Suchergebnisse

This report describes the transdisciplinary framework for the UNISECO project and provides 'structures' to facilitate meaningful interactions for shared learning, synthesis, integration and co-construction of innovative, actionable knowledge for practical outcomes. Material has been drawn from resources of academia and practice, including the personal experience of the UNISECO consortium partners. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N° 773901.

The UNISECO project aims to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for the further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems. The transdisciplinary approach, one that seeks to integrate knowledges from across academic disciplines and the science-policy-practice nexus, places a strong emphasis on participatory processes to foster co-learning and co-construction. This approach aims is to generate novel insight to feed into the development of innovative management strategies and incentives for the implementation of agro-ecological practices and to inform the assessment of environmental, economic and social impacts of these practices at farm and territorial levels. This report describes the transdisciplinary framework for the UNISECO project and provides 'structures' to facilitate meaningful interactions for shared learning, synthesis, integration and co-construction of innovative, actionable knowledge for practical outcomes. Material has been drawn from resources of academia and practice, including the personal experience of the UNISECO consortium partners. The introduction defines our use of the word 'actor' and describes the Multi-Actor Platforms (MAPs) approach being used within the UNISECO project. The MAPs create a structure to facilitate engagement with relevant actors across the phases of UNISECO's research and dissemination activities. Guidance on the criteria and process for selection of individuals to be part of the MAPs is provided in D7.1, Guidelines for the Selection of Multi-Actor Platform (Budniok et al., 2018).

The aim of this Deliverable 7.2 is to summarise mechanisms by which SHERPA contributed recommendations for European Union (EU) policies, specifically on the EU Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas (LTVRA) and associated actions. The focus on this policy area was agreed with the EU, reflecting its relevance to the remit of SHERPA, and the timeliness of the evolution of the policy in relation to the operationalising of the SHERPA processes.

We thank the four anonymous referees whose comments substantially helped to improve this paper. We thank Anna Attlee and Althea Davies who helped to facilitate the research workshops; Anna Attlee also for helping to analyse the qualitative data. We thank all the participants of our study for their effort, and the Marine Conservation Society, the British Sub-Aqua Club and the Angling Trust for assisting with participant recruitment. This work was funded through the UK National Ecosystem Assessment Follow-On (Work Package 6: Shared, Plural and Cultural Values), funded by the UK Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Welsh Government, the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC); additional funding was received from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation through the Marine Conservation Society. J.O. Kenter was also supported by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement no 315925 and K.N. Irvine by the Scottish Government Rural and Economic Sciences and Analytical Service (RESAS) Division. ; Peer reviewed ; Publisher PDF

This guideline sets out the process for the selection of individuals to participate in the Multi-Actor Platforms associated with the UNISECO project. An EU-level and 15 case study scale Multi-Actor Platforms will be brought together for the duration of the project. Multi-actor engagement will be used to ensure the consistent application of transdisciplinary methods. This approach, embedded in the composition of the consortium partners, seeks to strengthen the capacity of the project partners, the stakeholders and end users to assess the sustainability of different agro-ecological approaches and to prioritise policy interventions. A key aim of the use of the MAPs is to operate without gaps between science and practice, and to provide an advisory framework that will support a "systems approach". An aim of this document is to ensure that partners will follow agreed steps in selecting and inviting appropriate stakeholders to participate in the platforms. It includes a range of actors at EU level (such as EU wide environmental NGO's, sector organisations, policy makers and European Commission) and case study level (such as farmers, farm advisors and local and national authorities). This Guideline sets out the: i) purpose, aims and objectives of MAPs ii) criteria for identifying actors iii) procedure for selecting EU-Level MAP and Case Study MAP iv) procedure to explain and inform MAP's participants v) management of MAP participation. This provides a coherent and streamlined approach to the selection of members of the Multi-Actor Platforms in the UNISECO project. The purpose of the approach is to ensure that the UNISECO project addresses directly, and is relevant to, the real needs on the ground, and to ensure that people with different types of knowledge are included throughout the project's lifetime and beyond.

This guideline sets out the process for the selection of individuals to participate in the Multi-Actor Platforms associated with the UNISECO project. An EU-level and 15 case study scale Multi-Actor Platforms will be brought together for the duration of the project. Multi-actor engagement will be used to ensure the consistent application of transdisciplinary methods. This approach, embedded in the composition of the consortium partners, seeks to strengthen the capacity of the project partners, the stakeholders and end users to assess the sustainability of different agro-ecological approaches and to prioritise policy interventions. A key aim of the use of the MAPs is to operate without gaps between science and practice, and to provide an advisory framework that will support a "systems approach". An aim of this document is to ensure that partners will follow agreed steps in selecting and inviting appropriate stakeholders to participate in the platforms. It includes a range of actors at EU level (such as EU wide environmental NGO's, sector organisations, policy makers and European Commission) and case study level (such as farmers, farm advisors and local and national authorities).

The theoretical framework outlined in this paper was developed initially through a series of expert workshops as part of the Valuing Nature Network — BRIDGE: From Values to Decisions project, funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). It was developed further through the follow-on phase of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment (Work Package 6: Shared, Plural and Cultural Values) funded by the UK Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Welsh Government, NERC, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). ; Peer reviewed ; Publisher PDF

This document represents the Deliverable D5.2 within Workpackage WP5 "Governance and policy assessment" of the EU Horizon 2020 project UNISECO (Understanding and improving the sustainability of agro-ecological farming systems in the EU). The overall objective of this Deliverable (D5.2) is to identify and analyse the governance structures which characterise the different transition "patterns" in the context of the 15 UNISECO case studies. The specific objectives of D5.2 can be synthesized as: To identify and analyse the most relevant actors for addressing key agro-ecological dilemmas in each Case Study (across the seven main types of actors: farmers; authorities and administrations; agri-food value chain actors; science, innovation, advisory and capacity building actors; NGOs, civic society organisations, local community representatives; consumers; media); To identify and analyse the governance networks with relevance for the challenge. The focus is on power relations, conflicts, collaborations, collective action dynamics, the flows of knowledge and tangible goods. The purpose is to understand the decision-making process and how the network and its elements (actors and actor-actor links) can influence pathways of agro-ecological transitions. Social Network analysis (SNA) is the method that has been used to analyse the governance structures involved in the transition towards agro-ecological farming system (AEFS). The analysis went well-beyond the farm level, by looking at how different stakeholder groups are engaged in the transition processes towards sustainable agriculture and food systems. The report is structured as follows: Section 2 includes an introduction to the topic with particular attention to governance networks enabling the transition towards AEFS. Section 3 reports on the research method (Social Network Analysis) used for the data collection in the context of the 15 UNISECO case studies. Section 4 presents an overview of all case studies, while Section 5 provides a comparative analysis of the ...