The four year EU FP7 project Valerie (VALorising European Research for Innovation in agriculturE and forestry) started on 1 January and the kick off meeting took place 16-17 January in Wageningen, the Netherlands. This project brings together 14 partners from 6 countries across Europe.
Many EU and nationally funded research projects in the fields of agriculture and forestry provide excellent results, but the outreach and translation of these results and bringing them into practice is limited.
The overall aim of VALERIE is to boost the outreach of research by translating research findings into understandable language so that practitioners can use it. Other teams will be working together with the practitioners such as farmers, foresters and public and private farmer and forest owner associations. In 10 different case studies, the VALERIE team members will evaluate together with the practitioners which scientific innovations would be needed to improve current management in agriculture and forestry. Hereafter, the practitioners will select some of the most needed or promising innovative field practices to be tested in practice.
Another aim of the project is to develop a ‘Communication Facility’. Most results of EU and national research project are not used because the results are hard to interpret and disguised by inconceivable scientific or political language. The “Communication Facility” is actually an improved search engine focused particularly on agriculture and forestry, which would make it more likely for practitioners to find the information they are looking for and present it in an understandable language. The “Communication Facility” will not only make new knowledge available to practitioners but it will also enable them to share their knowledge, experiences and views with colleagues and peers across Europe.
EFI covers forestry expertise in this project and cooperates with stakeholders in two case studies in Finland and Spain. EFI’s main task will be to make scientific research results useful to practitioners.
Project partners
1. Stichting Dienst Landbouwkundig Onderzoek (DLO, Netherlands)
2. Institut National de Recherche Agronomique (INRA, France)
3. Università degli Studi di Milano (UMIL, Italy)
4. The University of Gloucestershire (CCRI) (UGLO, UK)
5. Università degli Studi di Torino (UNITO, Italy)
6. European Forest Institute (EFI, Finland)
7. IT-Objects GmbH (ITO, Germany)
8. ADAS UK Ltd. (ADAS, UK)
9. Association de Coordination Technique Agricole (ACTA, France)
10. DLV Plant B.V. (DLV, Netherlands)
11. Cadir Lab S.r.l. (Cadir Lab, Italy)
12. Union of Silviculturalists of Southern Europe (USSE, Spain)
13. Forestry Development Centre TAPIO (TAPIO, Finland)
14. Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT, UK)
More info at the project website: http://www.valerie.eu/ (last visited 25.7.2018)