UGent’ers win ENLIGHT Impact Award

Which impact stories from ENLIGHT universities can inspire us and serve as examples for other researchers? That was the question the jury of the ENLIGHT Impact Awards tackled last month.

EU-Farmbook, a European project coordinated at Ghent University by Prof. Pieter Spanoghe and Dr. Inge De Bo (Faculty of Bioscience Engineering (in blue)), presented a story that could charm the jury.

The project aims to give farmers, foresters, consultants, researchers and students across Europe access to the most up-to-date knowledge on agriculture and forestry. Much of that knowledge is generated in European research projects, each of which publishes a variety of reports, recommendations, tools and educational materials. EU-Farmbook will collect this "gray literature" in an online database and make it conveniently available to both intermediaries (educational institutions, advisors, consultants, etc.) and end users (farmers, foresters and students). The project will also study how the materials are used and integrated into different education and training scenarios.

Among other things, the jury praised the project for consulting and involving their stakeholders in designing the database. By gaining insight into the questions and underlying needs of the target audience, and by checking off proposals, the chances of arriving at a truly useful tool are much higher. For example, in consultation with stakeholders, the EU-Farmbook team added functionalities such as peer-to-peer interaction, the possibility to consult experts and a tool for users to rate content. There was also praise for including so-called multipliers or intermediaries as a target audience.

Read more about how ENLIGHT, the European university alliance to which UGent belongs since 2020, supports and values the impact of research.