Innovating for organics. Organic agriculture in EIP-AGRI Operational Groups

Summary

EIP-AGRI, or the European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability, was launched by the European Commission in 2012 to foster a competitive and sustainable agricultural (and forestry) sector. EIP-AGRI takes into account the complex nature of innovation, which depends not only on the solidity of a creative idea, but also on its practical application and the willingness of farmers and practitioners to take it up. In this way, EIP-AGRI defines a real innovation as “an idea put into practice with success”. Therefore, EIP-AGRI brings together actors with complementary knowledge (farmers, advisors, researchers, businesses, NGOs, etc.) to devise innovative responses to concrete problems and to develop academic findings into practical applications.
EIP-AGRI has a EU level component and a national component. The EU level component is funded through Horizon 2020, the EU’s framework programme for research and innovation.
This brochure focuses on the national component, which are the Operational Groups funded by the Rural Development Programmes of Member States and regions. Operational Groups are innovation projects that tackle specific practical issues and opportunities according to the needs of the agricultural (or forestry) sector.
The composition of Operational Groups should be tailored to the objectives of the specific project and may vary from project to project. They can be made up of - for instance farmers, farmers’ organisations, advisers, researchers, NGOs, businesses or anyone else who is well placed to help realise the project's goals. Operational Groups are funded in all Member States, except for Denmark, Estonia and Luxembourg. In total 3218 groups are expected to be funded in the period 2014-2020. With only around 300 started yet, the bulk of them still needs to be selected and approved by national or regional authorities.