PRO AKIS Kick-off Workshop, Berlin 14.-15.01.2013

Summarised Minutes

Participants: Catherine, Pierre, Guy, Monica (INRA); Jozef, Krystyna (UAK); Violeta (UAP); Katrin, Lee-Ann (JHI); Leif, Henry, Jesper (VFL); Artur, Alberto, Tim (UTAD); Hans-Jörg (DG Research), Andrea, Caroline (ZALF)

WP1 and WP5, Discussion and Remarks

  • PRO AKIS steering committee (SC): Andrea, Pierre, Jozef, N.N. from UTAD (to be clarified), Katrin, Violeta, Leif.
  • SC Meeting with Policy Advisors Board may be affiliated with SCAR CW AKIS meeting in Ireland in June instead of planned meeting in Brussels (June 13);
  • Tender for further subcontracting within WP1 open to consortium partners as well, WP1 may support report writing
  • Integration of food safety / consumer organisations’ expert in WP5 boards proposed
  • Project as ‘coordination and support action’ has dual objectives: 1) research on AKIS in EU-27 (inventory, etc.) 2) support to the political process, e.g. SCAR AKIS CWG
  • SCAR AKIS CWG continuation after July 13 not yet clear

WP2 –Discussion, agreements and open questions

  • Aims of WP2: 1) Description of AKIS by reviewing literature as a source of ideas and concepts; 2) Research of the effectiveness of advisory services using literature as a source of data and knowledge
  • Refinement of first aim: agreement on focusing on extension systems within AKIS, to use global terminology (as in GFRAS, e.g., where advisory is used as a the most general term, which includes extension as well)
  • Broader definition of “advisory services” and “AKIS” accounts better for the diversity of systems within AKIS
  • Second aim “effectiveness of advisory services” requires further refinement (e.g. monitored level, objectives and boundaries) and will be discussed, once the conceptual framework draft is ready
  • For development of conceptual framework, all partners are asked to send key publications they usually refer to
  • Goal is the development of a “small and smart core concept” (instead of tailor-made concepts specified per each country)
  • Request to regard the future of extension within AKIS, including new business models (research innovation practice linkage) and knowledge brokers; whilst building upon previous research (e.g. SOLINSA, INSIGHT, etc) instead of duplicating

Discussion on use of literature

  • Joint literature evaluation system proposed by WP2 (shared document in which literature read by consortium members is evaluated for internal utilisation)

Terminology

  • “Extension” vs. “advisory services”: US terminology: “extension” evolved from grand universities, advisory services is nowadays the more general term
  • Services vs. systems: frequently ambiguous use; needs to be specified when used, whether organisation or a function is meant
  • SCAR group definition of AKIS concept represents a starting point, but is not sufficiently comprehensive
  • Background: SCAR AKIS CWG-2 use a more general definition of AKIS focusing on implementing EIP, communication from COM to widen “extension” to a larger scope than CC was contested; interaction with SCAR AKIS CWG is strongly recommended - they might accept a broader definition

 First draft of the conceptual paper by end of February by WP2

WP3: Inventory

  • Aim of WP3: overview of actors and organisations in AKIS, characteristics of formal/ informal interactions, inventory of knowledge flows and AKIS institutions
  • The appearance/design of the accessible inventory remains an open question at this point, nevertheless it should not be disregarded
  • Procedure and work schedule of WP3 with regard to the finalisation of the database, questionnaire and checklist remains to be completed (goal should be to have an outline of the database before start of the field work)
  • From EU perspective getting the overall picture of the AKIS in the EU-27 (without too much detail) is important, but it is also foreseen that the inventory should be able to capture trends

Discussion of the Questionnaire:

  • Purpose of WP3: country inventory, etc. possibility to detect trends
  • Strong propositions for a questionnaire with a minimum/general set of comparable questions, details will be captured through qualitative interviews (and more in depth through case studies in WP 4)
  • Approach displaying diagrams of AKIS in each country (including major actors/ organisations) was regarded as very helpful by all
  • Inventory must be able to integrate specific situations of each country, including non-traditional AKIS which have evolved over time (apart from governmental institutions)
  • Quantitative approach has only limited possibilities to capture the relationship between AKIS actors, plus hardship of data availability (in particular in privatised systems)  therefore agreement to use a quantitative and qualitative approach for the inventory
  • The questionnaire should not include a SWOT analysis (this may be included in the regional workshops)

Agreement for a modified procedure in WP3: each country inventory should include

  • Diagram of AKIS actors, their links including all relevant institution per country
  • Checklist for qualitative interviews with 5-10 different persons in order to receive a more holistic picture for the country. Open questions, information will be fed back into the diagram
  • A short questionnaire (which may also possibly be sent around to organisations)
  • Output: a country report including data on general items and data sheet/form

Items for the checklist

  1. Policy frame. entry point at the highest possible level of extension services, i.e. if possible at national level, if not then one (or more) hierarchy further down):
  2. mission and agenda of public policies directives;
  3. role of private stakeholders,
  4. linkages to rural development and environmental issues, etc.
  5. Organisation and governance of extension systems within AKIS:
  6. Extension methods,
  7. Organisation, e.g. levels of decentralisation
  8. financing
  9. human resources
  10. Knowledge Flows: includes relationship between advisory organisation with farmers (front office) and other AKIS actors (back office)
  11. Relevance/ importance of extension: how much of the system are we covering with our description of AKIS (e.g. rough estimates of how much of our national AKIS description covers the reality)
  12. Demand and (future) challenges:
  13. upcoming knowledge needs
  14. key concerns of the current system
  15. History and trends with regard to:
  16. The organisation
  17. Funding
  18. Extension approaches
  19. Approx. since 1980ies
  20. Responsibilities for advisory services
  21. Who sets priorities, etc.
  22. Documentation of date and person responsible for data collection
  23. Farm advisory systems (FAS)
  24. Investigation of national configurations
  25. Check how integration of topics of case studies is possible

WP6 Dissemination

Internal communication

  • Internal website will be established
  • Pro-active internal exchange: “Anything new”: JHI will start newsletter, then others feed in and provide feedback, news from EU portals should be integrated
  • WP6 can provide templates for project documents (posters)

External dissemination

  • Project flyer: will be prepared by WP6 in cooperation with WP1, other partners will have opportunity to give feedback
  • Possibility for project partners to receive project flyer in own language if translated version provided
  • Website:
  • agreed upon
  • Will have an internal access for consortium partners to share documents, etc.
  • WP1 provides PRO AKIS ppt to be downloadable from internal portal
  • Appearance of inventory on the web still to be clarified
  • need to state fp7 funding on entry portal
  • Potential internal access of AKIS SCAR CWG members to project website to be discussed in June PAB meeting

Who / Activities, deliverables, milestones / Jan 13 / Feb 13 / Mar 13 / Apr 13 / Deadline
WP1 / Documentation Kick-off WS, incl. ppts, logo, exchange list (national AKIS experts), Prepare documentation ISB meeting / Jan 21st
Prepare PRO AKIS ppt for download
Gather SCAR CWG national AKIS diagrams plus work program of SCAR (sent by HJ Lutzeyer)
Check availability of internet video conference tools
Exchange with WP6 on project flyer
WP2 / Prepare preliminary conceptual framework / Feb, 28th
All / Send key conceptual papers on extension systems within AKIS to Pierre / Jan. 25th
WP3 / Prepare script of the procedure of the inventory approach / Feb 13th
Provide proposal for checklist, questionnaire, terms of reference for subcontracting of national experts / March 10th
All / Feedback on checklist and questionnaire
WP3 / Milestone: Checklist, questionnaire and terms of reference finalized / Mar 29th
Prepare proposal for report structure and data format / April 10th
All / Start field work for inventory, prepare country reports (from April onwards)
All (except WP2) / Milestone: delivery of country reports / August 1st
WP3 / Milestone: Delivery of Synthesis report / Sept. 30th
WP6 / Prepare project flyer in cooperation with WP1
Preparation of poster templates / ?
All / Feedback on project flyer
WP6 / Finalise project flyer
Selected WPs / Translate PRO AKIS flyer into national language
WP6 / Launch project website