Call: Advisors' roles in the functioning of AKIS and advisory policies boosting innovation in sustainable agriculture

This Programme aims to promote the transition towards an optimal and renewable use of biological resources and towards sustainable primary production and processing systems. These systems will need to produce more food, fibre and other bio-based products with minimised inputs, environmental impact and greenhouse gas emissions, and with enhanced ecosystem services, zero waste and adequate societal value.

There is a need to analyse the role of advisors in the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS) and explore farmers' decision making processes. The role that authorities and private industry attribute to advisory services, and their expectations in terms of how this will help them fulfil their own objectives needs to be researched if we are to understand how AKIS really functions. New approaches need to be developed to enhance advisors' potential to boost innovation through their function as intermediaries connecting science and practice. The focus should be on the farmers' needs and behaviour, improving connections with research and finding ways of providing accurate and timely advice, including the use of new ICT advisory tools. 

The growing number and impact of private advisors and the shrinkage of public extension services makes cooperation between different types of advisors more challenging. New forms of interaction among advisors and between advisors and scientists need to be explored, in order to ultimately improve knowledge flows in Member States' AKIS and in the EU, and to conserve and develop public knowledge for agriculture.

Proposals should examine how farmers make their decisions and who influences them most. Within this context, activities should analyse the role of the various types of advisor in the AKISs. Taking into account the impact of face-to-face interaction, projects should identify the key factors in the creation of trust between farmer and advisor so as to enable effective knowledge transfer and exchange. They shall, as a minimum, explore the relationship between advisors and researchers and between advisors and farmers, identifying the main elements facilitating the flow of information in both directions. Particular attention should be paid to advisors' potential to boost innovation, inter alia by funnelling practice needs into research activities, participating and intermediating in farmer-to-farmer learning processes and interactive innovation projects.

Moreover, projects should examine which governance models are most appropriate for empowering such multi-functional advisory services.Proposals shall also explore the role of advisors in innovation networks at local, regional, national and European level and the role of farmers' associations or private advisors linked to agricultural input suppliers. Activities should analyse the impact of funding for multi-functional advisory services under national policies and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in general, including the impact of public procurement for the selection of advisory services, possible difficulties for smaller advisory services wishing to participate, the requirement that advisors should follow regular training etc. Projectss shall identify best practices from a broad series of practical cases across the EU.

At least three legal entities. Each of the three must be established in a different EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. All three legal entities must be independent of each other.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to 5 million € would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude the submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts. Funding rate: 100% 

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