Polish foundation bridging precision livestock science and participatory mixed farming research in EU consortia.
The Karłowski Foundation (KST Juchow) is a Polish research foundation that contributes practical farming and livestock management perspectives to large EU research consortia. Their work spans on-farm application of genomic and precision livestock technologies in beef and dairy systems, as well as participatory engagement with farmers in mixed farming and agroforestry contexts. In both their H2020 projects, they serve as a bridge between scientific research teams and the realities of farm-level implementation — testing tools, gathering farmer feedback, and supporting knowledge transfer. Their location in rural Pomerania (Silnowo) likely provides access to working farm environments and Central/Eastern European agricultural contexts that complement western European research partners.
GenTORE (2017–2022) involved developing genomic management tools with direct on-farm application for beef and dairy multi-breed systems, including health proxies and GxE (genotype-by-environment) modelling.
MIXED (2020–2025) focuses on multi-actor development of efficient and resilient mixed farming and agroforestry, where the foundation contributes participatory action research and farmer engagement.
MIXED explicitly involves participatory action research, dialogue and dissemination, and assessing user acceptability of new farm management tools.
MIXED targets the co-development of decision-support tools and feeds results into policy development — a role that sits at the science-policy interface.
Their first project (GenTORE, 2017) was technically oriented — genomic tools, multi-breed selection models, health proxies, and precision livestock technology applied to beef and dairy production. By 2020, MIXED shifted the emphasis sharply toward participatory methods, mixed farming system governance, and user-centred tool development — including explicit focus on policy development and user acceptability. This is a meaningful shift: from contributing to technical livestock science toward facilitating farmer engagement and knowledge co-creation in complex farm systems.
This organization appears to be moving from technical livestock data science toward transdisciplinary, farmer-centred research — making them an increasingly relevant partner for projects that need to demonstrate real-world uptake and policy relevance, not just scientific output.
The foundation has participated exclusively as a consortium partner across both projects — it has never coordinated an H2020 project. Despite this modest portfolio, it has engaged with 40 unique partners across 14 countries, which reflects involvement in large pan-European RIA consortia rather than small bilateral collaborations. This pattern suggests they fill a specific niche role — likely as a farm-level access point or practitioner voice — within networks led by universities and research institutes.
With 40 unique consortium partners across 14 countries drawn from just 2 projects, this foundation participates in densely networked, large-consortium EU research. Their international reach is entirely a function of the large RIA consortia they joined, rather than bilateral relationships they have cultivated independently.
As a foundation rather than a university or commercial entity, KST Juchow likely provides access to actual farm environments and farmer communities in rural Poland — a resource that is hard to replicate and genuinely valued in participatory agricultural research. Their dual grounding in technical livestock science (GenTORE) and socio-technical farming systems (MIXED) gives them broader relevance than single-discipline partners. For consortia building projects in Central or Eastern European agricultural contexts, they represent an entry point into a farming landscape that is often underrepresented in Western European-led research.
