Successful midterm meeting for the FACCE SURPLUS 1st call
Representatives from the FACCE SURPLUS 1st call projects met in Paris for two days full of knowledge sharing and new input on topics such as science-policy interface and industrial valorization. The midterm meeting took place in November 2017, and now a midterm meeting report is presented.
The projects from the 1st FACCE SURPLUS call are running smoothly, and at the midterm meeting the representatives from the different projects had the opportunity of obtaining information on each other’s projects and share experiences. For this purpose, each project holder had prepared midterm posters. The posters may be downloaded on the webpage for each project. Find the overview of the projects here.
The FACCE SURPLUS project coordinator, Nicolas Tinois, is pleased with the progress of the 1st call projects.
- There are no major deviations and the funders are happy with the funded projects. With regards to the midterm meeting, we could see from the feedbacks that the project holders were very positive about the seminar, in particular the dynamic sessions, says Nicolas Tinois.
Great turnout and ideas for the future work
As the project coordinator, Nicolas Tinois takes into consideration the input from the project holders about the frames provided by the coordinating team.
- In the future, we will pay even more attention to the communication, valorisation and stakeholder involvement. Also, linking to other FACCE-JPI projects should be emphasized in the future, says Nicolas Tinois.
The project coordinator was happy to see the great turnout at the midterm meeting.
- I send a great thank you to all the participants, in particular the projects holders. I would also like to mention all those who organized and contributed actively to the midterm meeting, says Nicolas Tinois.
Lessons from the workshops
At the meeting, the project representatives participated in workshops focusing on the topics science-policy interface, knowledge transfer and industrial valorization. In addition, keynote speakers provided inspiration and sparring on the topics. The key messages from the workshops are:
Communication and stakeholder engagement
A well-defined communication strategy is needed for communication with stakeholders from the starting point of the project. This should aim to ensure an active dialogue with policy makers, industry (if possible), farmers (society) and an active communication of project results at each stage.
Knowledge transfer to practitioners (farmers)
Some of the most effective tools in knowledge dissemination and engagement with practitioners are direct engagement with farmers, peer-to-peer learning and demonstration of the (economic) impact of research.
Science policy interface
At the workshop, the concept of co-creation was highlighted - there needs to be an understanding of policy or practice needs by the researchers at the time a project is conceived. This means engaging stakeholders throughout the research cycle.
Industrial valorisation
Industrial valorisation should be considered from the beginning of project. The importance of marked identification, funding opportunities and training for industrial valorisation was highlighted at the workshop.
The midterm meeting report present the key conclusions from the seminar. Download the midterm meeting report here.
About FACCE SURPLUS
FACCE SURPLUS is an ERA-NET Cofund, formed in collaboration between the European Commission and a partnership of 15 countries in the frame of the Joint Programming Initiative on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change (FACCE-JPI).
FACCE SURPLUS (Sustainable and Resilient agriculture for food and non-food systems) is committed to improve collaboration across the European Research Area in the range of diverse, but integrated, food and non-food biomass production and transformation systems, including biorefining.
