The COREnet Experience at the EU4Advice Cross Living Labs Event in the Netherlands

At the beginning of July, Eva Jennings and Jan Willem Van Der Schans, representatives of COREnet, attended the EU4Advice Cross Living Lab event in the Netherlands. This event, organised by Amped, gathered experts from various European Living Labs to exchange knowledge and explore new opportunities for cooperation.

Jennings described the Cross Living Lab event as a “great opportunity to meet in person,” allowing her to connect with other professionals both as a representative of COREnet and as someone deeply involved in the Irish Living Lab. The event’s focus on practical activities—such as participatory workshops, group discussions, and exchanges of knowledge and experience—was especially valuable. Jennings noted that these sessions provided the Irish Living Lab with new insights into how they could further contribute to ongoing projects.

Jan Willem Van Der Schans, also from COREnet, participated in the cross Living Lab event with a specific aim: to gain a better understanding of the similarities and differences between COREnet and EU4Advice, particularly regarding the development of structures and course materials for professionalizing the short supply chain advisory function. Van der Schans highlighted that the exchange was enlightening for both teams. They learned from each other’s approaches: EU4Advice uses a deductive approach, starting from general principles and applying them to practice, while COREnet takes an inductive approach, beginning with best practice cases and identifying key examples (lighthouses) to show how lessons can be applied in different contexts. The collaborative effort to envision the expected outcomes together, rather than independently, was both stimulating and effective in focusing their efforts.

From COREnet’s perspective, the event also underscored potential areas for deeper collaboration with its twin project network. 

Advisors
Are you helping farmers and producers to sell their things directly, to improve their bargaining power or position in the value chain, or to transition to more socially and environmentally production systems?

Now is your chance to join the first-ever European advisory network focused on short food supply chains (SFSCs), established through the Horizon Europe projects COREnet and EU4Advice, which ultimate aim is to enhance the sustainability, competitiveness and visibility of European short food supply chains. A key step to pursue this goal, is to enhance the connections between SFSC actors in Europe, the capacity building and the knowledge sharing between advisors, producers, researchers and policy-makers.

This platform will connect you to a wide community of experts and advisors related to SFSC and support effective exchange of knowledge and solutions among advisors and other food system stakeholders, through access to training materials, thematic workshops, collaborative knowledge-sharing sessions, and networking activities. Additionally, you will be listed in a public database of SFSC advisors, giving you visibility as a trusted resource in the SFSC field. Moreover, your participation will also play a role in shaping policy recommendations at the EU level that support the development of the SFSC sector.

Your involvement in the network and related activities is entirely voluntary, and you will at all times have flexibility in choosing how to participate. As a first step, we’ll ask you to complete a brief questionnaire to understand your expertise and role in SFSCs better.