Strengthen the ability of agri-food supply chains in European regions.
Support and promote agri-food network migration.
Create a sustainable Web Platform for European agri-food networks and associations.
Create awareness, disseminate and commercialise results of research
Networks enrolment and evaluation.
Selection of experts.
Identification and exchange of best practices.
Creation of an agri-food web platform.
Dissemination.
Objectives
TOWARDS' centre of gravity is to strengthen the ability of agri-food supply chains in European regions to meet the aspirations of European consumers for food that improves health and well-being. Within this overall objective, our goal is to support and promote the migration of agri-food SME networks from a producer and regional focus (traditional networks/associations) towards a market and European orientation (innovative networks/associations): FROM FORK TO FARM APPROACH. TOWARDS objectives can be summarized as follows: Strengthen the ability of agri-food supply chains in European regions to meet the aspirations of European consumers for food that improves health and well-being. TOWARDS will act as a catalyst for change by establishing best practices for dissemination in national agri-food programmes. Support and promote agri-food network migration "from fork to farm". To help do so, TOWARDS will create a clear model and associated toolkit supporting agri-food network migration, codifying experiences into e-learning materials and regional policy programmes. Create a sustainable Web Platform for European agri-food networks and associations, which will include all related information and a networking tool provided with the aim of facilitating the communication flow among all stakeholders. Create awareness, disseminate and commercialise results of research, in order to provide a good framework for the optimal use of project's results. TOWARDS' dissemination plan will include national and international Conferences, publication of research papers & articles and the dissemination of a half-yearly newsletter.Activities
In order to achieve the proposed goals, TOWARDS' partners will carry out during its 24 months execution following activities centring around the agri-food networks/associations: Networks enrolment and evaluation. TOWARDS consortium will enrol 6 SME agri-food networks or associations in each of the six target countries (Spain, Greece, Poland, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Czech Republic). In each country, three of these six SME agri-food network/associations recruited will be client and market oriented networks (innovative networks), while the other three will be traditional, producer oriented networks (traditional networks). In a parallel way, each traditional network will be evaluated through a Migration Toolkit, which will help build their Migration Plans towards a market orientation. A new set of goals, governances, etc., will be agreed with network actors, on the basis of functional analysis - the aim of which will be to re-orientate the network to a sharper focus on client, export and dynamic markets. Delphi panels of European and national experts will feed back to each individual network their comments and suggestions on these plans. Selection of experts. In order to ensure the access to professionals (marketing, finance, technologists, quality assurance and training), TOWARDS consortium will draw from its regional, national and European network of experts into supporting SME networks migration. These experts will have a key role throughout the whole project in the evaluation of the migration plans and where possible suggesting contacts and helping make connections and sustainable relationships. Identification and exchange of best practices. Beginning in the first months of the project, best practices will be identified in each client-oriented SME agri-food network/association. Later in the project, these good practices will be studied and analysed in order to make them transferable to traditional SME networks. This approach will allow SME agri-food networks enrolled in the project to interact and exchange experiences and good practices in order to learn and add value to their activities and facilitate interregional cooperation in the sector. Creation of an agri-food web platform. This Platform will include all related information and a networking tool provided with the aim of facilitating the communication flow among all stakeholders. The web platform will be sustainable beyond the project and will mainly dedicate to systematically reorienting producer networks into market-focused networks. Dissemination. TOWARDS consortium will focus throughout the 24-month project framework in a wide range of dissemination activities, such as:- Publication of a half-yearly newsletter.
- Publication of 5 research articles.
- Press releases in each target country.
- 2 National Conferences on agri-food SME networks/associations in each target country.
- 1 European Conference.
