modernAKIS at WiTa 2026 [09.03.26]
The Wissenschaftstagung Ökologischer Landbau (WiTa), a bi-annual conference dedicated to latest scientific findings in in organic agriculture in German speaking countries, took place this year from the 3-6 March at the University of Bonn.As part of this conference, three partners from modernAKIS, including our institute member, Sangeun Bae, collaborated with members from an external project, NutriNet, to organize a joint workshop titled “Innovative Methods of Knowledge Exchange – The Farmer Field School”. The aim of this workshop was to explore participatory approaches to knowledge production and to demonstrate how formats such as a farmer field school, provide a concrete example of how principles of knowledge co-production can be operationalized in practice.
The workshop began with an impulse presentation from Sangeun, “Frustration or Added value through the multi-actor approach, participation and interactive innovation?” In her presentation, Sangeun highlighted how EU initiatives such as EIP-AGRI and Horizon Europe are opening up new incentives for collaboration between research and practice. At the same time, she pointed to a key tension: while multi-actor approaches promise more relevant and impactful research, they often come with significant challenges for those engaged.
A central message of the presentation was that these challenges are systemic in nature, emerging from the interaction of broader conditions such as funding structures, institutional incentives, individual and organizational capacities, and supporting infrastructures. To fully realise the potential of knowledge co-production, Sangeun emphasized why it is necessary to move beyond viewing co-production as merely a process-level intervention, and instead recognising it as a system-level intervention that requires changes in the wider enabling environment.
In the follow-up session led by partners from the NutriNet project, participants were introduced to the Farmer Field School approach as a concrete method for facilitating participatory learning and knowledge exchange. Through an interactive role-play exercise, participants worked in small groups, taking on different roles such as problem contributor, advisors, and peer colleagues. Each group collaboratively explored a real-world challenge, allowing participants to experience how knowledge can be co-produced through structured dialogue and peer learning processes.
The workshop was attended a diverse group of 22 participants, primarily researchers with an interest in practice-oriented research. Overall, the session was well received, with participants resonating many of the challenges raised and actively engaging in the discussions afterwards on how multi-actor approaches could be better supported. A number of participants also expressed interest in experimenting with participatory formats similar to the farmer field school, in the context of research design and teaching.
We look forward to seeing how the insights from this workshop will inform Sangeun’s ongoing work in modernAKIS, particularly in developing intervention strategies to better support researchers’ engagement in multi-actor approaches!