I2connect – connecting advisors to boost innovation

“The i2connect project will strengthen the skills of advisors to encourage and support interactive innovation in the farm and forestry sectors. The project will identify actors and inspiring examples throughout Europe, train trainers and advisors in innovation support and create a network to support these activities in the long term.” - Sylvain Sturel, Project Coordinator 

The i2connect project “Connecting advisers to boost interactive innovation in agriculture and forestry” was officially launched during its kick-off meeting in Rome on the 25 and 26 November 2019. It was attended by 49 participants from the 24 beneficiary organizations and most of the Third party organizations.  

The project aims to fuel the competencies of advisors who will support and facilitate interactive innovation processes responding to multiple challenges in European agriculture and forestry.  In particular, i2connect project’s main objectives are:

1. To strengthen the skills, competencies and attitudes of advisors to support interactive innovation, by identifying and sharing best practices, developing tools and methods, training, and organizing peer to peer learning & networking;
2. To enhance and profile the role of advisors in interactive innovation processes, at different scales: by a better understanding of the Agriculture and Forestry Knowledge and Innovation System (AFKIS) at country level, by identifying providers of advisory services across Europe, by creating an enabling environment within advisory services, by better connecting and embedding advisory services within the AFKIS and by appropriate public policies;
3. To create a social support network and a networking culture among advisors facilitating innovative innovation processes. 

The strategy in i2connect is to use the existing advisor networks and the experiences of success in different contexts 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 actors supporting agriculture and forestry on the ground and must be influenced in this project to support interactively innovation with particular emphasis on EIP-AGRI 2020 target of 3,500 operational groups and beyond.   

An inventory will be made of 100 practical cases of advisory practices in Europe. 40 Best Practices throughout Europe will be analyzed in an interactive way to guide the development of approaches and tools, and to be studied as part of the training program for advisors. A pool of 50 trainers and 30 facilitators will be trained to work with these materials in training and coaching advisors. 600 advisors will be trained in innovation support during 40 training sessions and 80 of them may participate in 8 cross-visits for studying interesting cases abroad. 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. These activities feed into a professional network with many local branches, supported by the project through a moderated online platform for mutual coaching, sharing experiences. Other important achievements of the projects are: 

• 4 excellence classes and 80 managers trained;
• 3 summer school for students and 80 teachers and students trained;
• 13 pilot projects for testing best practices under different conditions and creating showcases under specific circumstances;
• 4 regional innovation workshops and 2 project conferences.   

Project Coordinator- Sylvain Sturel: sylvain.sturel@apca.chambagri.fr 

Project Manager- Carmen Avellaner de Santos: carmen.avellaner@apca.chambagri.fr 

Twitter: @i2connect_eu

LinkedIn: @i2connect_eu

www.i2connect.com  

PHOTO : Chambre d'agriculture du Lot