Innovation

Soil Association Scotland's 'Future Farming Scotland' programme has won one of RSPB's prestigious Nature of Scotland Awards.

At the recent Nature of Scotland Awards ceremony, the 'Future Farming Scotland' programme took home the prize for the 'Food and Farming' category.

Mike Strachan from Forestry Commission Scotland reports on the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) workshop on 'New value chains from multi-functional forests held in Vienna on 10 and 11 November 2016.

The European Innovation Partnership (EIP) aims to bridge the gap between Research and Practice in Agriculture, Food and Forestry across Europe.  I was fortunate to be invited to attend the workshop in Vienna where I helped to lead discussions on the role of Agroforestry in supporting value chains. Eighty participants from 21 countries attended.

Irish farmer Margaret Farrelly has won the 2016 Copa Cogeca’s European innovation prize for women farmers.

Margaret Farrelly started out with 150 hens selling to a local packer. Today she has over 160,000 hens and an annual turnover of €6.2 million. Her company employs 33 people and she works with 22 other Irish farmers to deliver free-range Irish eggs and liquid eggs.

The Carnegie UK Trust are inviting applications for a project which takes a fresh approach to town twinning.

Twin Towns UK will pair towns across the UK with similar characteristics or socio-economic challenges, to consider how to make positive change happen in their communities.

The initiative will support up to ten towns to trial 'twinning' arrangements over an 18-month period.

Officials from all over the European Union came together to share their experience of supporting European Innovation Partnerships in agriculture and forestry (EIP-AGRI) in Budapest, Hungary on 4-5 October 2016.

The idea behind European Innovation Partnerships is that farmers or foresters work with others, such as researchers to: 

The latest newsletter from the European Innovation Partnerships in agriculture and forestry (EIP-AGRI) is now available.

Farmers and foresters from all over the European Union are trying out new ideas and finding solutions to problems with the help of researchers, vets and others. 

The Anders Wall Award for private individuals who have made a special contribution to the rural environment in the European Union is open for applications.

Anders Wall Foundation from Stockholm in association with the European Commission, Directorate General for the Environment, Brussels, the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry and the "Friends of the Countryside", has introduced the award.

Only private enterprises can enter the competition.

Their achievements should preferably include the following elements:

Help decide the winners of the Scottish Rural Parliament's Rural Innovator Awards by voting online.

People, projects and organisations from across rural Scotland have been shortlisted for awards in seven categories - and it is now down to you to help decide the winners.