EU projects focused on livestock: Requests to policymakers
On the 9th September 2020, EURAKNOS hosted a cross exchange with 30 participants from 11 countries representing EU projects focused on livestock. Together, we discussed how to increase the impact and sustainability of projects and how policy/funding structures could support this.
It was considered difficult to build a self-sustaining network within the funded timeframe of projects. It was suggested funding should support a second phase for projects to focus on sharing the established knowledge and further animating their network. This limited sustainability was seemingly compounded by the start-and-stop nature of projects. To create a more dynamic and long-lasting progression of results, another idea was that new projects should inherit the work of previous projects working on a similar topic, so they can build on an existing network and knowledge base, rather than starting from scratch.
There was appetite for a common data platform to act as a permanent knowledge hub for practical agricultural knowledge. Participants were eager to see interactive functionality, e.g. forums, rating systems, and a directory to find relevant contacts and events according to topic. It was acknowledged that it would not be easy or cheap to create and maintain this online knowledge hub. However, individual projects incur costs to have their own website over a limited period, after which the knowledge might be lost. Individual projects also put enormous effort into achieving recognition. This funding and effort would perhaps be better invested in a central platform, which could become well-known within the agricultural community and become a trusted information source which gives credibility to new projects.
Find out more about a common data platform here.
EURAKNOS
Ongoing | 2019-2021
- Main funding source
- Horizon 2020 (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
- Geographical location
- Belgium
Project Keywords
- Aquaculture
- Arable crops
- Organic farming
- Agro-ecology
- Crop rotation/crop diversification/dual-purpose or mixed cropping
- Animal husbandry
- Animal welfare
- Biodiversity and nature
- Competitiveness/new business models
- Farm diversification
- Equipment and machinery
- Forestry
- Pest/disease control in plants
- Pest/disease control in animals
- Fodder and feed
- Outdoor horticulture and woody crops (incl. viticulture, olives, fruit, ornamentals)
- Greenhouse crops
- Soil