FiBL - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Switzerland

The Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL is one of the world’s leading organic farming research and technology transfer centres dedicated to sustainable agriculture. The close links between different areas of research and the extensive exchange of knowledge between research and practice are particular strengths of FiBL. In close collaboration with all research departments, the Department of Extension, Training and Communication gives high priority to transferring knowledge into agricultural practice. FiBL has been responsible for dissemination in numerous EU projects and CORE Organic projects. Currently, the FiBL online shop holds about 400 carefully edited and designed technical publications for organic practitioners and stakeholders. FiBL also maintains various websites to provide information on specific topics and has a YouTube channel where numerous videos on organic farming are available. Breaking news are presented on www.fibl.org and bioaktuell.ch and on FiBL’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. The Department of Crop Sciences has extensive applied and strategic research and development and technology transfer experience in organic and low input production of different plant systems. FiBL’s socioeconomic research activities aim to understand and explain rural decision-making by developing a shared knowledge base on the challenges faced by organic and sustainable food and farming systems.

Role in the project

FiBL will be leading the dissemination activities of the project and will be responsible of the promotion and communication to the relevant stakeholders. It will design and host a project website and design a flyer for the project. Furthermore, FiBL will develop tailored tools and information for growers, policy makers and other stakeholders (e.g. leaflets and short video clips). It will coordinate and coach the dissemination activities of all partners to ensure that the outcomes of the project reach the relevant stakeholders. FiBL will investigate environmental and economic sustainability of selected cropping systems: Economic sustainability will be assessed in one greenhouse experiment and environmental sustainability in five. FiBL will support Agroscope in the design and the execution of the Swiss greenhouse experiment. Along with the farmers, FiBL will present new promising techniques at farm visits.