Agricultural businesses are subject to constant changes in social expectations, political conditions, and environmental factors, and must adapt to these in order to survive and remain competitive.
For some time now, societal expectations and legal requirements have gone far beyond the mere production of food. Consumers no longer want just affordable food; they also have expectations regarding the production process in terms of environmental protection (e.g., preserving biodiversity), animal welfare, landscape conservation, and similar issues. Added to this are changing climatic conditions to which farms must respond. To meet these numerous and diverse conditions while still operating economically, agriculture requires a high degree of adaptability and transformational capacity.
In this context, innovation is a key element of transformation processes, as it ensures that agriculture possesses the necessary adaptability. Consequently, transformation is difficult to imagine without innovation. This is where a key European Union funding instrument comes into play: the “Innovation Partnership for Productivity and Sustainability in Agriculture” (EIP-AGRI). This EU-wide funding program aims to promote practical innovation in agriculture, facilitate the transfer of knowledge from science to practice, and strengthen the link between practice, research, and innovation.
The project “Agricultural Innovation Development Against the Backdrop of Societal Expectations and Political Framework Conditions – A Study of European Innovation Partnerships with a Focus on Animal Welfare,” funded by the Edmund Rehwinkel Foundation, is dedicated precisely to this connection between innovation, societal expectations, and the resulting potential transformation of livestock farming. The aim of the project is to identify success factors for innovation and, consequently, the transformative capacity of European livestock farming.
To this end, the following aspects will be examined in greater detail:
- Thematic and regional priorities, as well as the importance of animal welfare and livestock farming in European innovation development
- Identification of pioneers in innovation in the field of animal welfare and livestock farming
- Identification of success factors for the innovation and transformation capacity of livestock farming
