XIII. European Rural Development Network Conference: The central-eastern EU model for competitive and sustainable agriculture and rural development

2015-09-25

Grantee:
Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics – National Research Institute (IERiGŻ-PIB), Warszawa, Poland,

http://ierigz.waw.pl/

Project Partners:

Research Institute of Agricultural Economics (AKI), Budapest, Hungary, https://www.aki.gov.hu/
Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZU), Praha, Czech Republic, http://www.pef.czu.cz/
Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra (SPU), Nitra, Slovakia, http://www.fem.uniag.sk/sk/

hereby invite to

XIII European Rural Development Network Conference:

The central-eastern EU model
for competitive and sustainable agriculture and rural development

Zakopane, Poland, 18-21.10.2015 r.

supported by

Visegrad Fund, www.visegradfund.org

Background

Agriculture in Europe is subject to increasing pressure from globalisation, that is moving toward the standardisation of the production, based on economic competitiveness. At the same time, Europe 2020 strategy promotes the idea of sustainable, innovative agri-food sector based on resource efficiency, and rural development promoting social inclusion and job creation.

Our basic goal is to organise the research seminar confronting various approaches to agribusiness and rural development in the context of balance between competiveness and sustainability. This event shall bring together researchers carrying out in-depth studies in the aforesaid areas from V4 and its neighbourhood EU member states, countries of Eastern Partnership (EaP) and Western Balkans (WB).

The next goal is to build a discussion forum of scientific community on central eastern model of transformation of rural systems with a particular focus on a knowledge transfer to V4 eastern neighbourhood.

Seminar’s first day will be devoted to various approaches to agri-food sector development in V4 and other CEE countries in the context of trade-off between competitiveness and sustainability. This also refers to the problem of inclusion of small and family farms in value chains and enhancing their financial stability, development of smart local food systems, provision of public goods by agriculture, knowledge and innovation transfer.

Seminar’s second day will turn its lens to rural systems, with a focus on smart, sustainable, inclusive growth in rural areas and the problem of rural jobs. Each day will consist of presentations of 2 invited speakers, (at least) 4 papers of V4 representatives and 4 of other CEE countries. Each session will be concluded with the debate.

The seminar is based on previous cooperation of V4 partners and aims at promoting exchange of experiences of scientific community of CEE countries. We will focus on knowledge transfer supporting an institutional capacity and economic integration with EU of EaP countries. Therefore few grants to cover some part of travel costs will be offered to researchers with limited financial resources. Preference will be given to speakers from EaP countries. Seminar aims also in assessment in what extent new EU rural policy tools respond to different challenges facing agriculture and rural areas of each of V4 countries. The added value of the project will be long-lasting and sustainable cooperation under the idea of European Rural Development Network as a think tank for science and public policy.

The leitmotif inspiring organisation of the research seminar is to enable the exchange of experiences between economists, geographers and sociologists but also policy makers working on issues related to agriculture and rural development. The idea behind the event is to strengthen a cooperation of four partners and, with V4 as a core, build a scientific cooperation of Central-Eastern European research institutions. Therefore main target groups benefiting from the project will be researches and policy makers from V4, other CEE (incl. EaP) countries and Western Balkans. The outcomes of the project will be widely disseminated throughout researchers, NGOs, professionals, media and individuals in Europe interested in the issues related to agriculture and rural development in CEECs.

Topics

During the three days of the Conference, five thematic sessions are planned:

Day 1. Models for development of competitive and sustainable agriculture
- New approaches to agri-food sector development in CEE countries: sustainability and competitiveness
- Transition towards sustainable agriculture: the inclusion of family farming in value chains and enhancing financial stability
- Panel discussion
Day 2. Models for development of competitive and sustainable rural territories
- Smart, inclusive and sustainable growth in rural areas: turning diversity into strength
- Social structures and innovation: place-based development in global challenges
- Panel Discussion
- Day 3. Special IAFE-NRI session: “The Polish agriculture and rural areas - present and future. Experiences, challenges, opportunities.

Important Dates

The deadlines of the Conference are:

21.09 – Submission of abstracts
24.09 – Notification of acceptance
09.10 – Final Registration (also abstract submission deadline for participants with publication only)
10.10 – Payment of conference fee
18.-21.10 – The Conference
31.01.2016 – Submission of full paper

Guide for authors

Proposals must take the form of a abstract that should not exceed two pages (single spaced) written in English (Times New Roman 12).

A scientific committee according to the usual academic criteria will evaluate proposals: originality of the problems and the expected results, theoretical background, quality of the empirical instruments and compatibility of the topic with the general themes of the conference. Selected papers must be presented during the conference. Decisions will be announced to the potential contributors by e-mail. We give also a possibility to take part in this event without presentation but with possibility of written contribution (see deadlines for registration and paper submission).

The full papers should be in English, between 15 and 20 pages, including title, authors, affiliation, contact address, abstract, keywords, figures, tables and references, text should be in MS Word format, Times New Roman 12 pt. Detailed guide for paper writing will be provided during the conference. You can now check previous volumes of ERDN Rural Areas and Development series for detailed information about citation and text structure (https://books.google.pl/books?id=VcWhAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA5&hl=pl&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false or section Publications at www.erdn.eu).

Abstracts and full papers should be sent to: erdn@ierigz.waw.pl and/or michal.soliwoda@ierigz.waw.pl

Presentations

All speakers will have an oral presentation up to 15 min. with slides that should be made in PowerPoint format.

Conference Language

The conference language is English.

Conference fee

The fee of the conference is EUR 250 (or PLN 1050) and includes accommodation, meals and publication opportunity. Accompanying persons must pay the Conference fee of EUR 150. Travel costs should be paid by the participant.

We offered four travel grants up to EUR 225 to participants from Eastern Partnership and Western Balkans countries. Participants from EaP and WB countries are encouraged to apply for travel grant while submitting the abstract.

The Conference fee should be paid by bank transfer to:

Bank name: Bank Polskiej Spółdzielczości SA. Bank address: ul. J. H.Dąbrowskiego 3, Warszawa, 00-057, PL

Account Holder: IERiGZ-PIB, Swietokrzyska 20, Warszawa, 00-002, PL

IBAN: PL05 1930 1523 2310 0305 9607 0009

SWIFT/BIC: POLUPLPR

Annotation: ERDN2015 - Name and Surname

Conference Venue andaccommodation

Conference-Recreation Center "Hyrny", Piłsudskiego 20, 34-500 Zakopane, PL www.hyrny.pl. Zakopane is located in southern Poland in Tatra Mountains and is known informally as "the winter capital of Poland". It is a popular destination for mountaineering, skiing, and qualified tourism. Please remember to take a good shoes and a coat. For more information about Zakopane please visit: http://www.zakopane.eu/en/.

Transportation

The arrival: We suggest you to arrive in Poland on 17^th-18^th of October. For those, who will arrive in Warszawa by 12 a.m. 18.10. we will organise a bus transfer to Zakopane.

The departure: we suggest you to book the return ticket on 21^st (preferably evening) or 22^nd of October (for departures from Warszawa). The bus from Zakopane to Warszawa will be organised 21.10, but we will arrive in the late evening.

We will assist you in your travel arrangements and booking of additional accommodation before and after the conference (unfortunately this is not included in the conference fee and will cost approx.. EUR 30-40 per night) so please, let us know as soon as possible about your travel plans.

Organising Committee