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Ghent Group - A community on Science-based advice
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in the fields of agriculture and environment
The Ghent Group is an informal community of European institutes and individuals working with science-based advice in the fields of agriculture and environment. The group has common interest in sharing best practices, learning and teaching. It is named after our first training course in Ghent, Belgium in October 2022. This was followed by another training course and workshop in Ghent in 2023. On this page you can find information on previous events, find contact information on how to get involved, and stay informed of future activities.
Activities 2024:
The Ghent Group organizing institutes are pleased to invite you to its 2-day Annual meeting on 6-7 November 2024 in Brussels, focusing on the role of science in dealing with dilemmas in policy-making. Part of the annual meeting will include the Mansholt lecture. The Mansholt series of lectures, named for the great Dutch European politician and thinker Sicco Mansholt, are organised by Wageningen University & Research to discuss European policy and issues in our domain: nutrition, agriculture and sustainable livelihoods.
The 2-day annual meeting will be preceded by a Living Labs Workshop, taking place in Brussels as well, focusing on generating policy impact, organised by the Joint Programming Initiative on Food Security, Agriculture and Climate Change (FACCE-JPI). Both events will be centered around the science-policy interface in agriculture and the environment.
- 5 November: Living Labs workshop. (FACCE-JPI Lead)
Can Living Labs help foster the Science-policy interface? If so, under what conditions? What are the levers, and what are the barriers?
- 6 -7 November: Ghent group - Science-based policy in agriculture and environment annual meeting. (Wageningen University and Research Lead)
Theme: The role of science in dealing with Dilemmas in policy-making
Please visit the event website for detailed information on both events, including locations, programs, fees, and registration. You can choose to register for one or both events.
Background
The European Union as well as national governments have adopted ambitious climate and environmental targets for agriculture and food production. At the same time, an efficient and competitive agricultural and food sector is important for food supply and the economy. Decisions and regulations in this field can be both complicated and conflicting. The topics of agriculture, food, climate and the environment are therefore high on the political agenda, and there is a growing demand for scientific knowledge advising policy formulation.
In 2021, Aarhus University hosted the first European Seminar on science-based advice in agriculture and environment . More than 200 researchers and advisers from all over Europe participated. One of the conclusions was, that there is a need to learn from each other, to share best practices and to discuss the main principles, in order to strengthen the evidence based policy development in Europe. As a result, 7 European research institutes developed a first training course, open to experienced resarchers and advisors from all of Europe.
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