Blogs / 10 January 2019
The disruptive power of technology 2018 has been a year when the disruptive potential of upcoming digital technologies and automation was on everybody’s lips. We are being told that 37% of the EU population does not have basic digitization skills and is therefore in need of re-educating itself – not…
Blogs / 9 January 2019
Rural areas across Europe are undergoing rapid change. On the one hand, persistent challenges, such as poor infrastructure, low quality rural services and the outmigration of young people, continue to put many rural communities under pressure and are rapidly accelerating their decline. On the other hand, there are also new…
Blogs / 3 December 2018
In November 28 – 29th 2018 Highclere Consulting, together with our financial consultant Mr Ion Dumitru, organized two Living Lab sessions with 32 members of the Cooperativa Agricolă Carrefour Vărăști in Giurgiu county. The event was the culmination of several months of preparatory work with the local community of smallholders…
Blogs / 31 October 2018
What did I and Irina do in Leuven? Mid September 2018 we re-joined our colleagues from Italy, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Latvia and Norway to the second full meeting of this year of the Living Labs teams. We met again in Leuven. The objectives were to catch up on each…
Blogs / 17 June 2018
The main problems that cause small farmers in Bistrița-Năsăud to produce less are the very low prices offered by intermediaries for the raw products, the lack of the necessary work force for daily activities and the low level of subsidies. This information was received directly from the field on the…
Blogs / 13 May 2018
In April 2018 I met with two farmers’ groups that were potential candidates for the Living Lab. Following these meetings, we had very long discussions about whether we could work with both, as we planned. In the end we decided that we would go for Vărăști; we will still…