Innovation rests not only on discovery but also on cooperation and interactive learning. In agriculture, forestry and related sectors, multi-actor partnerships for ‘co-innovation’ occur in many forms, from international projects to informal ‘actor configurations’. Common attributes are that they include actors with ‘complementary forms of knowledge’ who collaborate in an innovation process, engage with a ‘larger periphery’ of stakeholders in the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS) and are shaped by institutions. Using desk research and interviews, we reviewed, according to the Organisational Innovation Systems framework, the performance of 200 co-innovation partnerships from across Europe, selected for their involvement of various actors ‘all along the process’. Many of the reviewed partnerships were composed of actors that had previously worked together and most interviewees believed that no relevant actors had been excluded. In almost all cases, project targets and objectives were co-designed to a great or some extent, and the mechanisms applied to foster knowledge sharing between partners were considered to be very effective. Great importance was attached to communication beyond the partnership, not simply for dissemination but also for dialogue, and most interviewees evaluated the communication/outreach performance of their partnership very highly. Most partnerships received external funding, most did not use innovation brokers during the proposal writing process and two thirds had access to information they needed. We discuss the implications of these findings and question whether the AKIS concept as currently interpreted by many policy makers can adequately account for the regional differences encountered by co-innovation partnerships across Europe.

创新不仅取决于发现，还取决于合作和互动学习。在农业，林业和相关领域，从国际项目到非正式的“参与者配置”，多种形式的“共同创新”伙伴关系出现了。共同的特征是，他们包括具有“互补形式的知识”的参与者，他们在创新过程中进行协作，与农业知识与创新系统（AKIS）的利益相关者的“更大范围”互动，并由机构塑造。通过案头研究和访谈，我们根据组织创新系统框架对来自欧洲各地的200个共同创新合作伙伴的绩效进行了评估，这些合作伙伴是根据各个参与者在整个过程中的参与而选定的。许多经过审查的伙伴关系都是由以前合作过的演员组成的，大多数受访者认为没有排除任何相关演员。在几乎所有情况下，项目目标和目的都是在一定程度上进行了共同设计的，并且被认为是用来促进合作伙伴之间知识共享的机制非常有效。伙伴关系以外的沟通非常重要，不仅是传播，还包括对话。大多数受访者非常评价伙伴关系的沟通/外展表现。大多数合作伙伴都获得了外部资金，大多数合作伙伴在提案撰写过程中没有使用创新经纪人，三分之二的人可以访问所需的信息。