Innovative, sustainable and inclusive bioeconomy - AgriForValor

AgriForValor is a H2020 project designed to develop networks that will connect actors that produce, manage and exploit biological resources in agricultural and forest chains with research centers and academia from multiple disciplinary fields as well as bio-industry SMEs.

The project focuses on the transfer of know-how and information to enable and support farmers and foresters to exploit existing research results and facilitate the capture of grass root ideas for bio-industry development.

The coordination and support actions will be implemented via biomass innovation design hubs located within 3 rural and coastal communities:

  • Spain
  • Ireland
  • Hungary

The project is coordinated by Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum (Germany) and will run from March 2016 till August 2018.

AGRIFORVALORAgriForValor supports

  • Effective exchange of existing knowledge on innovative approaches on sidestream valorization
  • Bioeconomy implementation for agriculture and forestry sectors.

The project team will synthesize, share and present best practices and research results that are near to be put into practice with a focus upon facilitating market uptake and exploitation with the development of new business model concepts and supply chain strategies for agriculture and forestry sectors.

 

Objectives

The main and long term objective of the project is to close the research and innovation divide through establishing cross-sectorial and multi-actor innovation partnership networks on agro-forest biomass sidestreams to support sustainable and economic development of forest and agriculture sectors for the benefit of rural areas, regions and communities.

The specific objectives towards development of multi-actor agro-forest biomass and sidestream Innovation Partnership Networks are:

  1. Develop and implement multi-actor Biomass Innovation Design Hubs in the three project rural regions as cooperation platforms and innovation networks for knowledge transfer, disseminating research and innovation results and identifying grass root ideas
  2. Transfer and communicate knowledge on key RDI-results, innovations, potentials, new ideas and best practice related to sidestream biomass valorization and competitiveness using hands-on information and novel approaches to dissemination and learning
  3. Identify and develop training and education materials and usage of selected innovation tools fostering cooperation and promoting innovation between players in the multi-actor network
  4. Support exploiting of existing research results by farmers and foresters
  5. Support the design of new bio-economy promoting business models for agricultural and forestry industries and Bio-Industry through supports, training and knowledge resources available at the regional Biomass Innovation Design Hubs
  6. Provide innovative knowledge and easy accessible end-user material feeding EIP-Agri

 

Role of Ghent University

  • Giving valuable input on agri-based research and innovation results,
  • Provide input for SWOT-analysis and input for a multi-criteria analysis
  • Develop training content
  • Co-elaborate an innovation toolbox for the agro- and forest sector. 

 

Contact

Prof. Xavier Gellynck
Department of Agricultural Economics
Phone number: +3292645930
E-mail:

Dr. Evelien Lambrecht
Department of Agricultural Economics
Phone number: +3292645930