Increasing knowledge flows to practice within Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) via thematic networks

Expected Outcome:Successful proposal will support the EU policies related to agriculture, forestry and/or rural areas, including related climate, biodiversity, and other environmental policies. The focus will be on the cross-cutting objective of the common agricultural policy (CAP) to enhance knowledge flows among AKIS[1] actors, in particular end-users[2]. The successful thematic network will support the objective by widely sharing existing and new knowledge in a language and format that is easy to understand and targeted to end-users and by building a more informed, interconnected and engaged AKIS community. It will address the need of end-users for impartial and tailored knowledge that is key to foster the transitions to more competitive, sustainable and resilient agriculture and/or forestry and/or rural areas.

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• collected practice-oriented research findings, innovative solutions and best practices, are presented in an attractive and understandable way, updated and maintained in the long-term[3], and made easily accessible by using the most appropriate channels for end-users;
• practice-ready knowledge and solutions, both generated by research and innovation (R&I)[4] and collected from practice, are widely disseminated to, shared and implemented by end-users;
• AKIS at EU and national/regional levels are more effective and the flow of practice-ready knowledge and solutions between end-users and all other relevant AKIS actors is increased across the EU in a geographically balanced way, improving cost-effectiveness of solutions and taking into account the differences between the territories.

Scope:The research findings, innovative solutions, practical knowledge and best practices, are not sufficiently known, shared and used in practice, despite the sustained investment in R&I to support farmers and/or foresters and/or rural communities in becoming more competitive, sustainable and resilient. Moreover, national/regional and sectoral AKIS are insufficiently connected and organised to intensify thematic collaboration between researchers, advisors, and end-users.

Proposals should:

• select the theme of the thematic network in a bottom-up way in order to respond to the most urgent need(s) from practice; explain the relevance of the theme in relation to end-users’ need(s), clarifying the added-value of the proposal and how it avoids duplication in relation to the ongoing or completed thematic networks and projects[5];
• collect and compile all up-to-date scientific and practical knowledge, best practices and innovative solutions, which are effective and ready for use in practice to address the end-users' needs, but not commonly known and/or used by the end-users; and, if needed, translate/adapt them to diverse local contexts;
• develop and share widely an extensive range of useful, applicable and appealing informative materials and training courses using the most effective approaches, formats, tools (including audio-visual) and channels to reach as many advisors and end-users as possible. The information provided should be easy to access and understand, and translated into at least all 24 EU official languages to allow dissemination across the whole EU. As much as possible, the outputs of the thematic network should serve education and training, knowledge exchange programmes, AKIS knowledge hubs, advisors providing targeted advice, peer-to-peer learning activities, etc.;
• provide a summary of the costs and benefits analysis of the collected practices for the end-users, and include these aspects explicitly in the informative materials and training courses;
• feed all the practice-oriented outputs directly into EU, national and regional AKIS dissemination channels that are most used and trusted by end-users in the diverse contexts, including (but not limited to) the EU and National CAP Networks[6], the EU-FarmBook online platform and the AKISConnect platform[7] and relevant advisory networks[8];
• mobilise also relevant AKIS actors and use AKIS actions at EU/national/regional and European levels to share the outputs of the project widely across the EU.

The proposal should include a dedicated work package, providing adequate resources for collecting outputs from the EIP-AGRI Operational Group projects (OGs)[9] on the theme chosen, as well as creating collaboration opportunities and fostering knowledge exchanges with and between them. The proposal should indicate which OGs could be relevant to the theme chosen.

The activities of the thematic network should complement with those organised by the EU CAP Network[6].

Proposals must implement the 'multi-actor approach', with a consortium based on a balanced mix of relevant actors with complementary knowledge clearly activating advisors, farmers and/or foresters and/or rural actors in the identification of the most urgent needs from practice as well as in the planning and execution of the main tasks of the thematic network.

The resulting project should run for a minimum of 3 years. An initial plan on how the thematic network and its outputs will be updated and maintained in the long-term beyond the projects duration should be included in the proposal.

The consideration of social diversity (including gender and other categories) in the dissemination activities of the thematic networks is encouraged.

[1] AKIS is defined in Article 3(9) of the Regulation (EU) 2021/2115

[2] An “(end-)user” of R&I result(s) is a person who is him/herself putting the results into practice (i.e. practitioner); depending on the theme of the thematic networks, end-users could be farmers and/or foresters and/or other rural actors, or all of them.

[3] i.e., beyond the duration of the thematic network.

[4] Including CAP-funded EIP-AGRI operational groups innovation projects, Horizon-funded R&I projects and other R&I activities beyond those funded under CAP and EU R&I programmes

[5] A theme already covered by a finished thematic network(s) is not allowed, unless the added value of the thematic network proposal is clearly explained and justified.

[6] Innovation & knowledge exchange | EIP-AGRI | EU CAP Network

[7] EU-FarmBook (eufarmbook.eu) & akisconnect | Connecting all EU AKIS actors

[8] Advisory networks – connecting advisors across the EU | EU CAP Network (europa.eu), including projects selected under topic HORIZON-CL6-2025-03-GOVERNANCE-13

[9] supported under the Rural Development Programmes (RDP) 2014-2022 and the CAP Strategic Plans (CSP) 2023-2027

[10] Innovation & knowledge exchange | EIP-AGRI | EU CAP Network