@misc{orgprints2938,
           title = {Coordination of European Transnational Research in Organic Food and Farming. Work package 5: Sharing and developing best practice for evaluating organic research},
            year = {2004},
        keywords = {Organic farming, Research network, ERA-NET Scheme, Coordination of national research activities, FiBL, Agroscope, CORE Organic, Biolandbau, Forschungsnetzwerk, ERA-NET, Ressortforschung, FiBL, Agroscope},
             url = {http://orgprints.org/2938/},
        abstract = {General description of the overall project (Coordination DARCOF, Denmark)

Short description
CORE Organic is a transnational partnership where resources within research in organic food and farming are joined.
The aim is to enhance the quality, relevance and utilisation of resources in European research in organic food and farming through coordination and collaboration.
The project is initiated as a part of the European Commissions ERA-NET Scheme, which intends to step up cooperation between national research activities.


Objectives
CORE Organic will contribute to strengthen the foundation of the European Research Area for research in organic food and farming by:
- Setting up of a common Internet portal for communication www.coreportal.org/
Building open common Internet databases for publications and research programmes www.orgprints.org
- Mapping and analysing existing research programmes, activities and facilities
- Coordinating existing research and integrating knowledge within organic research
- Sharing and developing best practice for evaluating organic research
- Identifying and prioritising future research topics in organic food and farming
- Coordinating and implementing future research topics with joint funding 

Literature 
- Lange, Stefan; Williges, Ute; Saxena, Shilpi und Willer, Helga, (Hrsg.) (2006) Research in Organic Food and Farming. Reports on organisation and conduction of research programmes in 11 European countries. Bundesanstalt f?r Landwirtschaft und Ern?hrung (BLE) / Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food BLE, Bonn, Germany. Archived at: http://orgprints.org/8798/
- Alf?ldi, Thomas; Niggli, Urs; Willer, Helga; Fried, Padruot M.; Strasser, Fredi; Dubois, David; Baumann, Daniel; Kaufmann, Robert; Gallmann, Peter und Charles, Raphael (2006) Country Report on Organic Farming Research in Switzerland. In: Lange, Stefan; Williges, Ute; Saxena, Shilpi und Willer, Helga, (Hrsg.). European Research in Organic Food and Farming. Reports on organisation and conduction of research programmes in 11 European countries, pp. 249-266. Bundesanstalt f?r Landwirtschaft und Ern?hrung (BLE) / Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food BLE, Bonn, Germany. Archived at: http://orgprints.org/8758/

State of the work

State of the Work
As a result of the cooperation in the CORE Organic ERA-NET, a pilot call for joint transnational research projects in organic food and farming was launched in late 2006.

Following a comprehensive evaluation procedure eight research projects were selected for joint, transnational funding by means of a virtual, common pot approach.
The eight research projects are:
- Methods to improve quality in organic wheat
Acronym: AGTEC-Org (project no. 1180) Further information at http://agtec.coreportal.org
- Planning for better animal health and welfare
Acronym: ANIPLAN (project no. 1903) Further information at http://aniplan.coreportal.org
- How to communicate ethical values
Aconym: FCP (project no. 1897) Further information at http://fcp.coreportal.org
- A tool to prevent diseases and parasites in organic pig herds
Acronym: COREPIG (project no. 1904)  Further information at http://corepig.coreportal.org
- More organic food for young people
Acronym: iPOPY (project no. 1881)  Further information at http://ipopy.coreportal.org
- Assessing and Reducing Risks of Pathogen Contamination
Acronym: PathOrganic (project no. 1888)  Further information at http://pathorganic.coreportal.org
- What makes organic milk healthy?
Acronym: PHYTOMILK (project no. 1921)  Further information at http://phytomilk.coreportal.org
- How to assure safety, health and sensory qualities of organic products
Acronym: QACCP (project no. 1885)  Further information at http://qaccp.coreportal.org



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Description of Workpackage 5: Sharing and developing best practice for evaluating organic research 


Many European countries have developed research programmes addressing the organic farm and food system. These national research programmes in organic farming vary strongly in size, complexity, depth and duration they have been in place. 

In all countries, funding agencies have entered new ground with these programmes and face various problems when evaluating proposals and monitoring the outreach of programmes and projects. Although the criteria for scientific excellence are the same for organic research activities, some additional requirements have to be met: Whereas most of the agricultural research projects are disciplinary and programmes are designed in a multidisciplinary way, organic farming research requires a consistent interdisciplinary understanding of methods and results. 

In addition, the organic farm and food system makes a strong claim to consider social and ethical impacts of farming and how research interferes, a claim often difficult for funding agencies and researches to cope with. 

To conclude, funding agencies and programme manager have a strong interest to jointly develop best practice of evaluation and quality assurance in this new research area.




Work will include
- Mapping of existing evaluation criteria and procedures for the construction and implementation of research programmes and projects as well as methodologies in specific areas in each participating state. 
- Critically analysing evaluation criteria and procedures in place and discussing specific practices together with opinion leaders of the organic farm and food system (e.g. contradictory interest of scientists to publish in scientific journals and the organic farm and food system to participate in research as it is practised in transdisciplinary research approaches)
- Developing a set of criteria and procedures and a checklist in order to facilitate evaluations of projects and programmes (widely accepted Terms of Reference, TOR)
- Training of experts for the evaluation of research projects and programmes in organic farming

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}