensive conceptual framework has been prepared and will be available on the project website in the coming weeks. Six Living Labs  are up and running in Italy, Latvia, Norway, Romania, Spain and the Netherlands / Belgium.  Meanwhile, fieldwork is underway in 26 focus regions, and in relation to 8 innovation areas, to investigate how and from whom European farmers and farm managers gather and exchange information (their “microAKIS”) to underpin their decision-making regarding the adoption (or not) of different types of innovation.

Some fascinating new areas of investigation were also kicked-off, notably the work on the governance structures of farm advisory services. Watch this space!

With the draft proposals for the new 2021-2027 CAP Strategic Plans now published by the European Commission it is clear that the AgriLink project is increasingly relevant to the future strengthening of the AKIS and farm advisory services that will be required at national / regional level in the EU Member States. 

As Project Co-ordinator, Pierre Laberthe, concluded: “Although we organised this meeting by work packages, the interactions between WPs now appear more obvious and driven by our research questions. We are gathering a robust empirical evidence base in this project and we think this will be increasingly useful as the contribution of farm advice to innovation and sustainable development is given higher priority by policy-makers.”