…brought together a range of multidisciplinary perspectives to improve understanding of the role played by different providers of farm advisory services, both formal and informal; to strengthen knowledge flows; to enhance learning and stimulate innovation across different types of farms in Europe.

The project started with a comprehensive conceptual framework, followed by research work to investigate how farmers gather, exchange and use different sources of information. In parallel, six Living Labs are testing new and improved links between farmers, public and private advisors and researchers to co-create more innovative and effective support services.

As a multi-stakeholder project, Agrilink had two sets of important objectives guiding the academic and field work, as follows:

At the academic level

• Develop a theoretical framework using a multi-level perspective;
• Identify, in detail, the role of regional FAS (R-FAS) in innovation development;
• Testing how different governance models and funding schemes support (or do not support) farmers’ micro-AKIS;

At applied level

• Develop recommendations for improving farm advisory systems from a multi-level perspective;
• Test and validate innovative advisory tools and services to better link research and practice;
• Developing new learning and interaction methods for fruitful exchanges between farmers, researchers and advisors, with a focus on the needs of advisors to acquire new skills and roles;