Making use of your own and others’ networks, increases the chance of success in the innovation process. Important actors in this respect are advisors, innovation support services, public authorities and universities and research organisations in the science fields. The AgriSpin recommendations aim at inspiring these four actors to improve their practices.

Visiting innovators and experiencing innovation cases hands-on during the 13 Cross Visits, conducted by AgriSpin, provided the partners of AgriSpin with true inspiration for what they themselves can do to support an innovator at any time during the innovation process.

After the Cross Visits, the AgriSpin partners have been digesting what they have learned from the encounters and have used this harvest as a basis for discussing proposals for change with managers and other key actors in AKIS (the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System).

The 25 recommendations have been categorised by the four key actors in the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS): advisors, innovation support services, public authorities that enable policy, as well as universities and research organisations within the science fields. Each of these actors plays an important role in lowering the obstacles and increasing the chance of successful innovation processes. The AgriSpin recommendations are, first and foremost, addressed at these four actors in the hope that they will be inspired to make improvements to their practices.

The Cross Visit Method
AgriSpin’s aim to distill general recommendations is a challenge as innovation is a non-linear process. The innovation processes were tested on the basis of the Cross Visit approach: 4-9 selected innovation cases were evaluated in 4 days by 7-11 experts with different professional backgrounds at 13 Cross Visits in 12 countries. The Cross Visits proved to be an effective way to select specific recommendations.

Working Closely Together Is Key

As the AgriSpin recommendations demonstrate, the system that will result in the most focus on innovation is a system in which the different actors work closely together and enable each other to do their part to allow an innovator to overcome different obstacles and to create the right opportunities at the right time. Symbiotic, diverse and complementary roles within the innovation ecosystem will more likely than not yield the most successful innovations.

Focus On Best Fit Innovation Support Service

Following this train of thought, an Innovation Support Service should identify the different stages of the innovation process and develop strategies and services that serve each stage in the best way possible, thus taking into account that the strategies and services called for might be different for each stage.

The reason behind this thinking is that the Innovation Support Service should be able to offer the right support during the different phases, no matter whether the support comes from its own organisation or from other organisations in its network. In short, the innovation system must be seen in a holistic way. This paved the way for recommendation number 8.

An example of the spiral of innovations

During the Cross Visits, the AgriSpin innovation cases were analysed based on the spiral of innovation, and the AgriSpin partners observed that there was a need for different actions and support in the different phases of the innovation process.

Recommendation no. 8

Support agencies should identify the different stages in innovation processes and develop strategies and services which might be different for each stage.

An Overview of the AgriSpin Recommendations
Have a look at the 25 recommendations that AgriSpin has identified as being crucial for an innovation process to succeed.

Advisors

  1. Essential skills for an advisor are empathy, involvement, dynamism. The Cross Visit method is useful to enhance and encourage learning about innovation and innovation support.
  2. An advisor should possess critical and anticipative thinking capacities.
  3. An advisor should have team working capacities.
  4. An advisor should be familiar with facilitation and have networking skills.
  5. An advisor should have expertise in certain tools.
  6. Advisors should promote and/or work towards an enabling environment for advisors.

Innovation Support Services
(Definition of service provider: institutions providing services for stimulating innovations in agriculture (and employing advisors)).

  1. Innovation support services should involve and nurture dedicated persons and their ideas.
  2. Support agencies should identify the different stages in innovation processes and develop strategies and services which might be different for each stage.
  3. Innovation support services should identify existing problems and provide solutions. Not only wait for innovative ideas to come along.
  4. Innovation support services should create pathways for co-creative and co-creating innovation processes.
  5. Service providers should create free space to engage in innovative processes: funding, time, space for taking risks.
  6. The group approaches among farmers should be more widely used for innovation support.
  7. Service providers should provide good skills to advisors and farmers in the form of soft skills.
  8. Service providers should provide access to knowledge and technology, collect existing knowledge and provide it in an understandable and adequate way.

Enabling Environment (Policy)

  1. Public authorities should set relevant ecosystem for innovation (regional/local scale).
  2. Need for simplification of funding mechanisms and administrative rules to exploit the whole innovation potential (all scales).
  3. Public authorities and funding bodies should recognize/endorse that innovation implies taking risks (all scales).
  4. Public authorities should nurture/foster synergies among funding sources to reach innovation (all scales).
  5. Public authorities should develop adequate skills for stimulating innovation processes.

Universities and Research Organisations in the science fields

  1. Restructure university curricula (agricultural universities) towards systemic thinking/trans-disciplinarity, in addition to the linear one.
  2. Join multi-actor networks to sharpen research programmes.
  3. Prioritize benefits for end-users when choosing research topics; put emphasis on practical benefits and connect to knowledge transfer organisations.
  4. Put pressure on policy makers to develop (and connect) an extension/advisory service in order to keep the role of science clear.
  5. Universities/research organisations should provide opportunities to develop researchers’ interpersonal/soft skills: interaction, facilitation, communication etc.
  6. Advocate for changing research incentives towards getting benefits for joining networks (and working with farmers)