A substantial gap exists between the good science being undertaken in EU-funded R&I projects and the uptake and application of this science in practice. Too many project results are remaining unused. Too many innovative solutions for practical day-to-day problems are not reaching the people who could use them.

Greater efforts are needed to improve knowledge exchange between science and practice

The Horizon 2020-funded EUREKA project is developing a proof of concept for a new European-wide, centralised and open-source knowledge reservoir platform, the EU FarmBook, that makes results from all EU multi-actor projects available and easily accessible.

A total of 21 partners from 15 countries have been collaborating to develop and test an online agricultural knowledge platform designed specifically for collecting and sharing the many different types of outputs produced by EU R&I projects that are intended for practical, rather than scientific, use.

These materials are a rich and abundant source of knowledge produced in many different formats including factsheets, practice abstracts, policy briefs, technical reports, presentations, videos, podcasts and infographics. Many of these tools and materials can be used directly by farmers and foresters, while others will need some interpretation and application by advisors, trainers and other educators, innovation brokers and others active in the knowledge and innovation systems that are associated with farming and forestry, and which are underpinning the objectives of the new CAP.

The time is now to test the EU FarmBook

A pilot-version of the first EU-level “online knowledge reservoir” of its kind was developed in the previous EU Horizon 2020 project EURAKNOS, which focused on Thematic Networks. 

During the last two years, the follow-up project EUREKA has refined and evolved the platform into a first working version of the so-called EU FarmBook. The EU FarmBook “version 1.0” which has just been released for testing with a broad range of users across the EU. A few similar platforms already exist at national level, and it is intended that the EU FarmBook will eventually connect with them, as well as others known to be under development.

The challenges of developing the EU Farmbook are great – data(base) quality and compatibility issues, language barriers, and intergenerational considerations to name a few – but we believe that the future of agriculture and forestry innovation in Europe is digital, and requires a vastly increased and improved digital exchange of knowledge between EU regions and Member States, as well as between different agricultural stakeholders: researchers, policymakers, SMEs, advisors, farmers and foresters.

ICROFS webinar: Get to know the platform and help us improve it (held in Danish)

ICROFS invites all those interested in a national webinar (held in Danish) to participate either the 14th or 17th of March 2022, from 14:00-15:00 (CET) where you will be introduced to the work of the EUREKA project and the ambitious new platform. An international webinar (in English) will be held the 29th of March - and a special invitation for this event is to come.

Why participate?

Whether you are an end-user (farmer, forester, advisor etc.) looking for up-to-date, practical information and the latest research results or you are part of a multi-actor project yourself and want to ensure the long-term uptake of the knowledge you have produced, then this webinar is for you!

You will get an overview of the EU FarmBook concept, its content and functionality, and will have the opportunity to visit the pilot FarmBook and during a feedback session you will be able to share your views on the platform’s functionality and user-friendliness, testing its “look and feel” and how well it provides you with the information you are looking for. This will help us greatly to tailor the future platform to your needs.

To take part in one of the webinars, please register below:

Sign up for the 14th of March

Sign up for the 17th of March

The future of EU Farmbook

As the EUREKA project draws to a close at the end of March 2022, preparations are being made for its follow-up. A funding call for a major project to finalise development of the EU FarmBook and for promoting its widespread use was launched in June 2021 and is due to start in 2022.

According to Inge Van Oost at DG AGRI of the European Commission, “EURAKNOS and EUREKA have built a solid foundation for the future EU knowledge reservoir that will make an increasing volume of practice-orientated knowledge more easily accessible, interactive and accessible! The essential next steps will be to connect with the national and regional Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems – the AKISs - that are being strengthened by the Member States in their CAP Strategic Plans for 2023-2027”.

“For example, we see great potential for the EU FarmBook to serve the needs of farm advisors’ back-offices for innovation support, as well as the innovation strand of the new CAP networks. And of course, with the multi-lingual smart search functions built into the platform we hope to see more and more farmers and foresters visiting the EU FarmBook for answering their practical day-to-day questions”.

The EU FarmBook does not stand alone, its practical value will only grow and continue to be enriched with input from public and private partners in EU-funded research and innovation projects, ranging from large-scale EU-level multi-actor projects to more local EIP-AGRI Operational Groups.

If you want to learn more or get involved in developing and expanding the EU FarmBook, please do not hesitate to contact the EUREKA project at:

TylerArbour: tyler.arbour@ugent.be
Maxime Marois: Maxime.Marois@idele.fr