Innovation is high on the agenda, in view of the deep economic crisis and the challenges of feeding 9 billion people in 2050 in a more sustainable way. For an effective and efficient response the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (Akis) needs to innovate itself and adopt new ways of working.

This paper, presented at the 12th European IFSA Symposium (Workshop: "Generating spaces for innovation in agricultural and rural development") in 2016, aims to summarise the main features of the AgriSpin project. The project is being financed by the Horizon 2020 research program of the European Commission aiming at contributing to system-oriented innovation research in agriculture and as complementary to the policy instrument EIP AGRI. The idea behind EIP AGRI is that innovation emerges from interaction between stakeholders.

The European Innovation Partnership for agricultural productivity and sustainability (EIP-AGRI), which can be perceived as a platform based on interaction among farmers, researchers, and advisors/extensionists, represents a useful tool for a better understanding of applied innovation processes.

Multi-actors networks are increasingly used by farmers to link between them and to be interactively connected with other partners, such as advisory organizations, local governments, universities, and non-farm organizations. Given the importance assigned to the agricultural innovation by EU resorting to the networking between the research chain actors and the farmers, a strong focus on enhancing the creation of learning and innovation networks is expected.

Although innovation is understood to encompass much more than R&D, science continues to be an essential ingredient. In particular translation, adaptation and ‘valorisation’ of research results, the responsiveness of research to users’ needs and improved access to results are all regarded as important in achieving a more sustainable European agriculture. These challenges can be addressed in a number of ways including increased collaboration, networking, transdisciplinary research and co-operation between researchers and practitioners.

This paper relates the European Innovation Partnerships (EIP) to be implemented by Operational Groups (OGs) in Basilicata. New relationships and regeneration produced a “bio-economic Cluster”, creating “smart” specialization and a system linking research, innovation and the enterprise world. The Cluster consolidated competence and knowledge in small and medium enterprises, including agriculture and forest farms and encouraged the dissemination and implementation of innovative products and processes.

This paper is aimed at raising the discussion on frameworks and practices to analyse and support of innovation processes of operational groups in rural development policy. The analysis highlights an increasing interest of the current evaluation and research practices on interactive innovation processes, collaborative learning and capacity development both at individual, collective and systems levels. Particularly, transformative-oriented frameworks have been developed in view of supporting capacity development in innovation systems

The farmer-inventors mostly use tacit knowledge and practical skills to create their inventions with the objective of increasing efficiency as a means to improving family farm viability. Farmer-inventors with entrepreneurial intentions were less inclined to share their ideas freely and described financial and temporal constraints in commercialising their inventions. The Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS) concept was used to frame an analysis of farmer-inventors’ interactions with innovation support organisations from the perspective of the farmers themselves.

The study relies on the activities performed within EU funded Horizon 2020 project, AgriSpin (www.agrispin.eu), specifically for the case of Cilento Bio-district in Campania region, Italy. The methodology is centred on the “cross-visit method” developed within the AgriSpin Project, based on direct observation, interviews with relevant actors and analysis of grey literature.

This paper explores the potential of Actor Network Theory (ANT) in understanding how the process of interaction and translation between human and non-human actors contribute to the development, adoption and diffusion of science-based innovations linked to the transition to organic farming. The study relies on two case studies, the French Camargue case covering a range of technical and social innovations, and the case from Bulgaria focusing on the development of a technical and product innovation, i.e. a veterinary product for organic beekeeping.