On November 26-28, 2024, the General Assembly of the Horizon Europe project "Tools4CAP - A toolbox of innovative tools to enable effective management of the CAP to achieve EU objectives" gathered at the Hungarian Institute of Agricultural Economics (AKI) in Budapest, Hungary. The event was opened by Dr Pál Goda, Director of the Hungarian Institute of Agricultural Economics (AKI), representing one of the project partners. The project coordinators shared the main challenges encountered halfway through the project and discussed possible solutions to these challenges as the project steps into its second phase. The meeting also looked at the "hottest" agricultural and rural policy development debates taking place in Brussels. Participants discussed how the new CAP implementation model could serve as a model for other funding mechanisms. On the second day of the meeting, brainstorming sessions and a co-creation focused on the identified challenges of applying the different tools in practice. Looking ahead to 2025, the focus was on finding links between the tested tools and practices in EU countries, stakeholder engagement issues, and strengthening the Tools4CAP Academy modules.
During the two years of project implementation, the following core project results were achieved, in addition to other ongoing project results:
- An inventory of over 70 quantitative and qualitative instruments used in EU countries for the formulation of the Common Agricultural Policy, was created;
- 13 tools in total have been selected to be tested in 15 combinations (5 tests of qualitative/participatory tools; 5 tests of modelling tools; 5 tests of monitoring tools) in 10 EU Member States in the next project phase in (Poland, Spain, France, Hungary, Czechia, Italy, Slovenia, Netherlands, Germany and Greece);
- Training modules for the selected instruments have been developed and training has started - Tools4CAPacademy;
The next stages of the project will include testing the application of the selected tools in the CAP process and making recommendations for improvement accordingly. Training will be provided on how each of the selected innovative tools could be applied to facilitate the CAP process in the Member States.
Tools4CAP project (2023-2026) is implemented by a consortium of 14 partners (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain) and 7 associated entities (Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia). The project is coordinated by ECORYS (Belgium). The researchers from the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences Institute of Economics and Rural Development take part in the project as an associated partner of the European Rural Development Network representatives.
The ambition of the project is to provide decision-makers with suitable tools for a more evidence-based policy design.
Specific Tools4CAP objectives are:
1. Provide a shared knowledge base and an evaluation of methods and tools used for the design and implementation of the SP.
2. Identify and adapt innovative methods and tools.
3. Empower end users to adopt innovative solutions.
4. Establish a replication lab supporting the practical demonstration and uptake of innovative solutions.
5. Set up a capacity-building hub to transfer capabilities to end users.
Project implementation team in Lithuania:
Dr. Živilė Gedminaitė-Raudonė, zivile.gedminaite@ekvi.lt
Dr. Rita Lankauskienė, rita.lankauskiene@ekvi.lt
Dr. Rasa Melnikienė, rasa.melnikiene@ekvi.lt
Dr. Vitalija Simonaitytė, vitalija.simonaityte@ekvi.lt
More information on project website: https://www.tools4cap.eu/