Connecting advisers to boost interactive innovation in agriculture and forestry – i2connect project aims to fuel the competencies of advisors who will support and facilitate interactive innovation processes. <!--more-->The strategy in i2connect is to use the existing advisor networks and the experiences of success to create a broader network and momentum of change enabling a new culture of bottom-up led innovation support. This resource of over 40,000 advisors are critical to support agriculture and forestry on the ground and must be influenced in this project to support innovation with emphasis on EIP-Agri 2020.
An inventory will be made where best practices throughout Europe will be analyzed in an interactive way to guide the development of approaches and tools.
A pool of trainers will be trained to work with these materials in training to better coach advisors. Attention will also be given to the ‘enabling environment’: ways in which managers of advisory services, research actors, policy makers and others can create conditions that are conducive for interactive innovation processes. The project will support learning through courses in the main European languages. Training courses will include a period of moderated peer coaching on the job for advisors. Some advisors may join cross visit teams for studying interesting cases abroad. These activities feed into a professional network with many local branches, supported by the project through a moderated online platform for mutual coaching and sharing experiences on themes that emerge.
i2connect brings together 42 organizations, most of them directly involved in stimulating innovation in rural areas and food systems in all corners of Europe, especially in CEE countries. The major European farm and forestry advisory services are partners. They are committed to contribute to a continuous learning and improvement of advisory support making better use of the opportunities that the EIP-Agri program has created for bridging the gap between research and practice.
Find out more on the https://i2connect-h2020.eu