How to initiate, accelerate and make use of innovations in agriculture is a key question for researchers, policy advisers, initiatives and networks, as well as decision makers and public authorities. Innovations in agriculture – this is the subject on which Professor Anna Maria Häring from Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development has specialised in the field of politics and markets in the agricultural and food industry.

Innovations in agriculture are funded by the European Union mainly as part of the Horizon 2020 European Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. But universities of applied sciences often neither have the human resources nor the time to attract several partners and to prepare an elaborate application for an EU project in close coordination with these partners over several months.

Therefore, Professor Anna Maria Häring initially applied for a preparatory project for an EU project within the framework of the EU-Antrag-FH funding line. She was awarded the grant for her OSIRIS project and thus received funds for one year from September 2016 to prepare, with her team, an EU project called LIAISON based on the multi-stakeholder approach.

Overcoming challenges in EU application process

While preparing the EU application, Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development had to overcome quite a few challenges: first, the researchers intensively checked the application text for all content and formal objectives. A second important milestone was the acquisition of experienced practical partners, in this case from associations, research institutions and politics, who in turn can establish links with key persons from EU institutions. The core of the application was then the joint planning of suitable work packages – taking into account the expected project duration, personnel capacities and finances. Finally, relevant research approaches as well as core questions and hypotheses regarding content were developed, discussed and refined with the future cooperation partners.

The application went through a two-stage process with the EU and was successful: on 1 May 2018, the EU project LIAISON (“Better Rural Innovation: Linking Actors, Instruments and Policies through Networks”) launched under the coordination of Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development for 42 months. EU funding for the overall project amounts to around five million euros, of which the EUSD will receive around 840,000 euros.

Using group projects to accelerate innovative approaches in agriculture

The content background of the LIASION project is that, according to the EU Commission, innovations in agriculture serve to produce more agricultural products with fewer resources in the future. These can be product innovations – such as a new exhaust air filter in the cow barn – or process innovations that put technologies into a new context. One example of such an innovation is the GPS system, which was first developed by the military, then used in agriculture as part of precision farming and can now be found in almost every car as a navigation aid.

The EU project LIAISON aims to contribute to the strengthening of innovative group projects and to the further development of effective instruments and political concepts for innovative agriculture. The challenges regarding sustainability of production and processing are manifold, which is why research is being conducted on how innovation processes in agriculture, forestry and rural areas can be accelerated by bringing together the responsible stakeholders at an early stage and by supporting joint efforts. Initial results of the LIAISON social science project show that innovations in agriculture can often only be successfully researched in an interdisciplinary manner if intensive interaction between the stakeholders is established at an early stage. A joint innovation idea can only be successfully implemented later on a foundation of reciprocal exchange based on mutual trust. It is also clear, however, that the cultural imprint in the European member states can be very different in this regard and that regionally adapted approaches are therefore of great importance. Research can, in turn, lay the groundwork for this, that is, identify important criteria for success and propose suitable, cooperative approaches.

The BMBF supports EU applications to enable UAS to raise their profile in terms of content and methods

The BMBF funding has not only enabled Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development to further expand its thematic focus on innovative agriculture, but also to formulate a successful EU project proposal, thus expanding its previous experience with proposal planning and application as part of large consortia. This will also be a very good basis for future applications in Germany. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research has supported the OSIRIS research project with about 39,753 euros within the framework of the EU-Antrag-FH funding line as part of the Research at Universities of Applied Sciences programme.