In Hesse, the "European Innovation Partnership for Productivity and Sustainability in Agriculture" (EIP-Agri) and the implementation of projects to promote networks and cooperation within the framework of cooperation will continue proven programmes to promote cooperation and generate innovations in the agriculture, forestry and food sector in the 2023-2027 funding period. The EIP-Agri funding instrument aims to promote practical innovations for all areas of primary production. To this end, so-called Operational Groups (OG) consisting of primary producers, educational and research institutions, advisory services and upstream and downstream sectors work together to develop an innovative solution to a practical problem. The aim of promoting cooperation is to strengthen co-operative structures and knowledge transfer in rural areas in order to further support the sustainable development of rural areas and their stakeholders. Collaboration takes place in so-called ‘cooperations’.
Both measures mentioned are financed on the basis of the interventions of the same name in the national CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 with the participation of the EAFRD fund and are managed by the specialist department at the Hessian Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, Viticulture, Forestry, Hunting and Homeland (HMLU). Implementation is carried out via the guidelines for the promotion of innovation and cooperation in agriculture and rural areas as well as digitalisation in agriculture (RL-IZ).
The state of Hesse has commissioned IfLS Beratung und Projekte GmbH as the Hessian Innovation Service Support (ISS) / innovation broker for the efficient implementation of the RL-IZ. The ISS acts as a link between the (potential) OGs and associations, the specialist department at the HMLU and the other institutions active in the so-called ‘Innovation and Cooperation Project Group’, primarily the authorisation body (the Regional Council of Giessen) and the Hessian State Agency for Agriculture (LLH). The central tasks of the ISS include:
- Advising interested Operational Groups (OGs) and cooperations on the formation and development of an action plan
- Supporting the approved OGs and cooperations in the implementation (outside of legal approval issues), e.g. public relations work, self-evaluation
- Networking the OGs and cooperations, e.g. via events and workshops
- Supporting the regional administrative authority at the HMLU in the implementation of the RL-IZ
