Last week, from 21 to 23 March 2022, the GRASS CEILING consortium held its kick-off meeting at the COPA-COGECA headquarters in Brussels (Belgium)
The meeting began with a discussion on the impact of the GRASS CEILING project. The session aimed to ensure that everyone had an overall understanding of the project and to encourage all participants to ask questions and make suggestions for the work packages and task leaders.
A specific session was held to build strong and resilient Living Labs through co-creation techniques and Lego methodologies. The aim was to learn more about the objectives, participants and methodologies to be used in each LL.
In small groups, each WP leader presented the objectives, tasks, main activities and links with other WPs and tasks to the other partners. The partners showed interest in participating in the communication activities and willingness to send relevant content and information.
Work Package 6 included a workshop on communication and dissemination activities and tools, with two different sessions. The first session presented tips for writing practice abstracts, press releases and blog posts, as well as the work plan for the training academy, the awareness raising strategy and the awards for women innovators and men who fight for the role of women. The second session was more interactive; the project partners were divided into groups and asked different questions about the communication strategy and the communication materials and channels. They used a large panel with post-its to put forward their ideas and suggestions and present them to the other partners.
Finally, the coordinating team gave a presentation on administrative and economic issues.
A fruitful start, with a lot of work and great ideas that will allow GRASS CEILING to achieve its goal of empowering rural women and increase the number of socio-ecological innovations led by women in agriculture, the rural economy and rural communities. It will also contribute to advancing the UN’s goals on gender parity, realise the EU gender equality strategy, and achieve the goals of the Green Deal, the Farm to Fork strategy, the Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas, and the European Pillar of Social Rights.