Organising effective online workshops for EU projects

In Horizon 2020 multi-actor projects such as EUREKA (www.h2020eureka.eu) workshops are important for gaining input from end users, as well as communicating and disseminating the knowledge that is built in the project. Physical face-to-face project workshops are moving online because of increased concern about the impact of international travel, as well as restrictions on human movement due to COVID–19. But what are the advantages of online workshops, what does a good workshop look like and what aspects are critical to its success?

Understanding the end user using personas and journeys

End user personas and journeys are a critical tool for product development, they enable practitioners to understand who they are designing for as well as getting to the core challenges and opportunities that the end user experiences. Without understanding the end user it is possible that practitioners design applications without fully understanding the system complexities, problems and what the end users actually need.

Successful knowledge dissemination: targeting the key sources used by the agricultural community

Communication and dissemination strategies are critical for ensuring effective knowledge transfer to the agricultural community as well as being mandatory by the European Commission for Horizon 2020 projects. A key factor for successful knowledge transfer is understanding the preferences and habits of the agricultural community in how they search for and obtain new knowledge.

The challenges of obtaining knowledge in the agricultural sector

Knowledge can be obtained from a wide variety of sources and in a wide range of formats. Effective knowledge exchange is critical for the advancement of the agricultural sector and the strengthening of knowledge exchange within the so-called Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS) of EU Member States has become an increasingly important objective of EU agricultural policy. The EUREKA project (www.h2020eureka.eu) aims to help strengthen knowledge exchange through the development of an online, open-source EU agricultural knowledge reservoir.

End user requirements for open-source knowledge e-platform features

The EUREKA project (www.h2020eureka.eu) aims to help strengthen agricultural knowledge exchange in EU Member States through the development of an online knowledge reservoir called the FarmBook. An open-source e-platform is a good tool for the development of such a knowledge base and can improve connections between two distinct user groups: multi-actor project partners and multi-actor end-users (farmers, foresters, advisors).

Best practices for communicating news, events and results in EU-funded research and innovation projects

The EUREKA project has analysed the communication practices of over 100 MAPs funded under the EU Horizon 2020 programme and identified numerous good practices.

Making knowledge objects available to the AKIS community through an EU-wide agricultural knowledge repository

The greatest challenge is the collection of information and content (‘knowledge objects’) in heterogeneous types and formats from a range of disparate sources and integrate them into a single storage space.

The FAIRness of data and other ‘knowledge objects’ exchanged in the EU agri-food and rural sectors

Leveraging the full power of knowledge requires it to be conveyed in ways that make its exploitation feasible by both humans and machines.

The challenge of building a sustainable knowledge community

A knowledge community represents a network of people with a common interest who work together to create and share knowledge on a particular topic or issue. A project with its partners is a typical example. But what happens after a project is finished?

Developing common goals for project impact

The importance of developing common goals amongst partners for maximising the impact of multi-actor projects

Effective communication for impact indicators

Effective communication between partners is essential good practice to develop meaningful impact indicators for multi-actor projects

Most effective social media channels for research and innovation projects

Which social media channels are most effective for helping research and innovation projects to reach their target audiences?

Choosing the right title for your project

It may not seem like a big decision, but choosing the ‘right’ title for your project is very important. The project name forms part of the first impression that those outside the project will have when coming into contact with it.

Choosing an effective menu structure for your project website

Websites are central to the communication and dissemination activities of most multi-actor projects. But how to enhance their effectiveness and impact?

Choosing the right digital tools for internal project communication

Multi-actor projects can be complex, and good internal project communication is a vital component of project success.

Selecting digital tools for the organisation of virtual project meetings

It is becoming less common for projects to have discussions face-to-face, but to meet instead virtually online. This meeting format was necessary in recent years due to the unprecedented challenges posed by COVID-19 but is now increasingly popular for many other reasons.

Choosing the name for an online platform

The name of the ‘EU FarmBook’ is clearly based upon a well-known social media platform, but how to generally go about creating and selecting the name for a platform?

Basic steps for organising a webinar

A webinar is a powerful, low-cost tool that can help achieve a project’s goals. In order to organise a high-quality webinar, it is recommended to follow these basic steps/rules.

Types of knowledge or data objects created in multi-actor projects

The EUREKA project identified these clusters of tangible knowledge objects produced by MA projects.

Best practices in creating new knowledge or data in multi-actor projects

The EUREKA project studied MA projects and identified these best practices for co-creation and co-ownership processes.

How to present scientific results to practitioners

Scientific results are usually presented in the form of a scientific article with a typical structure and a very detailed and scholarly description of the rationale, methodology, presentation and interpretation. This usually makes them so specific that they are rarely read by farmers, technicians, advisors or the general public.

Creating and distributing effective surveys in your multi-actor project

Surveys are a key tool for multi-actor projects, especially those aiming to address the needs of end-users. But how to create and distribute a good survey?

Consortium structure in multi-actor projects

The EUREKA project analysed a total of 129 Horizon 2020 multi-actor projects (including thematic networks) in terms of their partnership composition and leadership.

Collaboration between Horizon multi-actor projects and Operational Groups

Horizon projects and Operational Groups do not know of each other's existence. How can they cooperate better?

Sharing knowledge in Horizon multi-actor projects and Operational Groups

How do we organise that Horizon projects and Operational Groups share knowledge better?

What management system should be adapted for project content?

A well-designed Project content management systems helps to communicate with end-users and to implement and achieve project objectives.

Tools for collecting feedback in a project website/platform

Feedback collection tools are very important on the project website as an effective way to obtain useful information on project activities, communicate with end-users, get their reactions to the information provided etc.

What are the requirements for project data content used in social media accounts?

Social media with its wide-scale reach and rapid information sharing, can play a defining role in project planning, execution, and implementation.

Commonalities and specificities of the multi-actor approach in H2020 projects

A multi-actor approach in research and innovation projects is about engaging end-users and practitioners to make the best use of complementary types of knowledge.

How to involve different actors in the knowledge/data generation process?

One hundred and twenty-nine multi-actor projects of the H2020 programme were analysed in terms of the involvement and role of different actors in the creation of data and knowledge.

Open science - open data - data papers

The open-access policy has spread rapidly and has greatly influenced the scientific environment, especially publishing.

Involvement of end-users in need’s assessment

This abstract summarises practical experiences gained in the early development phase of the online knowledge reservoir platform, “EU Farmbook”.

Using the right picture can solve your troubles in communication for multi-actor projects

The power and impact of using good quality images in communication are indisputable and increasingly understood by experts working in the multi-actor project community.

Making your website or online platform available in multiple languages

As the world becomes more connected, it becomes ever more important to make critical knowledge and information available in multiple languages. Fortunately, advances in automatic translation now make this much more feasible.

The EIP-AGRI ‘landscape’ at a glance

Puzzled by the EIP-AGRI? Read on for a quick introduction.

The need for more balanced networking in multi-actor projects The

There are several countries which need support to better connect with research and innovation at EU level.

Innovation gaps in the livestock and permanent grasslands sector

The EUREKA project studied over 100 EU multi-actor projects incl. analysing the main knowledge categories of projects in the livestock and permanent grassland sector based on the domain ontology of AGROVOC.

The EIP-AGRI and the arable crops sector

Actors and stakeholders within the EIP-AGRI ‘landscape’ are searching for easily accessible and user-friendly knowledge.

The ‘Double Diamond’ in the EU FarmBook design process

Many of the lessons learnt during the EUREKA project are of interest and relevance to the developers of other similar platforms at a national or sectoral level.

The importance of regular development meetings when designing a knowledge reservoir

When entering the development stage of a platform such as the EU FarmBook, developers will have to take decisions that can significantly impact the end result.

The importance of user-testing in optimizing an online knowledge reservoir

A key element of the design process of such a platform is user-testing.

Transforming large quantities of diverse agricultural data

An important aspect of creating such an agricultural knowledge platform is gathering data from numerous sources and transforming it to become more FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable).

The importance of creating a Product Requirements Document (PRD) when building an agricultural knowledge reservoir

Creating a PRD not only ensures alignment within the current design process but also ensures that other parties can use the same processes to recreate (and/or adapt) the platform.

Establishing the governance and sustainability of an agricultural knowledge reservoir

In order to give confidence to users (e.g. researchers, advisors, farmers, foresters etc.) and to make a knowledge reservoir attractive for the distribution and storage of research outputs it is necessary to establish proper governance and apply some best practices.

Using an expert thematic working group (TWG) to support the development of an agricultural knowledge reservoir

A series of thematic working groups (TWGs) was organised in the EUREKA project to validate the outputs of a representative sample of MAPs.

Tips for the FAIR management of your digital data outputs/knowledge objects

Are you planning to develop knowledge objects for your project? Here are a few tips to make them Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR).

It’s all about the metadata!

A key component of the FAIR data principles is the metadata which is attached to knowledge objects (documents, spreadsheets, videos, podcasts etc.) to make them easy to find, reuse and manage.

Enhancing digital platform interoperability

Indexing the digital communication and dissemination material, created by a Multi-Actor Project (MAP), by using an appropriate subject category is not a trivial task.

Using specific file formats to create and make dissemination material available

The results of Multi-Actor Projects can become available by using a range of digital material types. However, making decisions about the material type to use is not an easy task.

Compendium of Good Practices to maximise user engagement and impact in multi-actor projects

The EUREKA project has brought together good practices from over 100 Horizon 2020 MA projects in a ‘Compendium of Good Practice.

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