ABSTRACT

Purpose: Networks and partnerships are commonly-used tools to foster knowledge sharing between actors and organisations in the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS), but in Europe the policy emphasis on including users, such as farmers and foresters, is relatively recent. This paper assesses user involvement in a diverse set of European Union (EU)-funded and non-EU (formal and informal) multi-actor partnerships.

Design/methodology/approach: A review of 200 projects and other partnerships including farmers and foresters, drawn from an integrated database of several thousand such examples, assessed the types of innovation challenges tackled, solutions proposed, innovation supported, parameters of actor participation and the expectations of success in each example.

Findings: All the reviewed policy instruments, not just those funded in the frame of the EIP-AGRI, can be used to involve users in co-innovation in agriculture, forestry and related value chains.

Practical implications: The EIP-AGRI is just one part of a complex matrix of multi-actor co-innovation activities involving farmers and foresters in Europe. Interlinking of innovation programmes and more effective targeting of these programmes at groups of actors, especially users, who are currently not sufficiently engaged are worthy aspirations.

Theoretical implications: Any analysis of co-innovation involving users must recognise the existence of a multiplicity (projects, non-project activities, formal and informal) of multi-actor approaches.

Originality/value: This research used a common methodology to review several forms of multi-actor partnerships involving users and other actors. Our data suggest that many of these are effective methods of supporting co-innovation and are, therefore, ‘sharing the space’ within the AKIS.

摘要

目的：网络和伙伴关系是促进农业知识和创新系统（AKIS）中的参与者和组织之间知识共享的常用工具，但是在欧洲，强调包括农民和林农等用户的政策相对较新。本文评估了用户是否参与了由欧盟（EU）资助的和非EU（正式和非正式）的多参与者合作伙伴。

设计/方法/方法：从包含数千个此类示例的综合数据库中对200个项目和其他合作伙伴（包括农民和林业者）进行审查，评估了所解决的创新挑战的类型，提出的解决方案，支持的创新，参与者参与的参数以及每个例子中对成功的期望。

结果：所有经过审查的政策工具，而不仅仅是在EIP-AGRI框架内资助的政策工具，都可以用于使用户参与农业，林业和相关价值链的共同创新。

实际意义： EIP-AGRI只是涉及欧洲农民和林业者的多参与者共同创新活动复杂矩阵的一部分。创新计划的相互联系以及将这些计划更有效地针对目前尚未充分参与的行动者群体，尤其是用户，是值得向往的。

理论意义：任何涉及用户的合作创新分析都必须认识到存在多种因素（项目，非项目活动，正式和非正式）。

原创性/价值：这项研究使用一种通用方法来审查涉及用户和其他参与者的多种形式的多参与者伙伴关系。我们的数据表明，其中许多是支持共同创新的有效方法，因此是AKIS内部的“共享空间”。