On the 22nd and 23rd of April 2024, the Agriculture Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) Coordination Bodies 3rd General Assembly took place in Madrid, Spain, with 95 representatives from 28 EU countries, and the Horizon Europe network AdvisoryNetPEST was presented.
The main objectives of this General Assembly were to deepen peer-to-peer and best practice exchange on the role of advisors and innovation support services in AKIS. Also, the goals were to share experiences between AKIS Coordination Bodies and to promote the networking. In addition, it was important to discuss how to better integrate advisors and advisory networks in the AKIS and how to use the results and analyse advisory measures for the AKIS Strategic Plans.
To accomplish these goals, and to better integrate the advisory networks in the AKIS work, several projects were invited to participate and to present their main objectives and ideas on how this integration could be achieved. The AdvisoryNetPEST – EU ADVISORY NETworks to reduce the use and risks of PESTicides was presented by its Coordinator Dina Lopes, Director of Research and Innovation at CONSULAI. Along with otherEU Advisory Networks already in action (as ATRACTISS, i2connect, ModernAKIS, PREMIERE and others) and some beginners (as OrganicAdviceNetwork and STRATUS), there was a fruitful discussion with the AKIS Coordination Bodies about the AKIS role and what to expect from these synergies.
As next steps, the advisory networks planned to work together, to keep each other informed and collaborate with national AKIS representatives on how best to integrate innovation into the agricultural sector in each Member State and at EU level.
