Human and social capital development

- Meaningful and interconnected embodied learning through activities and related training

Co-creation of endogenous knowledge

- New knowledge that is locally relevant and meaningful to those first concerned, and others

Scaling of insights

- Secondary learning from solutions found in different contexts, using further analytics and social learning, through replications, adaptation, institutional and cultural change.

Technological and identity capitals

- Increased technology use, from the humble hoe to digital tools

- Increased added value from local origin/traceability/quality

Data-driven engagement

- Practical action research

- Increased networking, notably digitally – though not only

Effective adaptive processes

- New decentralised practice for research and innovation

- Improved institutional practice

- Open innovation principles of flexibility, creativity and agility

Efficient resource use

- Savings through productivity, value-chain integration, control response to insight

Ethical management

- People and environmental protection e.g. equity & litigation

- IP protection, capture and distribution

Social license

- Constructive dialogue between opponents in food production and innovation

- Renewed societal roles:

     for farmers, of not only producing agricultural products and environmental stewardship but also data and innovation;

     for agronomists, of not only providing knowledge but also engagement and linkages;

     for technologists and service providers, of not only innovating but also co-innovating;

     for deciders, of not only presiding but also participating

System thinking as engine for change

- Complexity management becoming business-as-usual, including mainstreaming Innovation Ecosystems concepts

Fragmentation of knowledge and research sectors worldwide

- Disconnected and self-maintaining scientific communities of thought and practice through enduring disciplinary traditions and specialisation: Precision Agriculture, Living Labs, Farmer Participatory Research, Participatory Local Development, Open Innovation, Agricultural Innovation Systems, Farming System Research…

- Insufficient braiding of knowledge and practice between institutional science and practitioners: farmer associations, cooperatives, social agricultural movements, start-ups…

Lack of methodologies

- Complexity of the multi-facetted OFE processes

- Diversity of the application of the OFE principles

- Scaling challenges

- Challenges of the marginal (resource poor) environments

- Limited acceptance for multi-level and long-term horizons

Technology barriers

- Lack of appropriate equipment to set up efficient OFE schemes

Regulatory and institutional barriers

- Difficulty to experiment with regard to current legislation

- Lack of institutional recognition and subsequent support and incentive

Limited capacity and need for advocacy

- Lack of facilitators, innovation brokers, intermediaries

- Low policy-maker involvement

- Lack of OFE awareness, education, dissemination

Early

Sector mapping

- OFE world activities: groups, reach and diversity

- OFE practices: trends and evolution

OFE coalitions 

- Safe environments enabling long-term funding

Global OFE portal

- Promote and connect OFE activities; harness the motivations of farmers and others; collect ideas and momentums; form the basis for data platforms

- Support bottom-up learning mechanisms: compiling resources,  crowd sourcing ideas, training, contacts

Intermediate

Enabling multi-level policies & finance

- Institutional: regional, national, EU/federal

- Industry: Multi-party Innovation Ecosystem Platforms

- Recruitment of large organisations and networks to secure critical mass funding

OFE training course & certificates

- Building incentives and recognition

- Emphasis on ‘soft’ skills to bridge specialists and technologies

Scientific insight building

- Incremental: from local insights to progressing the science, and vice versa

- Transformational: actively valuing different types and sources of knowledge

Long-term

Institutional adoption and changed research practices

- Toward farmer-centric, digitally enabled scaling; open innovation, real field designs; etc

- Partnerships with existing forms of experimentation and networks

Value chain expansion

- Shift from focus on production to entire value chains and systems

Global collaborative experimentation platform

- Developing usable tools to get the processes started on the ground

- Data sharing

- Data analysis platform