Work Packages

Objective:

Data on women’s positions in agriculture and rural areas (e.g., employment, ownership of capital, participation in social innovation initiatives, etc.) in the EU are scarce or outdated, and scattered across multiple databases. As well as quantitative data, there are also qualitative analyses and reports providing complementary data and highlighting gaps, and (foresight) studies identifying megatrends in agriculture and rural areas. The key objective of WP1 is to provide an understanding of women’s role in the future of agriculture and rural areas through an overview of the current information available and the analysis of megatrends. Data available at the level of the case study countries will be integrated to highlight differences between and within countries. WP1 follows a multi-level and multi-dimensional perspective as the research spans from the local to the EU level and across multiple dimensions of sustainability. It results in a deeper understanding of the different contexts under which women currently operate and an overview of factors affecting women-led innovation. WP1 relates to WP3 through interaction with LLs and WP5 by providing data for policy analysis.

Tasks:

Task 1.1 – Integrated analysis of the position of rural women and farm women across Europe
Task 1.2 – Review of megatrends
Task 1.3 – Foresight on the future of women

Objective:

WP2 will generate an understanding of what drives and inhibits women in developing innovative initiatives that contribute to the socio-ecological transitions required in agriculture, and support the long-term resilience of rural communities, in social, economic, and ecological terms. This work package: (i) inventories women innovators’ drivers and barriers experienced within AKIS and the mainstream innovation eco-system; (ii) shows how gender-norms and stereotypes limit the recognition of women innovators and support offered to them by agricultural advisors, innovation and entrepreneur leaders, farming and rural organisations, government, banks and cooperatives, and men innovators on farms and in rural areas; and (iii) identifies (digital) technologies that facilitate women’s access to relevant networks, services, knowledge and training.

Tasks:

Task 2.1 – Rapid appraisal of existing studies into the gender specificity of women’s innovation and experience of gender norms in agricultural and rural development
Task 2.2 – Identifying gender norms and barriers inhibiting the initiatives of women innovators and their recognition and support in AKIS and the mainstream innovation eco-system
Task 2.3 – Case studies of women innovator participants in the living labs

Objective:

This work package aims to:

1. Improve understanding, awareness, and recognition of women’s current and future role in the sustainable development of the farming sector, rural economies and communities and related innovation (including social innovation) in tandem with WP6 to support policy and support organisations at Member State and EU level to inform action-led interventions/policy design.
2. Establish a knowledge and innovation system for the benefit of women innovators, to help strengthen and measure innovator identity (using potentially one of the known scales), allowing women innovators to co-create knowledge.
3. Transform gender norms and stereotypes by sharing and capturing rural women innovator policy and practice experience through a gender lens. Educate multi-actor stakeholders about the specific needs of women innovators.
4. Enhance capacity of rural women to innovate for change by building the knowledge and skills needed to pursue and embed green innovations and by providing tools to assist women innovators in future green innovation advances.
5. Create knowledge through women-led innovation processes, favour exchanges across initiatives and derive new knowledge and practical tools for women, support organisations and policy-makers at national and EU level.
6. Strengthen networks and enhance knowledge flows from, between and towards women innovators in rural areas and in farming by co-designing solutions tailored to the specific needs and shared within specific contexts (living labs), and by offering opportunities to exchange practices within and between labs.

Tasks:

Task 3.1 – Living lab methodology and design
Task 3.2 – Lab co-partner training
Task 3.3 – Individual living lab programme
Task 3.4 – Individual lab operation
Task 3.5 – Cross-lab tool and knowledge sharing, and learning events
Task 3.6 – Monitoring and evaluation of the joint learning process
Task 3.7 – Co-creation of knowledge across WPs to capture and disseminate lab insights

Objective:

WP4 will assess how effectively EU and national policies promote or hinder women as innovators in farming and rural areas. It will analyse the language used in policies and assess whether they perpetuate gender (05 October 2022), norms and stereotypes. It will benchmark the European Green Deal, the EU Farm to Fork Strategy, the EU Common Agricultural Policy, and the EU Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas. WP4 will also benchmark national equivalents of these EU policies against the European gender equality strategy and the European Pillar of Social Rights. The key assessment components of the Gender Equality Strategy and the Pillar of Social Rights will be used; the policies will be benchmarked through analysis of women’s involvement in policy formation and on relevant corporate boards; gender pay gap; monitoring new entrants to occupations; access to education and knowledge systems; digital inclusion; sharing of parental responsibilities; effective gender mainstreaming.

Tasks:

Task 4.1 – Providing a template for benchmarking EU and National policies
Task 4.2 – Benchmarking policies: Green Deal, Farm to Fork, CAP, LTVRA
Task 4.3 – Benchmarking legal frameworks for land transfer across Europe

Objective:

This work package will develop recommendations and policy tools that support the inclusion of rural women and women farmers in realising the future of farming and rural areas. WP5 will design and guide the overall process with significant contributions from European stakeholder organisations of the project who will bring in their specific more agricultural, rural, or entrepreneurial expertise and network, and members of the European Policy Forum for women-led innovation in agriculture and rural areas. It will be inspired by the analysis and foresight developed (WP1) and aims at designing the means to realise this future. It will be informed by the benchmarking of relevant agriculture, rural and environmental policies (WP4) and the insights in women innovators’ aims and needs generated in the living labs (WP3), and the gender biased cultural norms and practices identified (WP2).

Tasks:

Task 5.1 – To develop recommendations how to include women in policies that promote the agricultural transition and future of rural areas at EU and national level
Task 5.2 – To design tools that check & monitor the inclusion of women innovators

Objective:

WP6 develops ready-to-use communication, dissemination and exploitation materials designed towards the need of specific target groups. We will multiply the results of the project through dissemination and exploitation activities and ensure appropriate cooperative engagement with other related national, EU-wide, or global initiatives and coordinate with other relevant proposals funded under this call and future CAP and EIP-AGRI networks to build synergies in engagement activities and dissemination and exploitation of results.

Tasks:

Task 6.1 – Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation Plan
Task 6.2 – Development of relevant communication and dissemination channels and material
Task 6.3 – GRASS CEILING awareness raising on women-led innovation
Task 6.4 – Setting up and coordinating the European Policy Forum for women-led innovation in agriculture and rural areas for social learning and showcasing women-led innovation
Task 6.5 – On-line Training Academy in women-led innovation in farming and rural areas

Objective:

This work package involves all of the administration and management activities required to ensure that the work programme as organised in WP1 – WP 6 runs in a timely fashion and all reporting requirements are fulfilled within the specified time.

Tasks:

Task 7.1 – Establish and chair the management structures: The Project Management Committee and the General Assembly
Task 7.2 – Contractual and financial management
Task 7.3 – Data Management Plan, Ethical Guidelines
Task 7.4 – Monitoring Plan
Task 7.5 – Kick-off meeting & Annual General Meetings