Review of events
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.
The recordings of the first three ‘Let’s discuss organic’ sessions are now available for our members on our member extranet!
On 3 February, expert Anne-Claire Asselin, President of X-Food, Expert Environment and Biodiversity at Sayari, and Sabine Bonnot, President of ITAB, presented recent developments of the PlanetScore and answered audience questions.
On 10 March, IFOAM Organic Europe’s Director, Eduardo Cuoco, and Communications Manager, Eva Berckmans, hosted a session on the EU Organic Awards and EU Organic Day. IFOAM Organics Europe’s members from Bioforum Vlaanderen, the Soil association, the Czech Technology Platform for Organic Agriculture and our colleagues of IFOAM Organics – International presented their inspirational activities to organise on EU Organic Day and to promote and celebrate organic.
On 14 March, TP Organics hosted a webinar about the European R&I partnership on agroecology living labs and research infrastructures. Several experts on the subject shared the stage and gave our members answers to the question what the agroecology living labs are about and how they can get involved.
Thank you to all those who attended and for contributing to the discussion!
Do not miss out on the upcoming “Let’s Discuss Organic!” webinars:
- Thursday, 7 April from 14:00-15:30 CET: Organic Textiles. Hosted by Antoine Pauti, Policy Assistant on Agriculture, Environment and Food at IFOAM Organics Europe.
- Tuesday, 10 May from 14:00-15:30 CET: Revision of the Directive on the Sustainable Use of pesticides (SUD).
- Hosted by Mathilde Calmels, Policy Coordinator on Pesticides, Fertilisers and Natural Inputs at IFOAM Organics Europe.
Our members can register to ‘Let’s discuss organic’ on our member extranet.
Are you an IFOAM Organics Europe member who is interested in the sessions but cannot attend them? Do not worry, recordings will be available on the extranet afterwards.
Are you interested in these sessions but not an IFOAM Organics Europe member? Contact [email protected] for information about what you can gain from being a member.
In the run-up to the BIOFACH / VIVANESS Summer Edition taking place from 26 – 29 July 2022, the organisers, including IFOAM – Organics International and BÖLW, Bund Ökologische Lebensmittelwirtschaft, together with the organiser of the exhibition duo, NürnbergMesse, presented interesting facts and figures on the development of organic farming and the organic market nationally and internationally.
Curious? If you are a German speaker, you can now watch the congress presentation and the press conference videos on Youtube. These videos allow you to gain insights about the upcoming world’s leading trade fair for organic food.
Visit the BIOFACH website for further information and news videos.