Projects with a multi-actor approach (MAA) focus on seizing opportunities or finding solutions to real needs, problems, and challenges that farmers, foresters, or rural communities ('end users') are facing. In MAA projects, partners with complementary expertise – scientific, practical or other knowledge – join forces and become involved in the project activities from the very start to the end. As a result, MAA projects can develop innovative solutions that are more ready to be applied in practice and cover real needs.
On this page:
- What is the multi-actor approach?
- Who should be involved?
- What are the requirements?
- How can you find inspiration and advice to build a multi-actor project?
What is the multi-actor approach?
The multi-actor approach (MAA) plays a key role in fostering an interactive innovation model characterised by multi-actor involvement. It brings together all relevant actors with complementary backgrounds and expertise to co-create and share knowledge, good practices, and innovative solutions responding to the needs of the users, farmers, foresters, and advisors, following a bottom-up approach. Within the Horizon Europe work programme, the MAA is considered a form of responsible research and innovation (R&I), aiming to make the R&I process and its outcomes more demand-driven, reliable and relevant to society. The most recent definition and requirements for the MAA can be found in the introduction of the Horizon Europe Cluster 6 work programme 2025 (pages 14-16).
Since 2019, the multi-actor approach has been extended to all sectors under Cluster 6, including agriculture, forestry and rural areas, food, the bioeconomy, environment, fisheries and aquaculture, etc. As a result, in the past three Cluster 6 work programmes (2021-2022, 2023-2024, and 2025), 47% of the topics (worth more than 41% of the budget) required the MAA. In total, under Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe, more than 350 multi-actor projects have been funded so far.
The interactive innovation model
The interactive innovation model is being applied in Horizon-funded multi-actor projects, including thematic, advisory networks and living labs, as well as CAP-funded Operational Group projects (OG). The multi-actor projects and OGs are co-creating new knowledge and solutions, focusing more on the tacit knowledge of the practitioners and real needs on the ground. The thematic and advisory networks, which are a specific type of multi-actor project, aim to share knowledge and innovation as widely as possible among the practitioners.
Who should be involved?
The multi-actor approach aims to have the outcomes shared more extensively. This entails more than just widely disseminating a project’s results or listening to the views of a board of stakeholders. A multi-actor project ensures the genuine and sufficient involvement of a targeted array of actors, which serves the objectives of the project.
These actors include:
- researchers
- farmers / farmers' groups and associations
- foresters / foresters' groups and associations
- aquaculture producers
- fishers / fishers' groups and associations
- advisors
- food and bioeconomy businesses
- other businesses
- consumer associations
- local communities
- citizens
- civil society organisations including NGOs
- government representatives
The selection of the relevant actors depends on the objective of the project, and should include, essentially, the (end) users of the project results, and any other relevant intermediaries and actors who can contribute with further expertise and innovative ideas necessary to achieve the project’s objectives, and support communication and dissemination. The genuine and sufficient involvement of such actors should take place over the whole course of the project: from participation in the development of the project idea, planning, and experiments, to implementation, communication, and dissemination of results, and to a possible demonstration phase. Building blocks for the project are expected to come from science as well as from practice: it is a ‘co-creation’ process. Practitioners and (end) users are to be involved, not as a study object, but to use their practical and local knowledge and/or entrepreneurial skills to develop solutions and create 'co-ownership' of results for (end) users and practitioners. This contributes to and speeds up the acceptability and uptake of new ideas, approaches, and solutions developed in the project.
What are the requirements?
Multi-actor project proposals must demonstrate that the project will meet specific requirements. The requirements for multi-actor project proposals have been spelt out in detail in the introduction of every Horizon Europe work programme.
How can you find inspiration and advice to build your multi-actor project?
Horizon Europe project CARE4BIO - Network of National Contact Points for Cluster 6 cooperates with the European Commission to assist stakeholders in raising the quality of proposals by encouraging transcluster collaboration. National Contact Points (NCPs) play a crucial role in guiding stakeholders through Horizon calls, providing support and resources. The NCPs facilitate transnational cooperation and reinforce the European AKIS.
Get in touch with the Horizon National Contact Point in your country.
EU CAP Network brokerage events are designed to bring people and ideas together, supporting the development of high-quality proposals under the Horizon Europe Cluster 6 for multi-actor projects focusing on agriculture, forestry and rural areas. These events give participants the tools to craft stronger Horizon Europe proposals. They are a vibrant space for collaboration, connecting farmers, researchers, and advisors to spark new partnerships.
The EU-funded project PREMIERE offers different resources to help prepare more effective multi-actor projects in a co-creative manner, including trainings, Q&A sessions, webinars and more. These tools can help you if you are new to the field or participating in Horizon Europe multi-actor projects for the first time, or leading and supporting the development of project proposals. Discover the Pathway Cartoons, ways to get involved in multi-actor project development, and how to lead or support multi-actor proposal development.
- Download the EU CAP Network factsheet ‘Tips & tricks to apply for Horizon Europe calls’ (2022)
- Read the EIP-AGRI brochure on Horizon 2020 multi-actor projects (2017). Find out more about how to apply for multi-actor projects under Horizon Europe
- Get to know the Interactive Innovation toolbox of the Horizon 2020 project LIAISON
Practice abstracts
Horizon multi-actor projects are required to share their results in the form of ‘practice abstracts’. These concise, practice-oriented summaries help projects share their outcomes more widely across the EU, reaching others in the field of agriculture, forestry and rural areas. All results can then be collected and freely searched as practice abstracts in the EIP-AGRI project database.
Visit the dedicated webpage to find out more about submitting your project information and practice abstracts to the EIP-AGRI project database.