Stakeholders will be substantially involved in the project through four annual local/regional/national stakeholders’ workshops (one per year) that will be organised in 24 case study areas. In total 96 stakeholders’ workshops will be organised during LIFT’s lifetime. The importance of workshops lies in their dual information flow. Stakeholders will contribute through active participation to numerous issues such as informing the typology of farms; designing the integrative performance indicators; assessing territorial sustainability; providing local knowledge on constraints and societal expectations faced by farmers in the case study areas; and giving expert opinions on LIFT’s frameworks, tools and outcomes. This will help in providing policy-relevant conclusions that are relevant to the reality in the case study areas and the countries covered by LIFT. Participatory approaches, Q-methodology and Delphi exercises will be used.

Workshops will be also a platform of networking for different stakeholders. The workshops will be organised by the LIFT partners in their own case study areas under the supervision of WP7 leader and using methodological guidance from a committee consisting of WP7 leader and of leaders of WP and tasks requiring the use of the stakeholders’ panels.

Stakeholders will include farmers’ representatives (e.g. unions, farm producer groups), chambers of agriculture, up and downstream companies, retailers, farm advisory services, banks, land management bodies, governmental bodies, certification organisations, citizens’ associations and NGOs (with objectives towards the environment, the communities, etc.) and consumers. They will relate to the local, national or European level. Stakeholders from EIPAGRI, ENRD and from EU countries not covered by the LIFT consortium will also be involved. Stakeholders across the 13 countries represented in LIFT have been consulted on the main concepts and approaches included in LIFT.

Interactions with stakeholders are crucial for LIFT, as innovative ideas may arise from those who have the best practical knowledge and vision for the future. And some innovations may only be successful when several stakeholders jointly design and implement them. LIFT will be conducted along the concept of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) where a diversity of actors, depending on their knowledge, expertise and role in the society, will be integrated into most tasks in the project. LIFT partners already have strong links with local and national stakeholders, and have extensive experience in collaborating with them through participatory approaches.