Connecting the connectors: lessons the SFS Innovation Platform Annual Event 2026

On 30 October, EU4Advice-as one of the managing projects of the platform-organised SFS Innovation Platform annual members’ event, “EU Advisory Networks: Collaborating for Resilient & Sustainable Food Systems, which welcomed 83 participants out of 160 registrations.

Some relevant lessons emerged from this event. In her keynote, Elena-Teodora Miron (LFI Austria, modernAKIS) gave us an image that stayed with us throughout the morning. If advisors are the nerve endings of the AKIS, advisory networks are the nerves: they carry signals between farmers, research and policy, in both directions. In reality, she noted, these links are often broken. Advisors value connection, but they look for it close to home, in regional and topic-focused exchanges, and they are held back by lack of time and by language. She also named a risk that many of us know well: the “project-cycle trap”, where networks built with great effort scatter once funding ends. The models that last, from the French CASDAR fund to the IALB network and the Organic Farm Knowledge platform, all have a stable host behind them. Her proposal: national AKIS hubs that give the many European networks a permanent home.

The panel brought this picture to life. Rui Almeida (EUFRAS) argued that today’s farmers need “super-advisors”, and that only strong advisory organisations can provide them, with advisors acting not as the last mile of the AKIS but as an early warning system. Susanne Padel (Organic Advice Network) reminded us that many people advising organic farmers are not traditional advisors at all, but small teams and individuals who need an open door. Calypso Picaud (AdvisoryNetPEST) explained how, on a sensitive topic like pesticide reduction, advisors need the reassurance that only exchanges with their peers can give. Grzegorz Siebielec (NBSOIL) and Patricia Mora McGinity (SFSC advisor network) spoke about reaching new and less visible advisors through short training and micro-credentials, and about the loneliness of advisors in emerging fields such as short food supply chains. Peter Rakers (EU-FarmBook) showed how a shared meta-platform, with on-demand translation, can keep knowledge alive after projects end.

In the end, the message of the event can be summed up in a few words: what advisors lack today is not information, but time. For us at EU4Advice, this is a clear call to keep building networks that respect advisors’ time and add real value to their daily work with farmers.

If you missed the event, or would like to revisit it, the full recording is available on YouTube. Thank you to everyone who joined and shared their experience. We look forward to continuing the conversation on the SFS Innovation Platform.