On 25 and 26 January 2023, the first meeting of the newly established Social Farming and Innovations Focus Group will take place in Prague within the framework of the EIP-AGRI (European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability). Launched by the European Commission in 2012, EIP-AGRI brings together innovation drivers (farmers, advisors, researchers, businesses, NGOs, etc.) in a global EIP network to connect research with practice. In its ten years of operation, EIP-AGRI has created 49 Expert Groups, the last three at the end of 2022, with one of the new groups being the Focus Group Social Farming and Innovations.
Twenty experts from twelve European countries were appointed to the partnership on the basis of a selection process, including agricultural practitioners, research organisations, consultancies and the non-profit sector. The Czech Republic is represented in the group by Associate Professor Moudrý from the Faculty of Agriculture and Technology of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice along with Dr Hudcová from Charles University.
The aim of the group is to assess the current state of social farming at European level, identify the main challenges and opportunities, gather examples of good practices and, last but not least, set recommendations for priority innovation actions and research projects, including Horizon Europe programmes.
Full list of members and the description of the group at:
https://eu-cap-network.ec.europa.eu/social-farming-and-innovations_en
