Farmtopia and STEP UP share a strong interest in using data, digital technologies and multi-actor approaches to support more sustainable and resilient farming systems. While STEP UP focuses specifically on understanding and improving the sustainability of European Livestock Production Systems by analysing Innovative Livestock Production Systems, developing sustainability indicators, assessing environmental and socio-economic impacts, and creating evidence to support better decisions, Farmtopia focuses on making Agricultural Digital Solutions more accessible and practical for small farms through co-creation with farmers and other stakeholders. This creates a valuable complementarity: STEP UP generates evidence, indicators and knowledge to understand pathways towards more sustainable livestock production, while Farmtopia explores how digital solutions can be designed and deployed in ways that respond to farmers’ real needs.
Through their Memorandum of Understanding, Farmtopia and STEP UP will explore collaboration around communication, dissemination and stakeholder engagement. This will include joint press releases and news stories, cross-promotion of project results, participation in each other’s events, workshops and webinars, and opportunities to share relevant results with farmers, researchers, technology providers and policymakers. The projects will also explore opportunities to connect STEP UP’s evidence and knowledge on sustainable livestock systems with Farmtopia’s experience in co-creating and demonstrating Agricultural Digital Solutions, helping to increase the visibility and practical uptake of innovations that can support more sustainable farming.
By joining their complementary expertise, Farmtopia and STEP UP will work towards bringing evidence, digital innovation and farmers’ needs closer together.