Exploring methods for researching shifts in knowledge production for agroecology transition

From 20th-21th of November 2024, a first Symposium on “Exploring methods for researching shifts in knowledge production for agroecology transition” was organized by the Horizon Europe Partnership AGROECOLOGY’s work package 7 (‘Expanding the Capacities of Living Labs and Research Infrastructures’).

This 2-day event took place in the Universitaire Stichting in Brussels (Belgium).

Aim
Recent European Union research initiatives propose to accelerate agroecology transition through shifts in knowledge production. These initiatives aspire to restructure centralized research models and strengthen farmer’s roles as research actors, challenging dominant research models and the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) of which these are part.

The symposium, with its 18 contributions from a wide selection of research organizations, aimed to critically advance our conceptualizations and methodological approaches to better guide future research and policy interventions to strengthen AKIS for agroecology transition. To this end, the symposium explored a variety of frameworks within participatory research and systemic agri-food innovation thinking.

Programme
The target audience for the symposium included participants from research and academia, including: AKIS, extension, innovation, transition, rural sociology, rural development, agroecology and participation.

The two-day Symposium consisted of plenary and group sessions, hosted by ULiege-Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech.

Find the detailed programme here.

Documents
Providing a central place to AKIS, policies aim to address a range of goals that imply shifts in knowledge production, amidst a growing context of conceptual and directional vagueness. This calls for increased clarity to ensure that academic dialogues and analytical approaches may build on each other’s work to better understand barriers and enablers to agroecology transition and underpin and guide interventions for a balanced agroecology transition across Europe.