VALERIE Final Symposium
Copa-Cogeca, Brussels, Belgium, 14^th November 2017

Around 50 participants from 12 countries representing the VALERIE project team, national & regional farmer unions, Agricultural Knowledge & Innovation Systems (AKIS) Working Groups, the Standing Committee on Agricultural Research (SCAR) and European Innovation Partnership (EIP) Operational Groups attended the VALERIE Final Symposium in Brussels on 14^th November. The main aim of the Final Symposium was to demonstrate the ask-Valerie tool, to discuss the VALERIE project approach & outcomes in the context of European AKIS, and to discuss future issues associated with access to knowledge for innovation.

Standing Committee on Agricultural Research
'Strategic Working Group on Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems 4'
Lisbon, Portugal, 10^th October 2017

Paul Newell Price (ADAS) represented the VALERIE project at the 6^th meeting of the SCAR SWG AKIS 4 group at the Ministry of Agriculture in Lisbon on Tuesday 10^th October 2017.

AGRI-Innovation summit 2017
Lisbon, Portugal, 11-12^th October 2017

Julie Ingram and Paul Newell Price represented the VALERIE project at the AGRI-Innovation summit at the Lagoas Park Hotel in Porto Salvo, near Lisbon on 11^th and 12^th October 2017. Over 500 delegates shared experiences and visions of innovation in European agriculture through twenty parallel interactive sessions covering five themes and additional Wrap-Up and Conclusion plenary sessions.

Smart AKIS/Agri-Tech East Workshop
‘Smarter Farming for Soils Health and Water Management’
Cranfield University, UK, 14^th September 2017

Due for release later this year, the capabilities of the ask-Valerie tool were recently demonstrated at the Smart AKIS/Agri-Tech East ‘Smarter Farming for Soils Health and Water Management’ event at Cranfield University, UK (http://www.soils.org.uk/event/1279). Aligned with the soil and water themes of the Valerie project, the Smart AKIS Workshop focussed on improving soil and water management with presentations given by researchers and technology developers on this topic. The VALERIE project is working closely with Smart-AKIS to develop fact sheets on innovative ‘smart’ farming technologies. More details on the Smart AKIS project can be found at:
https://www.smart-akis.com/  More information on Agri-Tech East is available at: http://www.agritech-east.co.uk/

EU Research & Innovation web-site, 31^st August 2017

The ask-Valerie tool (available in late 2017) could speed up innovation in agriculture by making innovative research outputs and best practices more easily accessible to farmers and foresters, says the EU Research & Innovation web-site: https://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?artid=45517

23^rd European Seminar on Extension and Education
‘Transformative learning: new directions in agricultural extension and education’
Chania, Crete, Greece, 4 - 7^th July 2017

 Chania, Greece. Photo: ESEE web-site

The 23^rd European Seminar on Extension (and) Education (ESEE) was held in the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania, and hosted by the Laboratory of Agricultural Extension, Rural Systems & Rural Sociology, Agricultural University of Athens. The main aim of the conference was to deepen understanding of current developments in agricultural education and extension and the ways they promote transformative learning.

Julie Ingram (CCRI, University of Gloucestershire, UK) presented a paper, ‘Integrating Co-innovation into Research Translation: Developing a Stakeholder-driven Methodology’ on behalf of a VALERIE team of co-authors from CCRI and Wageningen University.

Joining forces in forestry: a pathway to collaborative management strategies
Plasencia, Extremadura, Spain, 26 - 30^th June 2017

Every four years forest practitioners, researchers and decision-makers from all over Spain gather to take stock of advances in forestry and discuss future pathways at the Spanish Forestry Congress. This year, the seventh Congress took place in Plasencia, Extremadura, from 26^th to 30^th June. The theme echoed current trends towards a bioeconomy, to reflect the role of innovative forest management models and greater awareness of ecosystem services in fostering new opportunities. This paved the way for the direction the forest sector must take in order to capture the challenges of the 21^st century: a circular and bio-based economy.

The Use of Wood Ash as Fertiliser on Mineral Forest Soil

On the 19^th of May, Tapio organised a fieldtrip in North Karelia for Finnish stakeholders to trace the path and use of recycled wood ash, and to visit the VALERIE field trial on the use of wood ash as a fertiliser on mineral forest soil. The visit generated great interest, including the possibility of utilising wood ash in a similar way in southern Finland.

Forest Research Results into Practice

Discussing management options in the field. Photo: Elena Gorriz

On 16^th December 2016, VALERIE colleagues from CCRI (University of Gloucester, UK) visited Roncal in Navarra, Spain. Together with USSE/Foresna and EFIMED a number of case study meetings were held with local stakeholders.

Sustainable Forest Biomass: Recycling of Wood Ash

On the 29^th of November, Saara Lilja-Rothsten from Tapio Oy and Michael den Herder from the European Forest Institute organised a wood ash recycling workshop together with the Finnish stakeholders. Wood ash is an excellent forest fertilizer - see above photo of granulated wood ash.

EIMA International Mechanisation Fair
Bologna, Italy, 11^th November 2016

The virtual adviser www.ask-valerie.eu was demonstrated by Italian VALERIE partners at the EIMA international mechanisation fair in Bologna, Italy on 11^th November, 2016.

VALERIE Annual Meeting
Toulouse, France, 23-26^th January 2017

The VALERIE team met in Toulouse to discuss project progress and learn more about the French case studies on ‘Agroecology’ and ‘Innovative arable cropping’.

FOOD 2030 Conference
Brussels, Belgium, 12 - 13^th October 2016

Peter Schuler (it-objects, Germany) and Paul Newell Price (ADAS, UK) presented the VALERIE project at the FOOD 2030 Conference on “Research and Innovation for Tomorrow's Nutrition and Food Systems” on 12^th-13^th October at ‘The Square’ (Mont des Arts – Kunstberg) in Brussels. They demonstrated the ask-Valerie.eu ‘virtual adviser’ tool and discussed project outputs with conference delegates. The VALERIE brochure was available in six languages to mirror the multi-linguality of ask-Valerie.eu.

14^th European Rural Development Network (ERDN) Conference, ‘Knowledge Sharing and Innovation in Agriculture and Rural Areas’
Budapest, Hungary, 3^rd - 5^th October 2016

The VALERIE workshop included a demonstration of the ask-Valerie.eu virtual adviser tool along with an introduction to the VALERIE project, the role of the VALERIE case studies and an invitation for feedback through working group sessions on how the project can best provide for and respond to the knowledge sharing and innovation situation in rural areas of Eastern Europe.

Cost Action FP1201
Vienna, Austria, 7^th - 9^th September 2016

On September 7^th- 9^th Valentino M. Govigli (EFIMED) attended the final conference of EU COST Action FP1201, known as FACESMAP (“Forest lAnd ownership Changes in Europe: Significance for Management And Policy”), in Vienna, Austria. Link: http://facesmap.boku.ac.at/index.php/final-conference

FOOD 2030 Conference
Brussels, Belgium, 12 - 13^th October 2016

VALERIE will be at the FOOD 2030 Conference on “Research and Innovation for Tomorrow's Nutrition and Food Systems” on 12^th-13^th October at the Square (Mont des Arts – Kunstberg) in Brussels. We will be displaying a project video and demonstrating the ask-Valerie.eu ‘virtual adviser’ tool in the Food Village from 6 pm on 12^th October following the Food 2030 Welcome address; and again during the plenary sessions and breaks on 13^th October.
http://ec.europa.eu/research/conferences/2016/food2030/index.cfm?pg=programme

12^th European IFSA Symposium
Harper Adams University, Shropshire, UK, 12 - 15^th July 2016

The VALERIE workshop entitled “Boosting research outputs: novel approaches for integrating research translation with interactive co-innovation” included four papers, a demonstration of the ask-Valerie.eu search tool and discussion around how EU farmers and advisers currently access information/knowledge for innovation and how this may develop in the future.

Societal Challenge 2 Dissemination Event
Brussels, Belgium, 27^th - 29^th June 2016

Peter Schuler (it-objects, Germany) presented an overview of the VALERIE project at the Societal Challenge 2 dissemination event; held in Brussels on 27-29^th June 2016, as part of the EU InfoWeek on 2017 Horizon 2020 calls on "Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, maritime and martime inland water research and bio-economy". The event showcased results of successful EU FP7 and Horizon 2020 projects with presenters highlighting project achievements in terms of results, impact, success factors and lessons learnt. You can download Peter’s VALERIE presentation here.

ask-Valerie.eu Workshop
Amsterdam, 20^th - 23^rd June 2016

On 20^th -23^rd June, VALERIE project partners met in Amsterdam to test out the latest version of ask-Valerie.eu, the ‘virtual adviser’ tool. The meeting was an opportunity for VALERIE Case Study Partners (working with local stakeholders in agriculture and forestry) to try out the new version of the search tool and feedback useful comments to the developers. This is part of a process of development and testing that is on-going throughout the project.

A separate working group focused on extending and refining the ‘structured vocabulary’ (ontology) that underpins the tool; making changes to the hierarchy and links between agricultural and forestry terms within the ‘structured vocabulary’ to help improve the relevance and accuracy of ask.Valerie.eu research results.

Sustainable Forest Biomass: Recycling of Wood Ash

A field trip organised by the VALERIE Finnish case study, ‘Sustainable Forest Biomass: Recycling of Wood Ash’ took place on 8^th June 2016. A group of stakeholders and researchers spent a rainy Wednesday in the North Karelian forests discussing the use of recycled wood ash from various perspectives. There was a demonstration of spreading wood ash for use as a fertilizer and people could witness with their own eyes the positive influence of wood ash on forest growth. At the end of the day it was a surprise to see that even a cycle path can be made from wood ash!

Details of the field trip have been posted to Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/European-Forest-Institute-EFI/146786162041660 and published as a newspaper article (in Finnish) in the 'Karjalainen', the newspaper from North Karelia. A short version of the Finnish newspaper article can be found on the web at: http://www.karjalainen.fi/uutiset/uutis-alueet/talous/item/107932-tuhka-paketoi-tien-rakenteen-matalammaksi

VALERIE EIP-AGRI Mid-Term Stakeholder Workshop
Copa-Cogeca, Brussels, Belgium, 1^st June 2016

Around 30 participants from 11 countries representing national & regional farmer unions, AKIS Working Groups, the Standing Committee on Agricultural Research (SCAR) and European Innovation Partnership (EIP) Operational Groups attended a VALERIE EIP-AGRI mid-term stakeholder workshop in Brussels on 1^st June. The main aim of the workshop, co-organised with EIP-AGRI, was to give participants an opportunity to provide feedback on how the VALERIE project is progressing, and included a project overview, information on the VALERIE case studies and demonstration of the ask-Valerie.eu virtual adviser tool & EIP-AGRI website.

Call for extended abstracts - 14^th European Rural Development Conference, ‘Knowledge Sharing and Innovation in Agriculture and Rural Areas’
Budapest, Hungary, 3^rd - 5^th October 2016

The European Union (EU) has introduced new policy instruments (e.g. EIP-AGRI) in an attempt to stimulate innovation in agriculture. These initiatives are being implemented across the EU despite the great variety of agricultural and rural circumstances, especially between post-socialist Member States and other parts of the EU. Can these programmes that have primarily been developed from a western EU perspective be successfully implemented in the eastern EU or is a different approach needed? Thus it is timely for researchers and policy makers in eastern central Europe to share their experiences and ideas on how knowledge sharing and innovation can best be encouraged in agriculture and rural areas of the eastern EU.

The conference programme will include a VALERIE workshop where a demonstration of the “ask-Valerie.eu” search and stakeholder engagement tool will be given along with an introduction to the VALERIE project, an update on project progress and an invitation for feedback through Working Group sessions on how the project can best provide for and respond to the knowledge sharing and innovation situation in rural areas of the eastern EU.

The closing date for submission of abstracts is Friday 10^th June 2016. Abstracts should be submitted by e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The full call for extended abstracts can be downloaded here

VALERIE Ontology Workshop
Vrije Universiteit (“VU”) University, Amsterdam, 11-12^th April 2016

‘Before lunch’

Members of the VALERIE ontology team were hard at work creating and refining structured vocabularies of agricultural and forestry terms, covering areas such as soil, pest management, field operations, forestry operations, agricultural machinery, forestry machinery and ecosystem services. A scientific, well-constructed ontology will help users of the “ask-Valerie.eu” search and stakeholder engagement tool to find relevant information quickly and effectively.

‘After lunch!’

ICT.OPEN 2016 Conference
Amersfoort, the Netherlands, 22^nd - 23^rd March 2016

On 22^nd and 23^rd of March, the Conference for ICT-Research in the Netherlands, ICT.OPEN was held in Amersfoort. Mari Wigham and Jan Vogels, two researchers from Wageningen UR FBR were present. They presented a joint poster of the COMMIT/ eFoodLab-project and the VALERIE project. The poster shows how ROC+ can be used to build ontologies for realising smart software solutions, such as the virtual adviser “ask-Valerie.eu”. The poster was enthusiastically received winning a third prize, and many people visited the stand to learn more.

Sustainable Forest Management and Ecosystem Services Case Study

Details and news from the VALERIE project and The Sustainable Forest Management and Ecosystem Services case study have been posted on The Union of Foresters of Southern Europe (USSE) website:

A VALERIE project summary can be found here http://www.usse-eu.org/en/proyectos (in English) and here http://www.usse-eu.org/es/proyectos (in Spanish).

The latest case study and VALERIE news can be found here http://www.usse-eu.org/es/noticias (in Spanish only).

12^th European IFSA Symposium
Harper Adams University, UK, 12 - 15^th July 2016

VALERIE project partners will convene a workshop:  “Boosting research outputs: novel approaches for integrating research translation with interactive co-innovation” at the 12^th European IFSA Symposium: “Social and technological transformation of farming systems: Diverging and converging pathways” at Harper Adams University, UK from Tuesday 12 to Friday 15 July 2016. http://www.harper-adams.ac.uk/events/ifsa-conference/sub-theme.cfm?id=20

EU Standing Committee on Agricultural Research (SCAR) report

The VALERIE project and “ask-Valerie.eu” (VALERIE’s search and stakeholder engagement tool) appear in the newly published EU SCAR (Standing Committee on Agricultural Research) report on “Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems Towards the Future: A Foresight Paper”. In chapter 5, “The Role of E-Science in Agriculture: How E-Science Technology Assists Participation in Agricultural Research”, the development of “ask-Valerie.eu” is presented as a key step in improving the flow of information between practitioners and researchers.

Follow the link: https://ec.europa.eu/research/scar/index.cfm?pg=home; or download the report here.

VALERIE Annual Meeting
Turin, Italy, 26-28^th January 2016

The 2016 VALERIE annual meeting was hosted by the University of Turin, Italy over the 26^th to 28^th January. This followed a meeting of the VALERIE executive board on the 25^th January.

Journal of Agricultural Informatics

The search and stakeholder engagement tool, “ask-Valerie.eu”, is at the core of the recently published, peer-reviewed paper, “From science to practice: Bringing innovations to agronomy and forestry”, written by VALERIE project partners, Don Willems, Nicole Koenderink and Jan Top (Wageningen University, Netherlands).

Willems, D.J.M., Koenderink, N.J.J.P., & Top, J.L. (2015). From science to practice: Bringing innovations to agronomy and forestry. Journal of Agricultural Informatics 6, 85-95, DOI: 10.17700/jai.2015.6.4.214. http://dx.doi.org/10.17700/jai.2015.6.4.214 or download the paper here.

Sustainable Forest Management and Ecosystem Services

A Valerie stakeholder meeting of the Spanish case study took place in Roncal (Navarra, Spain) on 15th January 2016. This case study deals with the challenges of implementing sustainable forest management in the context of fragmented mountain forest holdings.

Details of the meeting have recently been published as a news item on the EFIMED (Mediterranean Regional Office of the European Forest Institute) website http://www.efimed.efi.int/portal/news/?bid=2299

Sustainable Forest Management and Ecosystem Services

The Sustainable Forest Management and Ecosystem Services case study was featured in an article written for the December 2015 issue of Navarraforestal: number 37 (in Spanish) and can be found here http://www.foresna.org/descargas/pdf/nf37.pdf

IFSA Workshop: Boosting research outputs: novel approaches for integrating research translation with interactive co-innovation
To be held at Harper Adams University, UK, 12^th - 15^th July 2015

The need to translate agricultural and forestry research outputs into practice is widely recognised. The challenge is to boost innovation by improving access to new information and enabling knowledge exchange between researchers and practitioners with a view to integrating new research into field practices. We are inviting papers that discuss knowledge exchange in the context of sustainable agriculture, including new integrative approaches to facilitate translation of research outputs into practice. The workshop will also include a demonstration of the “ask-Valerie.eu” search and stakeholder engagement tool.

The workshop (convened by VALERIE project partners) will be held at the 12^th European IFSA Symposium: Social and technological transformation of farming systems: Diverging and converging pathways. Harper Adams University, UK from Tuesday 12th - Friday 15th July 2016.
http://www.harper-adams.ac.uk/events/ifsa-conference/sub-theme.cfm?id=20

The closing date for submission of abstracts is Monday 21^st December 2015.

International Fertiliser Society, 23^rd Annual Conference
Cambridge, UK, 10^th - 11^th December 2015

The IFS Annual International Conference was held at Robinson College, Cambridge. The varied programme of eleven papers ranged from 'Practical action on farm to reduce diffuse pollution' (Mark Aitken, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, UK) to, 'Is inadequate rooting limiting soil resource capture and crop yield?' (Dr Charlotte white, ADAS, UK) and to, 'Acid treatment of animal slurries: potential and limitations' (Dr David Fangueiro, University of Lisbon, Portugal).

Catchment Science 2015 Conference
Wexford, Ireland, 28^th - 30^th September 2015

Catchment Science 2015 was an International Conference hosted by the Teagasc Agricultural Catchments Programme in Wexford, Ireland. Through a framework based on five inter-related themes, the conference explored the application of catchment science to the environmental and economic challenges facing farmers, policy makers and regulators.

FarmingUK, 18^th September 2015

‘Farmers are using the internet more than ever, study shows’ http://www.farminguk.com/News/Farmers-are-using-the-internet-more-than-ever-study-shows_37096.html

Searching for Innovation? Ask Valerie!

An article giving a short introduction to VALERIE was included in the 2015 issue of the annual Agrinnovation magazine on the EIP-AGRI network and can be found here: https://ec.europa.eu/eip/agriculture/en/news/eip-agri-network-branching-out-read-all-about-it-new-agrinnovation-magazine

Innovations identified, factsheets produced and ‘ask-Valerie.eu’ tested

VALERIE teams have been busy; the work on knowledge extraction and summarising has focused on the identification of more than 300 innovations and the development of a mini-fact sheet for each innovation. The first version of ‘ask-Valerie.eu’ has been completed and was tested in June, 2015.

22^nd European Seminar on Extension and Education
‘Competence and Excellence in Extension and Education’
Wageningen University, The Netherlands, 28^th April - 1^st May 2015

The European Seminar on Extension and Education (ESEE) was held in April 2015 and hosted by the Education and Competence Studies Group (ECS) of Wageningen University, The Netherlands. The conference provided an opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences among university staff, private and professional personnel and others who are involved in Extension and Education.

EFITA | WCCA | CIGR 2015 Conference
Information Technology in Agriculture
Poznan, Poland, 29^th June - 2^nd July 2015

The EFITA 2015 conference on Information Technology in Agriculture was organised by the European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture (EFITA), the World Congress on Conservation Agriculture (WCCA), and the International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (CIGR). The conference focussed on the future use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the agri-food, bioresource, and biomass sectors. Research on such diverse subjects as decision support systems in agriculture, semantics, data exchange, and farming management systems was presented during this conference.

Sustainable Forestry – biomass and energy from forest to wood ash
Helsinki, Finland, 10-12^th June 2015

Eighteen months into the project, VALERIE partners met up in Helsinki on 10-12 June 2015 to discuss progress, compare notes and explore synergies on extracting knowledge, developing innovation through the VALERIE case studies and building the “ask-Valerie.eu” tool. It was also an opportunity to learn more about sustainable forestry in Finland and the case study on Sustainable Forest Biomass, based in Joenssu.

PRO AKIS – Prospects for Farmers’ Support: Advisory Services in European AKIS
Final Conference, Brussels, Belgium
The University Foundation, 19-20^th May 2015

Julie Ingram (University of Gloucestershire, UK) represented the VALERIE project at the PRO AKIS conference, which presented the project’s findings to an audience of policy makers and other stakeholders. PRO AKIS has developed a conceptual framework for assessing Agricultural Innovation and Knowledge Systems (AKIS), compiled an inventory of AKIS institutions and interactions in the EU-27 as a searchable database and detailed reports. Specific focus at the conference was on:

• Diversity of European AKIS
• Impact and evaluation of advisory services within AKIS
• Challenges for European advisory services
• The AKIS inventory and its future

Sustainable Forest Management and Ecosystem Services

Background details and current progress on the Sustainable Forest Management and Ecosystem Services case study was included in an article written for the April 2015 issue of the EFIMED Network News and can be found here http://www.anpdm.com/newsletter/2577370/44405C417344415B4671

PRO AKIS – Prospects for Farmers’ Support: Advisory Services in European AKIS
Seminar on “Advisory services bridging Research and Farmers’ Needs”
France, Poland, Bulgaria, Germany
Hohenheim University, Aula im Schloss, 10^th March 2015

The main purpose of this seminar was to present and discuss PRO AKIS outputs from four case studies investigating information flows within the Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems (AKIS) in France, Poland, Bulgaria and Bavaria (Germany). One of the core questions addressed across the cases was: “Is there still a role for advisory services to provide a link between researchers and farmers or is it bypassed in this new configuration of the knowledge system?”

VALERIE Annual Meeting
Allerton Farm Visitor Centre, Loddington, UK, 27-28^th January 2015

The 2015 VALERIE annual meeting was held at the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust’s Allerton Farm Visitor centre, Loddington, UK on the 27^th and 28^th January. This followed a meeting of VALERIE case study leaders held on the 26 January held at Oakham, UK and organised by the University of Gloucestershire.

VALERIE Stakeholder Workshop
Brussels, Belgium, 5-6^th June 2014

Stakeholders were informed about the project and their comments solicited during workshops in Brussels on 5^th and 6^th June 2014.

VALERIE Kick-off Meeting
Wageningen, The Netherlands, 16-17^th January 2014

The project's kick-off meeting was held in Wageningen, The Netherlands, on 16^th and 17^th January 2014. More than 30 people attended: project members, Advisory Board members, and the project's officer, Dr. Hans-Jörg Lutzeyer.