Knowledge and innovation play a crucial role in helping farmers, foresters and rural communities meet current and future challenges. To make sure that knowledge is shared between everyone who produces and uses it, and that people are connected, effective Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) are needed across Europe.
The official definition of AKIS, as mentioned in Regulation (EU) 2021/2115, describes it as “the combined organisation and knowledge flows between individuals, organisations, and institutions who use and produce knowledge for agriculture and interrelated fields”. In short, a well-organised AKIS makes knowledge flow across the territory by interconnecting people and actions. A well-functioning AKIS includes the following actions:
- Enhancing and organising knowledge flows, including strengthening links between research and practice and improving advice and integrating advisors within the AKIS.
- Enhancing interactive innovation across themes, sectors and borders.
In a well-functioning AKIS, knowledge circulates and flows efficiently between advisors, farmers and foresters, researchers, national and regional authorities, national CAP networks, media, people involved in education and training, consumers, and others.
When knowledge is created together, made easily understandable and applicable, and shared widely, it further supports the development and scaling-up of innovative solutions that work in practice.
AKIS in the CAP Strategic Plans
In the 2023–2027 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), AKIS forms the backbone of the cross-cutting objective, which seeks to modernise agriculture and rural areas by promoting knowledge, innovation and digitalisation in agriculture and rural areas. Each EU Member State is required to explain its AKIS strategy in its national CAP Strategic Plan (CSP), including information on how advisors, researchers and the National CAP Network will work together to promote knowledge. The AKIS strategy is translated into a number of actions to promote knowledge exchange and innovation. This is specifically done through the following CAP interventions, as defined in Regulation (EU) No 2021/2115:
- farm advice and farm advisors (Article 15)
- knowledge exchange, advice and information (Article 78)
- innovation-related activities of CAP Networks (Article 126)
- EIP-AGRI Operational Groups (Article 127), through a specific type of cooperation (Article 77)
Discover how your country supports AKIS through its national CAP Strategic Plans
Learn more
- The 4th Report of the Strategic Working Group on Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems ‘Preparing for future AKIS in Europe’ (2019) gives insight into how AKIS can be strengthened in EU Member States.
- The brochure ‘AKIS – Boosting innovation and knowledge flows across Europe’ (2022) illustrates what AKIS means in practice.
- EU CAP Network seminar 'Fostering an effective and integrated AKIS in Member States' (June 2023)
- EIP-AGRI brochure ‘Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems – Stimulating creativity and learning’
- EIP-AGRI seminar ‘Promoting creativity and learning through agricultural knowledge systems and interactive innovation’ (December 2015)
European Commission’s policy paper ‘Building stronger agricultural knowledge and innovation systems (AKIS)’
(PDF – 770.57 KB)