ARTICLE
have you heard of EURAKNOS?
Connecting Thematic Networks As Knowledge Reservoirs Towards a European Agricultural Knowledge Innovation Open Source System. The EURAKNOS project wants to reinforce the EU agricultural knowledge base by building a datasystem to enable farmers easier access to information. As IoF2020, we believe the goal of EURAKNOS is complementary to our work and wanted to raise your attention on this new project.
EURAKNOS is a H2020 EU Thematic Network that started in 2019 and aims to create the network that will strengthen the EU agricultural knowledge base by collecting existing knowledge and best practices from the other 29 existing Thematic Networks.
Prof. Pieter Spanoghe from Ghent University as coordinator of the project explains: “These Thematic Networks are a specific type of EU H2020 multi-actor projects which collect existing knowledge and best practices on a given theme (smart farming, poultry, crop protection, fruit, etc.) to make it available in easily understandable formats for end users such as farmers, foresters, advisers and others. EURAKNOS can be seen as the network of the networks that will analyze this knowledge to explore the feasibility of creating a modular database that makes this information more accessible to the farming community in a searchable and semi-standardized way.”
EURAKNOS is unique as it aims to link all existing and future Thematic Networks for agricultural and forestry practice through a common format and harmonised approach developing technical guidelines on how to construct a common datasystem. For now, the project is collecting, evaluating, analysing and comparing the knowledge, materials and tools which have been produced by Thematic Networks and operational groups via a co-creation approach, involving farmers, researchers and other stakeholders. This approach will also benefit future networks and other H2020 projects. As such, the gathered material will be presented in an easy understandable language through the most trusted and used channels by farmers, foresters and advisors.
The project will therefore respond to the needs of EU farmers and foresters to widen the existing Thematic Networks by integrating them in an EU system across agricultural sectors, encouraging peer to peer learning by cross exchange visits. By facilitating and supporting all Thematic Networks it will help to secure the longevity of these project outcomes. Moroever, these projects will be better linked to other Thematic Networks and similar initiatives at EU and national level, and feed into national educational and training programmes.
