Horizon 2020 Fairshare Project
Teresa Hooks project manager of the Horizon 2020 fair share project aims to support advisors to use the digital tools in order to encourage a more sustainable agriculture. Horizon 2020 (H2020) is a €7 million EU funded project. Teresa explains some of the challenges experienced by advisors & farmers
Above Image: FAIRshare Poster presented at this week's ESEE 2021 Conference
Download poster here FAIRShare_WP3_Poster_Insights Challenge Digital Advisory Tools (PDF)
What is FAIRshare?
The FAIRshare (Farm Advisory Digital Innovation Tools Realised and Shared) project launched in November 2018 and with 22 partners involved includes a mix of farm advisory services, organisations and research institutions from across the EU. This EU H2020 funded project, coordinated by Teagasc, aims to enable a more digitally active farm advisory community by focusing on bridging the digital divide evident between, and within, advisory services. The project focuses explicitly on existing Digital Advisory Tools and Services (DATS), which include communication tools, farm software, benchmarking tools, web and phone applications, digital education and training materials and supports, among others.
FAIRshare Project Objectives
While the project has two main overarching aims; to develop a pan European DATS Inventory to share and raise awareness of the DATS that are already in existence and available across the EU; and to support the practical engagement and of use of such tools by farm advisors across the EU using a Living lab approach. In order to do this, it is important to understand the challenges experienced by farm advisors and farmers across Europe in using digital tools. To capture this, FAIRshare conducted an EU wide survey with advisors and farmers and carried out a number of multi actor stakeholder workshops to delve deeper into these challenges and potential solutions. Challenges that arose include those around connectivity and broadband, lack of skills and motivation and indeed issues around data security and privacy. Some of the solutions that were offered include developing DATS with basic offline capabilities, offering training for both farmers and advisors along with the establishment of working groups or knowledge networks to ensure learnings are captured and supported, as well as clear legislation on data use and security. Interestingly, our findings show that many of the challenges experienced across Europe were similar, however there priority level often differed from country to country. Indeed other aspects such as the contextual policy environment were also a key factor.
Watch this short video clip in which Teresa Hooks talks about the FAIRshare project
FAIRshare Partner countries include: Ireland (lead), Belgium, France, Netherlands, Norway, United Kingdom, Greece, Portugal, Hungary, Lithuania, Austria, Germany, Spain, Croatia, and Switzerland.