The CAP: From Research to Policy

The Réseau National Agricultures et Ruralités (RNAR) is the French CAP network, jointly managed by the French Ministry of Agriculture, Agri-Food and Food Sovereignty, Régions de France and the Agence Nationale de la Cohésion des Territoires. Its mission is to support the implementation of the 2023-2027 CAP programming period and to strengthen the links between agricultural and food policies and rural development.

Within this mandate, the RNAR funds five PhD theses addressing key CAP issues, notably simplification, generational renewal and the agroecological transition. This seminar aims to disseminate the results of this research and to place it in a wider European perspective: each French PhD candidate will present their work alongside a researcher from another European country working on closely related questions.

Over two days, five joint sessions will be held:

Panel 1: Farm cessation, transfer of holdings and generational renewal: specificities and points of convergence between Belgium and France
Panel 2: Farmers' acceptance of controls and motivations to comply with the CAP, two case studies:
preferences on CAP checks in France and social conditionality in Italy
Panel 3: A joint presentation on the integration of trees into agriculture in France and Ireland
Panel 4: Towards a Greener CAP? Barriers and Levers through the Lenses of Governance and Agrarian Changes
Panel 5: Which farmers should the CAP support? European debates and the French implementation of the "active farmer" definition since 2023

The RNAR is pleased to invite you to this seminar, which will take place on 2 and 3 November 2026 in Brussels. It will bring together European and Member State administrations, European national networks, researchers and farmers' representatives. This diversity of profiles is expected to foster rich exchanges, bringing the views of the research community together with those of farmers, regions, networks, trade unions, chambers of agriculture and associations.