Contact/s:
Christine Berger
Christine.berger@idele.fr
Pauline Gay
pauline.gay@acta.asso.fr
Pierre Andong
pierre.andong@acta.asso.fr
How to Structure an Effective European Project with a Wide Range of Agricultural Actors in Several Countries
Europe
All Zones
- European project running efficiently
- National ecosystems are connected, locally and with the European level
- Advisors are trained with the best practices across Europe to support farmers in their climate transition.
Thematic Areas
Production System/s
Summary for Practicioners on the Main Finding(s)/Innovative solution(s)
If you’re leading a project that involves diverse actors (i.e. farmers, advisors, cooperatives, researchers, and agro-industries) across multiple countries, like the European “Climate Farm Demo” (CFD), structuring your project effectively is key to success. Here are some insights from over two years of CFD experience:
⦁ Clear Role Definition
In large-scale projects such as CFD which involves over 80 partners, 1,500 farmers, 250 advisors, and National Coordinators across 26 countries, defining roles is crucial. Clearly identify the levels of responsibility and differentiate between those who carry out tasks (field actors) and decision-makers who provide resources. The goal is to keep the organization simple, flexible, and efficient, with dedicated channels to address each actor type.
2. Linking European and National/Local Levels
To ensure the network functions well across countries, the following steps are key:
⦁ Leverage Existing Networks: Build on national or regional demo-farm networks, advisory groups, or cooperatives. If none exist, help partners create one.
⦁ National Coordinators: Appoint someone to lead local efforts, connect with national stakeholders and act as an interface with the European level (see dedicated Practice Abstract).
⦁ Common Operating Framework: Create a flexible, cohesive framework for national networks to follow.
⦁ Regular Engagement: Organize recurring missions like annual national meetings to keep stakeholders engaged.
⦁ Quarterly Coordination: Connect all National Coordinators regularly through a dedicated management group and online meetings to share updates, challenges, and solutions.
⦁ Involving Advisors and Experts: Advisors are crucial for guiding farmers through climate-smart practices. Ensure that National Coordinators facilitate these networks, connect with advisors’ managers for support, and involve experts to train advisors on new practices and facilitation skills.
Additional Information
Are you a project leader and want to set up a network gathering many different actors, such as farmers, advisors, researchers, cooperatives, suppliers and agro-industries in over 25 countries, as is the case for the European “Climate Farm Demo” (CFD) project?
After more than 2 years up and running, here are some initial observations based on CFD’s experience on how to run a project that works. Our first and most important outcome is to structure the project organisation with defined roles and link the European level with the national and local levels.
Identify roles
In a very large-scale project such as CFD, over 80 partners are involved in the management and activities, while there are 1,500 farmers, over 250 advisors, and 30 work packages and task leaders, 20 thematic and sectors specialists and 26 National Coordinators (i.e. 1 per country involved in demonstration events in the field).
One of the critical points in the running of such a project is to clearly identify the levels of responsibility and decision-making and to differentiate between those who carry out tasks (field actors) and decision-makers who provide resources. Each actor must understand their role in the global framework, while the organization remains simple and flexible.
The challenge is to develop channels through which these actors can be addressed effectively. In CFD, we organise bi-annual meetings (1 face-to face and 1 online) and targeted webinars for decision-makers, while structuring a specific operating model for field actors (see below).
Articulate the European level with each national network
It is vital that the network is connected at national and local levels: how to do so?
1. Ideally, establish the national network by building on existing national or local demo-farm networks derived from previous projects, cooperative, agroindustry or advisor groups: this ensures the network is already operational. If no such network exists, the project must support the national partners for its creation. This requires attention and organisational flexibility, as well as the support of operational intermediaries (see next point);
2. Appoint National Coordinators: its role is to create links with the partners involved in its own country, lead local actors towards a common goal and act as an interface with the European level (please see dedicated Practice Abstract ”The key role of the National Coordinator in a project such as CFD: scope and limits of his tasks”);
3. Define a common operating framework for these national networks that is sufficiently solid and coherent, while remaining flexible and ‘comfortable’;
4. Provide resources in the country language – or translate them if necessary: tools, trainings and documentation will be most useful to advisors and farmers if available in their own language;
5. Define recurring missions and key actions for national networks, such as committing them to organising a national meeting each year;
6. Connect the National Coordinators together through a quarterly online meeting: they will share their highlights, needs and issues, while you can communicate information relevant for all national networks. One of the keys to success is to create an operational intermediate management function through a ‘Network Management Unit’, which is extremely important and valuable in making the project run smoothly;
7. Connect with the network of advisors in each country, building on current networks whenever possible. Indeed, advisors are crucial to support farmers in the journey towards climate smart transition;
8. Appoint the National Coordinator as Climate Farm Advisors’ network facilitator, responsible for creating the dynamics and synergies needed to disseminate climate smart farming practices as widely as possible;
9. Engage with the advisors’ direct managers to ensure they will provide the means for the advisors to act in the field;
10. Involve thematic experts to train the advisors on new climate smart practices but also on facilitating skills (see dedicated Practice Abstract mentioned above).