Evaluation of innovation partnership effectiveness in agriculture

Abstract

The agricultural European Innovation Partnership (EIP-AGRI) was launched by the Europe Commission in 2012. EIP focus on social benefits and fast modernization. They support the cooperation between research and innovation partners so that they are able to achieve better and faster results. Importance of innovations in light of the efforts towards development of sustainable and competitive agriculture has been increasingly put on the agenda of discussions among researchers and practitioners. The challenge of feeding 9 billion people on the planet is predicted in 2050. Hence, there is a period of considerable transformations ahead of the agricultural sector. The goal in food production will be to cut down on the use of resources as much as possible, providing the maximum possible social benefit to farmers and communities at the same time. Implementation of all these changes reasonably implies coordinated and large-scale involvement and participation of stakeholders of the agricultural sector. These objectives may be addressed by encouraging more active participation between researchers, farmers and other stakeholders of the sector, more rapid transition of achievements in technology from the research level to the farming practice, and more systematic collection of feedback information on actual needs in the farming practice that would call for innovative, research-based solutions. In order to speed up the innovations that would help address the pressing social issues, the European Commission has put forward the idea of the European Innovation Partnerships under the framework of flagship initiative Innovation Union.