11 Living Labs – a common goal

A total of eleven Living Labs from all over Europe are part of ALL-Facts – each embedded in different climatic, agro-ecological and social contexts. The focus is on specific questions:

• How do agroecological practices affect ecosystem services?
• How can we achieve better interaction between practice, science and politics?
• What framework conditions are needed to scale change?

It’s not just about the what, but also about the how – for example with the APES framework, which evaluates agroecological services holistically, and the participatory Me4ALL model, which strengthens co-creation in Living Labs.

Joint strategies for change

The meeting was not only a kick-off, but also a milestone: for the first time, all project partners came together in person to develop goals, methods and strategies for the coming years. In addition to intensive content-related work, the kick-off provided space for personal exchange, new collaborations and joint learning – important building blocks for successful transformation processes.

PFN Hessen: Perspectives from the field

As PFN Hessen, we contribute the perspectives of agricultural practice from our region. In our real-world laboratory, we build on existing project groups and work together with farmers to investigate how agroecological practices have a concrete impact in practice.

At the same time, we are looking at the political and institutional framework conditions together with the University of Kassel: Which governance structures promote or hinder the transformation? How can agroecology be anchored at state level?

Part of a European network

ALL-Facts runs until 2028 and comprises six central work packages – from the development of agroecological practices (WP1), to their ecological and economic evaluation (WP2), to the design of political framework conditions (WP3) and the redevelopment of agroecosystems at landscape level (WP4).

Workshops, digital platforms, networks, events and publications (WP5) will be used to disseminate the results – across Europe and with a practical focus. The collaboration in the EU consortium is coordinated by the University of Gastronomic Science (UNISG) (WP6).

For us as PFN Hessen, this means that we are part of a strong network that works together to find answers to the pressing issues of our time – with a clear goal:

Translating knowledge into change – for sustainable agriculture in Hesse, Europe and beyond.