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11 mar 2016

11:45

Agricultural knowledge and innovation systems towards the future

Many uncertainties question the way we produce, process and consume food. We are challenged to reduce the climate footprint of our food systems. Citizens and consumers are demanding more information on how food is produced, while food systems have to remain competitive on quality and costs in an open world. Business as usual is not an option, which is why research and innovation (R&I) is so crucial in helping future food security and competiveness.

European farming and agro-food systems need knowledge from many different sources to compete with quality products and services in a globalised world. New knowledge is generated by farmers, researchers, companies and citizens. The old ‘linear’ model of technology transfer (from scientists to the users) is gradually being replaced by an interactive model of systems which integrates knowledge production, adaptation, advice and education. Using an open innovation approach provides opportunities to leverage research into a new setting. It was on this basis that the Standing Committee on Agricultural Research (SCAR) began working on Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) in the SCAR-AKIS Strategic Working Group in 2010.

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Report (2461.8 Kb)

Over this time the group has built up an impressive intelligence portfolio on the results of various EU-projects dealing with agricultural innovation systems, such as: SOLINSA, JOLISAA, FarmPath, and IMPRESA. Two projects contributed with studies to this report: VALERIE and PRO-AKIS.
Not only does the SCAR-AKIS group give advice to the Commission and Member States, it also acts as a platform for exchanging views on new policy concepts. The European Innovation Partnership on Sustainable Agriculture (EIP-AGRI) is such a concept which aims to link knowledge from practice and research across the different regional, national and European levels of policies and implementation.

It thus gives us great pleasure to present here this publication, which marks the continuing contribution SCAR-AKIS has made to progress in this area and highlights the results and conclusions of the group for the period 2014 to 2015. This period also coincided with a strong contribution from the SCAR-AKIS group to the work leading to the SCAR Bioeconomy Foresight, a timely and insightful report investigating the challenges to European Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems towards 2030, also highlighting research needs and trends in the agriculture sector up to the year 2050.
Innovation in Food Systems is a global challenge, and R&I needs to be Open to the World. In this respect SCAR-AKIS also began a debate on the experiences of Open Innovation in the European and African context, which will be further expanded upon under the emerging EU-Africa long-term partnership on Food, Nutrition and Sustainable Agriculture and in the next SCAR-AKIS mandate.

Furthermore, under the SCAR-AKIS interactive innovation models the implications for 'Big Data' and Information and Communication Technology revolution were investigated. The Open Science approach offers many new opportunities for knowledge networks and business models and is seen as an important opportunity to speed up excellence and innovation in science.
SCAR-AKIS has identified that brokers can play a key role in building successful professional relationships in multi-actor projects. This is a role which farm advisors could play, but more needs to be done to assure this as a function in public policies.

In summary we feel that not only do we have here a roadmap for implementing aspects of open innovation, openness to the world and open science, but one that will also help to boost jobs, growth and investment in rural areas.

John Bell
Director Bioeconomy, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation

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