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AbstractThe big challenges facing the CAP require co-operation between actors in the fields of agricultural, rural development and agri-environmental policy. In this project, co-operation will be strengthened by bridging the gap between scientist, policy makers, producers and other relevant stakeholders. Discussions will focus on the achievements of scientific support to agricultural policies in Europe considering future needs. The project aims at assisting research in its task to give the decision makers the proper tools needed to develop future agricultural, rural and agri-environmental policies. These tools should be tailor-made, where necessary regional specific and meet social, economic and environmental objectives in a holistic and integrated way. Scientific support will be arranged by assembling background documentation and by pulling together existing information on the integrated approach to agricultural, rural and environmental policies. This will greatly enhance the relationships between research and policy at all levels. Based on background notes, two policy dialogue seminars will be organised. The policy dialogues are carefully constructed, deliberative meetings that address both politically controversial and technically complex aspects. Policy dialogues seek to exchange information and build consensus recommendations between the public, private and civic sectors. Typically policy dialogues are used in complex regulatory, policy and community situations in which multiple stakeholders, contending values and challenging procedural dynamics are involved. Meetings are guided by a facilitator and aspire to produce concrete outputs such as guidance to government, a proposed regulation, a plan or a strategy. The goal is to improve public policies by systematically reviewing the major proposals using analytical framework designed to ensure appropriate and adequate consideration of the impacts and implications for each sector influenced by the change. The project will increase understanding of the critical linkages between research and agricultural, rural and environmental issues. An understanding of these key linkages is a pre-condition for making sustainable and integrated polices. In addition, the project is designed to deliver new information to the relevant decision-makers and policymakers at the EU as well as at the national levels. Furthermore, it will facilitate the sharing of experiences of different policy actors from all EU countries. To all intents and purposes, the project aims at safeguarding that the scientific work done also on the CAP is focussed on the most pressing issues at stake, and that the understanding thus created will be channelled to policy-making. As David Harvey (2004, 313) has put it, 'without a more integrated narrative about how our social systems work, applied economics, and all applied social sciences, run the substantial risk of being considered part of the world's problems, rather than offering serious routes to their solution'. The objective is to move towards a more integrated and sustainable approach to agriculture and rural development in Europe. The aim is to make better policy around this goal by using the existing research results and democratic deliberation.
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