Dr Yiorgos Gadanakis

Current Research Projects:

H2020 - RECAP: Personalised Public Services in Support of the Implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy.

The RECAP project aims to develop improved remote monitoring of CAP obligations and to supplement the in-field inspections procedures eliminating several of the burdens. Furthermore, RECAP will offer farmers a tool supporting them to comply with regulations imposed by the CAP, providing personalised information for simplifying the interpretation of complex regulations, and early alerts on potential non-conformities. RECAP will allow agricultural consultants to access data available in the platform, subject to security and privacy policies, and to develop their own services within the platform using design tools, libraries, and communication with the database under an open approach.
Completed Research Projects:

Rural Business Research Funding: Innovation, productivity and financial performance in UK agriculture: How far can secondary data go in the development of a composite indicator of a farm level agricultural innovation?

This study seeks to understand and quantify the role of innovation in a more holistic sense, in driving change in farm productivity. Within this overarching goal are a number of sub-objectives: (i) by a review of the literature, map the variables (i.e. management actions) that might reasonably be identified as innovation, or increasing the likelihood of innovation; (ii) classify these variables as either innovation in management or technical change; (iii) make recommendations for the future collection of alternative Farm Business Survey indicators to address deficiencies in the coverage of innovation.

FP7 - SUSTAINMED: Sustainable agri-food systems and rural development in the Mediterranean Partner Countries

The overall objective of the SUSTAINMED project has been to examine and assess the impacts of EU and national agricultural, rural, environmental, and trade policies in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region, namely in so-called Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPCs) as well as in Turkey. The impacts to be analysed were very diverse, including socio-economic structural changes, employment and migrations trends, income distribution and poverty alleviation, resource management, trade liberalisation, as well as commercial relations with major trading partners (in particular the EU), and competitiveness in international markets. The rationale for such a wide research agenda was the realization that trade liberalization alone, which has been the linchpin of Euro-Mediterranean cooperation for decades, will not be sufficient to promote sustainable development in the Mediterranean region.

Greek Ministry of Rural Development and Food: Ex-post and ex-ante evaluation of rural development and regional plans strengthening innovation capacity and sustainability in the agricultural sector

Interreg - INNOVA - Establishing common models of integrated sustainable monitoring, planning, and management of high environmental value areas to control natural resources degradation" Research topic "Lefka Ori, the Greek case study"

The Project objective was to achieve joint management of the environment in the Mediterranean eco-region. By the creation of a consultation table between the relevant Public Administrations (Institutional Network) and the Scientific Institutions (Scientific Network), common Guidelines and an Indicators' Handbook were developed to achieve monitoring, planning and sustainable management in Protected Areas in the Mediterranean eco-region. An innovative web-based platform (INNOVA Platform) was implemented to support the effective management of protected areas and to collect requests and opinions from end-users. The Pilot Project activities, consisting of the implementation of the PASEM (Protected Areas Sustainability Evaluation Monitoring), as well as proposing site-relevant sustainability indicators, were implemented in pilot areas. The results of surveys, management effectiveness evaluation, selected indicators, and best practices were collected in the Case Study Report and disseminated.

FP6 - TRADEAG: Agricultural Trade Agreements:

The ultimate aim of the TRADEAG project was to provide economic analyses to policymakers involved in trade negotiations and agricultural policy design. Specifically, the objectives addressed by the various work packages (WPs) included the delivery of conceptual and empirical tools to:

• Understand the main drivers towards regionalisation and monitor the evolution of regional integration processes;
• Assess the degree of openness, trade restrictiveness, and protection of the EU, in comparison to other developed countries;
• Analyse the problems raised by the articulation of preferential agreements with multilateral negotiations and with future agreements under discussion;
• Quantify the effect of trade agreements on trade flows and on the agricultural sector of an enlarged Union;
• Provide objective analysis of the particular issue of trade with developing countries, including non- tariff barriers and tariff escalation;
• Provide an assessment of the nature of the various 'generations' of the European Union agreements, their depth integration, and their efficiency in reaching trade, welfare and, when relevant, development objectives.