Forming 33 national networks and activating 11 of them is a complex work that ran over the first 15 months of the LiveNet project. Between 30th of March and 1st of April, LiveNet held its first Annual Meeting, having more than 30 participants gathered in Dublin to reflect on the project’s progress and co-design the roadmap for the next period.
A key highlight of the meeting was the participation of all 11 National Network Leaders (NNLs), who shared the successes and challenges encountered while activating their respective national networks and selecting the first batch of Innovative Advisory Practices (IAPs). Innovative Advisory Practices use farmer-focused methods like training, farm walks, coaching, and demos to address key agricultural challenges with practical solutions. They are adaptable to local contexts and guided by inclusivity, sustainability, and evidence-based approaches. This first step in IAPs selection will guide two key aspects of the project: organising cross-visits for knowledge exchange and capacity building and scaling up IAPs in other countries for strengthening the advisory services across Europe.
HCC’s Role: Bridging regional and national advisory services to national and European AKIS ecosystems
Highclere Consulting coordinates Work Area 4 (WA4), which focuses on embedding national networks into the broader European networks and the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS). During the first 15 months of the project, we focused on:
- Mapping of the current advisory support for sustainable livestock production systems: We worked closely with all 11 NNLs and 16 Associated Network Leaders (ANLs) to map their current advisory support, which represented the first step in network formation. This comprehensive work will soon be publicly available as Deliverable 1.1 on the LiveNet website.
- Mapping of relevant projects, organisations, policy interventions, expert groups, value chain initiatives and other key AKIS actors: We completed and launched this mapping at regional, national, EU and international levels. This mapping is contributing to the further expansion of NNLs and ANLs, to the activities run by the 4 Thematic Leaders (TLs) and ensures that national efforts are effectively integrated into the national and European AKIS ecosystems.
- Participation in EU CAP Network initiatives: HCC participated in two EU CAP Network initiatives (Thematic Group on sustainable and competitive livestock and seminar on innovative tools for advisors), where we communicated about the project and networked with EU-level organisations, further developing the structure of work area 4.
Next steps for LiveNet project
HCC’s commitment to fostering resilient and sustainable food systems through multi-actor engagement remains at the core of our work. By supporting the transfer of knowledge between livestock advisors and by embedding the developed networks into the national and EU AKIS ecosystems, HCC contributes to achieving one of the LiveNet project main’s objectives: to develop an EU-wide network of livestock advisory actors that support a sustainable livestock production. In the next 12 months, the project will work towards:
- Further selection of IAPs to ensure the thematic areas, livestock sectors and methods diversity among the IAPs.
- Organizing the first rounds of cross-visits to facilitate knowledge exchange and peer-to-peer learning.
- Implementing the scaling up process which strengthens the advisory services across Europe.
- Fully operationalising the Advisory AgriHub platform, a key digital tool for the modern livestock advisors.
Keep an eye on HCC (website and LinkedIn page) and LiveNet (website and LinkedIn page) for updates regarding the LiveNet project, our role in it and upcoming publications.
