Soil and land use research in Europe: Lessons learned from INSPIRATION bottom-up strategic research agenda setting

Abstract

We introduce the INSPIRATION bottom-up approach for the development of a strategic research agenda for spatial planning, land use and soil-sediment-water-system management in Europe. Research and innovation needs were identified by more than 500 European funders, endusers, scientists, policy makers, public administrators and consultants. We report both on the concept and on the implementation of the bottom-up approach, provide a critique of the process and draw key lessons for the development of research agendas in the future. Based on identified strengths and weaknesses we identified as key opportunities and threats 1) a high ranking and attentiveness for the research topics on the political agenda, in press and media or in public awareness, 2) availability of funding for research, 3) the resources available for creating the agenda itself, 4) the role of the sponsor of the agenda development, and 5) the continuity of stakeholder engagement as bases for identification of windows of opportunity, creating ownership for the agenda and facilitating its implementation. Our derived key recommendations are 1) a clear definition of the area for which the agenda is to be developed and for the targeted user, 2) a conceptual model to structure the agenda, 3) making clear the expected roles, tasks, input formats regarding the involvement and communication with the stakeholders and project partners, 4) a sufficient number of iterations and checks of the agenda with stakeholders to insure completeness, relevance and creation of co-ownership for the agenda, and 5) from the beginning prepare the infrastructure for the network to implement the agenda.

Leverage Points for Governing Agricultural Soils: A Review of Empirical Studies of European Farmers’ Decision-Making

“…In our study, the geographical scope is comparatively narrow, as we think that it is more sensible to keep the cultural and legal context relatively constant across analysed studies, particularly when the ultimate aim is to derive implications for soil governance in a specific cultural-political context. Conversely, our thematic and disciplinary foci are broad, which reflects the recognition that (i) soil management is influenced by many different decisions made by farmers, directly and indirectly; and (ii) the combination of different disciplinary perspectives can be very fruitful, as impressively shown by recent advances in behavioural research [23] and requested in the recent agenda for strategic research on land use and soil management in Europe [24].…”

INSPIRATION for Sustainable Soil and Land Use Management in Austria

“…National Focal Points (NFP) were mobilized to facilitate the collation process and knowledge exchange. In total, more than 500 international stakeholders from various fields contributed to the SRA, enabling an interdisciplinary foundation for future research projects (Bartke et al, 2018).…”

“…After the individual countries had identified their most pressing national research needs, they were transnationally collected and synthesized into "Clustered and Integrating Research Topics (CRT, IRT)" (Bartke et al, 2018). The impact of the implementation of these topics (outlined in…”

“…The aim of the project was to identify transnational and interdisciplinary research needs to establish this SRA for Europe and to improve the use of knowledge referring to the soil-water system. The project applied a coordinated and structured cross-national stakeholder process to prepare a transnational network of funders to implement the SRA (Bartke, Boekhold, et al, 2018). This article presents the Austrian perspective and contribution to the SRA, highlights the findings of the project, and identifies the most urgent Austrian-specific research needs addressing key societal challenges.…”

“…National stakeholder participation: information collation process in Austria for research needs based on the INSPIRATION participatory approach according toBartke et al (2018) Abbildung 1. Nationale Stakeholder Partizipation: Prozess zur Sammlung der Informationen zur Erfassung des Forschungsbedarfs basierend auf dem partizipativen Ansatz des INSPIRATION Projekts nach Bartke et al (2018) Pia Minixhofer et al Die Bodenkultur: Journal of Land Management, Food and Environment 70 (2) 2019 the Europeans' Strategic Research Agenda for Integrated Spatial Planning, Land Use and Soil Management) is considered to go beyond the mere sum of the funding for the individual topic (Nathanail et al, 2018) but to achieve a general change in the management approach.…”