TY - JOUR A1 - Markow, Jekaterina A1 - Fieldsend, Andrew A1 - von Münchhausen, Susanne A1 - Häring, Anna Maria T1 - Building agricultural innovation capacity from the bottom up: Using spillover effects from projects to strengthen agricultural innovation systems T2 - Agricultural Systems N2 - CONTEXT Current research emphasises that agricultural innovation projects are influenced in multiple ways by the Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS) in which they operate. Yet little attention has been paid to the reverse direction of this relationship, i.e. how agricultural innovation projects affect AIS in the course of their innovative activities. Accordingly, there are currently no tools to measure such AIS spillovers from agricultural innovation projects. OBJECTIVE This paper shows that even where agricultural innovation projects have not been designed with the explicit aim of influencing AIS they can have spillovers on the AIS in which they operate. Based on this finding, it argues that designing agricultural innovation projects in a way that maximises such positive and reduces negative AIS spillovers would be a useful tool for strengthening agricultural innovation capacities in a particular territory or sector. METHODS Based on the concept of agricultural innovation projects as Organisational Innovation Systems (OIS) that are embedded in AIS, the paper develops an analytical framework for assessing spillovers of such projects on AIS and applies it to a case study of an Operational Group in the German Federal State of Hessen. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The case study shows that agricultural innovation projects may yield diverse spillovers on the AIS in which they operate. In addition to considering how agricultural innovation projects are shaped – constrained and/or enabled – by AIS, the research community on agricultural innovation should pay more attention to this side of the interrelation of AIS and agricultural innovation projects. Designing agricultural innovation projects responsibly so that spillovers on AIS are monitored can help to improve national or sectoral AIS. SIGNIFICANCE This paper points to an underexplored issue in research on agricultural innovation and, related to this, a thus far unused potential policy tool for improving national and sectoral AIS. It further develops the concept of innovation projects as OIS into an approach for assessing the effects of projects on AIS; an area of project assessment that until now has not been adequately covered. KW - Agricultural innovation system KW - Agricultural innovation project KW - Organisational innovation system KW - Spillover effect KW - Project assessment Y1 - 2023 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-hnee/frontdoor/index/index/docId/685 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-6853 SN - 0308-521X IS - 209 PB - Elsevier ER -