EIROPAS LAUKSAIMNIECIBAS UN LAUKU KONSULTANTU ASOCIACIJA

Their core work

EUFRAS (European Forum for Agricultural and Rural Advisory Services) is the umbrella association representing agricultural advisory and consultancy organizations across Europe. Their core work is strengthening farm advisory services by facilitating peer-to-peer learning among advisors, building demonstration networks that help farmers adopt innovations, and shaping Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) policy. They act as a bridge between applied agricultural research and on-farm practice, ensuring that scientific results reach farmers through trained advisors rather than academic publications alone.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

EUFRAS entered H2020 through targeted knowledge-transfer projects like OK-Net Arable (organic farming) and FERTINNOWA (water management), contributing as a third party with specific advisory expertise. From 2017 onward, their involvement shifted toward systemic questions — building pan-European demonstration networks (PLAID, NEFERTITI) and strengthening the advisory profession itself (i2connect, their largest funded project at EUR 364K). The trajectory shows a clear move from topic-specific knowledge transfer to shaping the infrastructure of agricultural innovation systems across Europe.

EUFRAS is moving from being a content contributor on specific farming topics toward becoming a structural player in how agricultural innovation reaches farmers across Europe — expect continued focus on AKIS, advisor training, and cross-border demonstration.

How they like to work

EUFRAS operates almost exclusively as a third-party expert or minority participant — they have never coordinated an H2020 project. This reflects their role as a network organization: they are brought in to provide access to their member base of advisory services across Europe, not to lead research. With 143 unique consortium partners across 28 countries, they are remarkably well-connected for their size, functioning as a distributed network node rather than a central hub.

Despite modest direct funding, EUFRAS connects to 143 unique partners across 28 countries — nearly all of the EU. This extraordinary reach stems from their role as an umbrella body whose member organizations span the continent, making them a gateway to national advisory services in most European countries.

What sets them apart

EUFRAS occupies a unique niche as the European-level representative of agricultural advisory services — there is no equivalent body with this reach. For consortium builders, they offer something no university or research institute can: direct access to the people who actually advise farmers on the ground, across nearly every EU member state. If your project needs to move research results from the lab to the field, EUFRAS is the organization that connects you to the advisory infrastructure that makes that happen.

Highlights from their portfolio

• i2connect
  Their largest funded project (EUR 364K, 2019-2024), focused on connecting advisers to boost interactive innovation — represents EUFRAS stepping into a more central participant role on their core mission.
• NEFERTITI
  Pan-European network of demonstration farms across 10 themes, directly aligned with EUFRAS's mission of peer-to-peer learning and cross-border knowledge exchange among farmers and advisors.
• PLAID
  Dedicated entirely to peer-to-peer learning through farm demonstration — a foundational project for the demonstration network approach that EUFRAS continued to develop in later projects.