Conception and promotion of R & D projects in horticulture

Abstract

Long-term competitiveness of German horticulture can only be ensured with innovations that address current problems and increase efficiency in horticultural production. A participatory approach was implemented consistently from the very beginning of the project. HortInnova started with a workshop for setting the main themes with broad participation of the sector stakeholders. Scientists, experts of horticultural enterprises and stakeholders of upstream and downstream industries jointly defined five strategic research fields. Subsequently, each of these are elaborated and specified in focused thematic expert workshops. In addition, the HortInnova monitoring committee with stakeholders from horticultural sciences and professional horticultural organizations accompanies the project by critically questioning and discussing the workshop results and commenting on them. Complementary interviews with national and international experts from research, production and industry are conducted to enhance the level of information and to critically reflect the workshop results. The results can be found on the WeGa homepage: http://wega-ev.net/wega-news.html .