News & Upcoming Events
Extension & Knowledge Exchange Working Party 9.01.03 Conference
9-14 September 2018, Christchurch New Zealand
The international union of forest research orgamisations (IUFRO) has many cross-national task groups and working parties. The IUFRO Extension and Knowledge Exchange Working Party (EKE) first became active in 1994. Since that time it has grown to include over 400 members from about 70 countries throughout the world.
The objectives of the Working Party are as follows:
- To serve as a forum for information exchange among Extension forestry workers worldwide.
- To promote the concept of Extension through the transfer of knowldege and technology to improve the lives of people.
- To improve the quality, quantity, and effectiveness of Extension programs worldwide.
- To advance the quality and impact of research on Extension methodologies.
Scion will host the next working party conference in September 2018 in Christchurch. To register for EKE updates please contact the WP co-ordinator Janean Creighton (OSU Forestry and Natural Resources Extension Programme). Janean.Creighton@oregonstate.edu
Primary Innovation Think Tank
20 - 21 September 2017, Wellington
If you work in the science & innovation sector, as an investor, researcher or in industry, delivering impact is essential. We’re all seeking ways to ensure that our investments deliver real value for stakeholders and, ultimately, for New Zealand. Learning about what helps and what hinders impact has been the focus of a 5-year Primary Innovation research program funded by MBIE and DairyNZ that has just reached its end. We’ve been exploring co-innovation and what it has to offer those working in science & innovation in New Zealand today.
This 2-day Think Tank is free to attend. At this event we’ll share with you what we’ve learned in our 5-year Primary Innovation research program about what helps and hinders impact. Leaders of five innovation projects in forestry, cropping, dairy and environmental management will share their experiences on “How can science make a difference for New Zealand?” AgResearch economists and social scientists will discuss an analysis of benefits to address the question “Is collaboration in innovation worth it?” And Andy Hall of CSIRO will outline insights from international cases of transformational innovation in the primary sector to explore “What does truly transformative innovation look like and how can it be achieved?”
Come along and add your insights and experiences on ways to get the most out of science in order to drive New Zealand’s innovation agenda and build capacity for the future.
Keynote speakers from The Netherlands and Australia will help us benchmark our experiences and inspire us to think of ways New Zealand can lift its performance. Primary Innovation research findings will anchor the discussion in real-time New Zealand projects across the horticulture, agriculture and forestry sectors.
The Think Tank will be highly interactive, create new networks and trigger novel thinking. Panellists will test the thinking on the value of co-innovation, who it works for and how we collectively might benefit. A tools session will equip us with the skills we need to put co-innovation into practice before we focus on building a “change agenda” to enhance the performance of New Zealand’s science & innovation sector.
International Transdisciplinarity Conference 2017: Transdisciplinary Research and Education – Intercultural Endeavours
A co-conference will take place on 13th September 2017 at Landcare Research, Christchurch as part of the International Transdisciplinary Conference 2017. The purpose of this co-conference is to exchange learnings about transdisciplinary research from the Primary Innovation programme and the Our Land and Water National Science Challenge.
Primary Innovation strongly represented at IFSA 2016
The 12th European IFSA Symposium will take place at Harper Adams University, UK from Tuesday 12 - Friday 15 July 2016. The theme of the Symposium will be “Social and technological transformation of farming systems: Diverging and converging pathways.”
Primary Innovation is running a symposium workshop co-convened by Denise Bewsell, Neels Botha, Simon Fielke, Ms Srinivasan, James Turner and Tracy Williams. The workshop will be focused on co-innovation at the symposium under theme 1 one of the five conference themes, titled: Innovation, knowledge and learning processes.
Participants from natural and social sciences, particularly those interested in knowledge needs and support for learning and innovation within agriculture, will contribute to workshops that address the issues in this theme. There will be a strong focus on four areas in theme 1 namely, the current state of art on innovation, knowledge and learning processes; systemic and multi-stakeholder participatory strategies, methods and tools supporting network/ platform building, social learning and action, innovation and adjustment to policies in diverse Agricultural Knowledge Innovation Systems / Agricultural Innovation Systems configurations; emerging ‘intermediation’ roles and advisors’ needs in terms of training (capacity building); the current methods to assess the impacts of innovation (participatory, external) including the impact pathway approach.
The Primary Innovation inspired workshop is titled “Using a co-innovation approach to improve innovation and learning” with the following papers:
- Srinivasan et al: Just-in-case to justified irrigation: Applying co-innovation principles to irrigation management
- Dohmen-Vereijssen et al. Addressing complex challenges using a co-innovation approach: lessons from five case studies in the New Zealand primary sector
- Coutts et al. Evaluating a space for co-innovation. The application of nine principles for co-innovation in practice
- Fielke et al. The role of a reflexive monitor in New Zealand agricultural innovation systems: Hitting the bull’s-eye
- Turner et al. Triggering system innovation in an agricultural innovation system: Initial insights from a Community for Change in New Zealand
- Albicette et al. Operationalizing a co-innovation approach in family-farming livestock systems in Rocha-Uruguay: A three years learning process
- Gariepy et al. Multi-scale modelling as a tool for sharing the perspectives of researchers, practitioners and farmers on practices to be adopted in an intensive agricultural watershed.
- Malley et al. Integrated Agriculture Landscape Management: A Case of Using Learning and Inclusive Innovation Development Process in Mbeya Region, Tanzania
- Van Dijk et al. Navigating the unknown: practice-led collaborative research for the improvement of animal welfare
Additionally there are other Primary Innovation papers that will be presented at IFSA 2016:
- Beechener et al. How co-innovation impacts on scaling; encouraging more just-in-time and less just-in-case irrigation scheduling in New Zealand
- Botha et al. Evaluating for learning and accountability in system innovation: Incorporating reflexivity in a log frame approach.