A research agenda for evaluating living labs as an open innovation model for environmental and agricultural sustainability

Beaudoin, Charlotte; Joncoux, Steve; Jasmin, Jean-François; Berberi, Albana; McPhee, Chris; Schillo, R. Sandra; Nguyen, Vivian M.

doi:10.1016/j.envc.2022.100505

Cited by 21 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Further, Living Labs as a platform that brings together researchers, practitioners, policymakers and the general public may be an important component in identifying and addressing wicked soil challenges (Bouma et al, 2022). Showcasing sustainable solutions in practice‐based settings and designing national policies that present these solutions in specific contexts can strengthen farmers' capacities and abilities to adopt sustainable soil management practices (Beaudoin et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable soil management: Soil knowledge use and gaps in Europe

Thorsøe,

Keesstra,

De Boever

et al. 2023

European J Soil Science

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Soils are the foundation of agricultural production, ecosystem functioning and human well‐being. Bridging soil knowledge gaps and improving the knowledge system is crucial to meet the growing EU soil policy ambitions in the face of climate change and the ongoing trend in soil degradation. The objective of this article is to assess the current state of knowledge, knowledge use and knowledge gaps concerning sustainable soil management in Europe. This study is based on interviews with 791 stakeholders and 254 researchers and on a comprehensive review of >1800 documents carried out under the European Joint Programme on agricultural soils. Despite differences in stakeholder groups, the conclusions are rather consistent and complementary. We identified major knowledge gaps with respect to (1) soil carbon stocks, (2) soil degradation and fertility and (3) strategies for improved soil management. Transcending these three areas, particularly the loss of soil organic carbon, peatland degradation and soil compaction, are most critical, thus, we stress the urgency of developing more models and monitoring programmes on soils. Stakeholders further report that insufficient transfer of existing soil research findings to practitioners is a hindrance to the adoption of sustainable soil management practices. In addition to knowledge production, soil knowledge gaps may be addressed by considering seven recommendations from the stakeholders: (1) raising awareness, (2) strengthening knowledge brokers, (3) improving relevance of research activities and resource allocation for land users, (4) peer‐to‐peer communication, (5) targeting advice and information, (6) improving knowledge access, and (7) providing incentives. We argue that filling and bridging knowledge gaps should be a priority for policymakers and the insights provided in the article may help prioritise research and dissemination needs enabling a transition to more sustainable soil management in Europe.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable soil management: Soil knowledge use and gaps in Europe

Thorsøe,

Keesstra,

De Boever

et al. 2023

European J Soil Science

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“…Canada's LTRs were an important resource in the past. New LTRs have been initiated in the past few years including AAFC's Living Labs Initiative (Beaudoin et al 2022;Bronson et al 2021;McPhee et al 2021). Through the aforementioned LTRs and NAPESHM project, we are reminded of the value of LTRs for all of us now.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The story of long-term research sites and soil health in Canadian agriculture

et al. 2023

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Canada’s interest in agricultural lands has changed with time from a desire of crop yields at Confederation through to discussions in the Senate on adaptation and resilience in 2018. Long-term research experiments (LTRs) have been present and utilized by federal and university researchers to provide answers throughout. Here we highlight the importance of LTRs by identifying the historical context of LTRs and soil health research in Canada. We then briefly describe the history and key results from select LTRs and illustrate the wealth of information collected from the North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements cross-country point-in-time soil sampling from these LTRs. We discuss the LTRs, and the knowledge gained from them, with the hope that by showing the distinctive narratives associated with each of these study sites, researchers will be inspired to use them to address their research questions and make sound predictions to facilitate the adaptation of Canadian agroecosystems to climate challenges. Through identifying the value generated by these unique LTRs, we hope that the importance of these sites will inspire not only their continued maintenance, but also a next generation of LTRs.

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“…Despite the extensive literature on the technical aspects of LLs innovation performance, research upon the evaluation of their added value, their unstandardised and complex nature, their effectiveness, and their environmental and social impacts is scarce, especially in the agriculture domain [38], [39]. In order to assess the effectiveness of the LL approach in the environmental and agricultural sectors, Beaudoin et al [12] proposed a seven themes model to organize methodological, operational, social, and environmental dimensions of LLs (who, what, why, how, where, when, and how effective). In a similar vein, FAO [40] Considering the European context, Overdiek and Genova [41], reviewed seven evaluation methods and tools specially developed for LLs, highlighted the limited number of existing assessment instruments, and grouped the spotted tools into three categories depending on their focus (organization, methodology, and the impact on a regional creative innovation context).…”

Section: Evaluation Of Agro Living Labsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agro living Labs: Creating innovative, sustainable, resilient and social inclusive food systems

Trivellas,

Mavrommati,

Anastasopoulou

et al. 2023

IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci.

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In response to climate, biodiversity, environmental, economic and social challenges to rural and peri-urban areas, an emergent type of living labs (LLs) has been developed: the ‘Agro Living Labs (ALLs)’. Various EU initiatives (e.g. the European Green Deal, the New European Bauhaus, the Farm to Fork strategy, the Biodiversity strategy) as well as the UN 2030 Agenda, highlight the need to direct towards agroecology. ALLs is a relatively new but very promising approach in agroecology practices. However, more practice-oriented research is needed to better understand how ALLs can help to effectively implement open and user-oriented innovations, to stimulate collaboration between different stakeholders in the community, to trigger cross-sectoral alliances and to build inclusive societies. This study aims to initiate a discussion around key elements of the ‘living lab way of working’ in agroecological food systems. Several scholars converge that we need to shed light upon particular approaches, methods, techniques, and tools that are used in real-life contexts to understand the opportunities offered by ALLs to peri-urban and rural areas. The authors suggest that ALLs, as Co-creating, Agroecological, Socio-Technical (CAST) systems, can help to address food systems crises, and to promote sustainability, integrity, equity, inclusiveness, resilience, circularity and productivity.

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A research agenda for evaluating living labs as an open innovation model for environmental and agricultural sustainability

Cited by 21 publications

References 38 publications

Sustainable soil management: Soil knowledge use and gaps in Europe

Sustainable soil management: Soil knowledge use and gaps in Europe

The story of long-term research sites and soil health in Canadian agriculture

Agro living Labs: Creating innovative, sustainable, resilient and social inclusive food systems

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