8th International Farming System Design Conference

EXTENDED DEADLINE

Abstract submissions must be completed via our website
from 06 January until 15 March 2025 by 23:59 (GMT+1, Paris time).

Registration will open on 1 April 2025. You may review the registration fees and preliminary program.

The 8^th Farming Systems Design conference will take place in August 25-29th, 2025, in Palaiseau, France, near Paris. The theme will be Farming System Design for Sustainable Agrifood Systems: theories and practices.

This conference welcomes scientists from all over the world working on and for the transformation of agricultural systems, with the aim to accelerate the development of healthy and sustainable agrifood systems. There is a need for radical shifts in the world’s agricultural systems so that they can face current and future challenges (climate change, pesticide use reduction, the need for intensification in low- and middle-income countries, biodiversity loss, farmers’ and consumers’ health, generation renewal of farmers, food security, etc.). In recent years, these issues have been the focus of a large body of scientific work, notably regarding (i) the processes, theories, methods and tools to design systemic approaches so as to support innovation processes, (ii) methods for analyzing obstacles and leverages to agroecological transition. Recent studies have also highlighted the need to consider innovation in agricultural and food sectors jointly, in order to create jointly, towards desirable and resilient agrifood systems.

Accordingly, the FSD8 conference seeks to broaden the interdisciplinarity of the FSD community, beyond the initial core of agronomists and livestock scientists. Contributions focusing on the design and transition of agri-food systems, particularly in the fields of economics, management sciences, sociology, ergonomics and food sciences, will be welcome.

In this context, the objectives of this conference are to:

• Bring together and consolidate a renewed scientific community, gathering scientists in agronomy, livestock science, sociology, ergonomics, economics, and food sciences, working on the design and management of innovation for the transition of agrifood systems;
• Enhance scientific exchanges on design in a variety of socio-economic and organizational contexts, and consider diverse approaches to sustainable and systemic transformation. Special attention will be paid to approaches and tools that support these design dynamics, as well as their impact potential to support local stakeholder dynamics. These scientific interactions will also aim at identifying new avenues of research on and for the agrifood system transition;
• Offer a training course for PhD students, post-docs, and permanent researchers in design approaches, theories and methods for the transition of agrifood systems towards greater sustainability;
• Discuss synergies between research, training and support for socio-economic stakeholders to encourage the spread of design dynamics aimed at transforming agri-food systems.

The main scientific themes that will be considered are:

• Analysis of innovative practices and transition pathways
• Systemic innovation for agrifood systems transformation
• Co-design methods and tools for agrifood systems
• Coupled innovation processes for agrifood system change (reconnecting the dynamics of innovation in agriculture and food)
• Agrifood system management enhancing biodiversity
• Modelling for anchored agricultural system change
• Role of digitalization for enhanced agroecological systems
• Co-design of territorial scenarios for agricultural change with stakeholders
• Capacity building for scaling up change in agricultural systems
• Managing climate risks in agrifood systems
• Considering resilience in farming system assessment and design
• Change in policies and advisory services to enhance the transition of agrifood systems
• Design at the territory level for sustainable and healthy agrifood systems
• Territory and value chain interactions for agrifood system transition
• Analysis of sociotechnical systems to drive agrifood system design

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