The Role of Stakeholders in Shaping the Research and Innovation Programmes for Organic Farming in the EU: An Empirical Analysis

This paper analyses the importance that participatory approaches may play in shaping the innovation policy in the context of the EU research framework programme. The paper reports case-study research on the role of “TP Organics”, a European Technology Platform (ETP) that supports research and innovation in organic farming. We use process tracing to analyse the causal effects of the participatory approach used by TP Organics in defining policies and promoting funding for the organic sector. Results show that the impact of TP Organics relies on multi-stakeholder participatory processes, which have ultimately yielded an increase in financed research projects and financial contributions to research on organic farming in the EU.