RTD2FARM · Enhancing collaboration in research for Livestock

RTD2Farm has a simple, yet effective strategy to increase the uptake of RTD Results by livestock farmers.RTD2Farm will be involving the three main players of the process; RTD providers (Research centres, Universities, Industry, etc), Technology Transfer experts (Networking and Training Organisations) and Farmers (End Users).RTD2Farm will analyse methods for knowledge and technology transfer, define Best Practice, and spread these. RTD2Farm has concentrated on pig farms, as they are the main animal for meat production in the EU. The process to optimise Knowledge and Technology Transfer should be transferable to other species, as the main Technologies are similar: Feed, Genetics/Breeding and Farm Management. Obviously there will be differences in the technologies, but the Knowledge and technology Transfer methods will be similar.Three regions have been selected to represent the diversity of Livestock farming Regions in the EU. Benelux has a similar “farm landscape” (farm size and production techniques), covers a small area and has a high uptake of new knowledge and technologies (K&T). Austria has a very diverse farming landscape; with a very diverse uptake of K&T. Italy has more small farms where dissemination of K&T is especially challenging.These three landscapes are a representative majority of the EU wide situation. Industry Partners will be especially keen to take these new K&T Transfer methods into their most important developing markets in the Newer Member States and beyond. A main goal of RTD2Farm is to develop Best Practice methods for a variety of K&T Transfer scenarios..K&T Transfer from Universities has the air of being inefficient. Of course K&T Transfer by Industry is more efficient, as the research itself is very consumers oriented. The difference in the RTD developed will influence the best transfer practice. For this reason we have included both UNI and IND partners as RTD Providers in the RTD2Farm consortium to accommodate for the difference in RTD results by Universities and Industry.RTD2Farm will develop a variety of Best Practice models for Knowledge and Technology Transfer from Research to Farm.SMEs represent a major innovation engine in Europe and are the key drivers for the EU’s prosperity. Seven of the nine RTD2Farm members are SMEs.