The LIAISON project aimed to better understand what makes a partnership successful for innovation. Why do some partnerships have the ability to organise, capture new ideas, nurture them and create something new? How do these partnerships test these new ideas and turn them into something with a real practical application? How do they fully and effectively spread the news of their success?

Competition results

A total of 220 businesses, projects and initiatives entered the competition from 21 EU Member States and 2 neighbouring countries. An international jury of independent professional experts selected 15 of them as European Rural Innovation Ambassadors representing a wide variety of innovative groups from different sectors and geographical areas.

Each selected ambassador received personalised promotional materials, international recognition and multiple networking opportunities.

All ambassadors were awarded at the European Rural Innovation Competition Awards Ceremony, which took place on 3 December 2019 in Brussels, organised during the annual Organic Innovation Days event, organised in collaboration with IFOAM EU and TP Organics.

The Ambassador of Rural Innovation in Romania is the Nod Verde project of the Civitas Foundation.

Valentin Filip, programme director of the Foundation, tells us that Nod Verde is about local producers with good products that don’t easily reach consumers. They have set up a system that offers this option, namely to order local agri-food products at home or find them at your favourite restaurant.

This project has over 40 producer-suppliers involved, over 600 conscious consumers connected to local produce and over 10 restaurants that have the alternative of constantly sourcing local produce.

More details about the 15 Rural Innovation Ambassadors can be found here and here.

EURIC Journey

This is the story of the 15 Rural Innovation Ambassadors