How does one design a fact sheet that fits on one page, on the one hand, and contains sufficient information for a selection process, on the other hand? This was the challenge ILVO and co-WP leader WUR faced as they entered the second phase of WP3. Preceded by a careful collection process during which 52 Good Practices and Research Innovations were gathered from advisors all over Europe (first phase), a selection of 24 Best Practices needed to be made.
The Best Practices were to be selected during panel discussions within the so-called Fertilisation Innovation Networks (FINs) during the spring and summer period. As stipulated in the STRATUS proposal, this selection would be obtained through a quick scan of the practices, facilitated by a one-page document: the fact sheet, a summary of the practice’s characteristics, as gathered from scientific literature, field trial data, and practical expertise, during the collection process in the first phase.
The 52 fact sheets, covering all three subnetworks (20 for Precision Farming, 18 for Soil Quality, and 14 for Bio-based Fertilisers), are structured according to the five systemic topics: on-farm applicability, farm-economic effects, regulatory aspects, environmental impact, and social acceptance. A ‘traffic light’ system was used to highlight advantages (green), concerns (orange), and disadvantages (red). Besides the individual fact sheets, a summarising table for every subnetwork was constructed to offer a glance at the evaluation of all good practices per topic of the systemic feasibility analysis.
At the time of writing, all FIN-discussions have taken place, and all best practices have been carefully selected. Having proved the effectiveness of the fact sheets as a tool for the selection of best paractices, project partners will be seeing more of those in the next selection round. But first, a comprehensive task awaits the partners from WUR and ILVO, as the third and last phase will be initiated soon: writing detailed reports about the economic viability and sustainability of the selected Best Practices.