Report Second Meeting of the Subgroup on Innovation and Knowledge Exchange (SoIKE)

The report describes the different sessions, including a welcome and introduction with presentations from Hugo Almeida, Deputy Head of Unit D1 ‘Rural areas and Networks’ at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI). He opened the meeting by introducing the new EU CAP Network governance structure. He explained that the Subgroup on Innovation and Knowledge Exchange (SOIKE) is currently working in a transitional mode, particularly concerning its composition, which will be updated after the first meeting of the new EU CAP Network Assembly.

Orsolya Frizon Somogyi, Deputy Head of Unit F2 'Research and Innovation', DG AGRI, provided an update on the latest developments in Horizon Europe.

In Session I on the 'Introduction to the BCO Network and digital connectivity', Jan Dröge, Team Leader, BCO Support Facility, presented the European Broadband Competence Offices Network to SOIKE members.

Fabio Cossu, Unit ‘A1 - Policy Perspectives’, DG AGRI, presented in Session II the outcomes of the Commission’s event ‘Farming’s Got Talent!’ - aiming at highlighting the role of vocational education and training (VET) to enable an attractive farming sector, and identify priorities and successful approaches for the development of the right skill set.

Magdalena Mach, 'Unit D1 - Rural areas and networks’, DG AGRI, opened Session III by presenting clusters of ideas for future networking activities.

The fourth session started with a presentation by one of the subgroup members, Leonie Göbel from the German Rural Network, who presented the main highlights from their recent publication ‘Working towards the agriculture of the future: EIP-AGRI in Germany’.

Discussions in breakout sessions were based on the question ‘What could be the scope of the networking activity under this topic?’, while also collecting inputs regarding possible objectives and types of activity.

More detailed descriptions of the presentations, the Q&A after them and the breakout sessions are presented in the report.