25/02/2022

EU FarmBook: Open-source knowledge platform for farmers, 23 February 2022, online

On 23 February, we held a member-only webinar in which 28 participants from the organic sector learned about the progress of the work in the two sister projects EURAKNOS and EUREKA. Participants were introduced to an online, open-source, EU-level knowledge reservoir EU FarmBook. This platform makes practice-oriented knowledge from EU research and innovation projects more easily accessible, searchable, multilingual, interactive, and attractive to the European farming and forestry community.

The webinar included “hands-on” testing of and feedback to the platform by participants. They appreciated having all project results in one place, as well as the search function and layout.  9 out of the 28 participants are part of multi-actor projects. All participants were invited to join the multi-actor community and be part of the journey, which will continue in the recently approved 7-year follow-up project EU FarmBook.

With Horizon Europe, there will be many more multi-actor projects. The new project will build upon EURAKNOS & EUREKA to support knowledge exchange between all EU and national Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) actors by further developing, expanding, exploiting, and maintaining an easily accessible and user-friendly EU-wide digital platform for practitioners in agriculture, forestry and other rural sectors.

As IFOAM Organics Europe, we will bring in our network into this project, too, and help make the material on the platform ready for organic practitioners. For example, developing and promoting education and training material for organic farmers and translating knowledge into user-friendly formats.

The recording of the webinar is available via our member extranet, under Research & Innovation. Thank you to all those who attended and for contributing to the discussion!

If you are reading this article, the odds are high that you are interested in attending the online closing conference of EUREKA on 29 March. For more information and registration consult the EUREKA website.

The feasibility of an EU-wide digital knowledge reservoir was first explored by the EURAKNOS project, based on the outputs of Horizon 2020 Thematic Networks. This assessment was extended to a ‘proof of concept’ by the subsequent EUREKA project, working with other multi-actor Horizon 2020 projects. As a partner in both projects, IFOAM Organics Europe made sure that the new platform suits the needs of the organic actors.

EURAKNOS enhanced the EU’s agricultural knowledge base by co-creating “the network to connect all Thematic Networks”. IFOAM Organics Europe’s role was to report on similar existing initiatives, capacity building through cross-exchange visits, networking as well as communication and dissemination. EURAKNOS was an EU Horizon 2020-funded project.

Visit its website on www.euraknos.eu as well as the Explorer’s Guide on the European Commission Portal: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/horizon-results-platform/39948

EUREKA has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 862790

 
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