I have been given the role of monitor as part of AgriLink living lab project, and I have recently started a blog to document the process of understanding living labs and creating one in Latvia. I have committed to writing at least one blog post per week. They will generally be on the short side (300-400 words), but I intend to post more lengthy reflections after stimulating project meetings or any other interesting events.

You can find my blog at: http://livinglablv.blogspot.com/

The post-doctoral study "Innovations in Non-timber Forest Products: Towards Rural Development and Sustainability (TRUSt)” has been running for three months now.

BSC researcher Mikelis Grivins starts working on the post-doctoral study "Innovations in Non-timber Forest Products: Towards Rural Development and Sustainability".
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The first national newsletter on the progress and initial results of the intenational SALSA project has been issued by BSC.

BSC researcher Talis Tisenkopfs in an interview about key cultural connections between urban and rural territories and populations to be explored in the EU H2020 project ROBUST.

BSC researchers blog about H2020 project PLAID findings on success factors in agricultural demonstration.

BSC researchers feature in Euronews science program Futuris on the Future of Food Technology.

We are announcing keynote speakers that will give lectures in conference “Alternative food supply networks in Central and Eastern Europe: Towards new grounds for interpretation and collaboration”.

The Baltic Studies Centre, in cooperation with the Latvian Academy of Culture, organises the scientific and practical conference “Alternative food supply networks in Central and Eastern Europe: Towards new grounds for interpretation and collaboration”.

Baltic Studies Centre announces the preliminary call for selection of post-doctoral research proposals within the framework of the European Regional Development Fund programme “Growth and Employment” 1.1.1. specific support objective “To increase the research and innovative capacity of scientific institutions of Latvia and the ability to attract external financing, investing in human resources and infrastructure” activity 1.1.1.2. “Post-doctoral research aid”. 

Researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and other stakeholders are invited to participate in a moderated e-mail conference hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) from 10 to 23 October 2016 entitled "Exploring the contribution of small farms to achieving food security and improved nutrition".

What are food and nutrition future scenarios for Europe and which transition pathways lead to improved food and nutrition security of the population? How these pathways are related to improvements in school meals provision, food assistance to vulnerable groups, greater involvement of small farmers in provision of healthy products, introduction of sustainability standards in food production and other practical solutions? These were among the issues that were tackled during the TRANSMANGO project meeting held in Riga on 8-9 September 2016, bringing together 38 researchers from Latvia and abroad.

What is needed for achieving notable progress in generating scientific publications and thesis chapters ahead? Commitment and painstaking writing! However, the text production could be made a lot smoother and more creative by collective support!

A sociologist reflects on her experiences of researchers-practitioner collaboration and asks how social scientists can provide genuine value.

According to the overview provided by the National Contact point of the European research and innovation programme „Horizon 2020”, the Baltic Studies Centre (BSC) is the most successful research institute in the field of social sciences and humanities in Latvia in the attraction of EU project funding, and it comes 11^th among all the 77 research institutes in the country.

On 1 March 2016, a new 3-year transnational project „Advancement of non-technological innovation performance and innovation capacity in fruit growing and processing sector in selected Baltic Sea Region countries” (InnoFruit) has been launched.

On 18 February 2016, a workshop was organised in Riga by BSC researchers in the framework of the international research project TRANSMANGO („Assessment of the impact of drivers of change on Europe’s food and nutrition security”) were a scenario building method was applied in debating issues regarding school catering.

On 22 January food system researchers, governance and market representatives were gathering in Brussels to participate in the final conference of the GLAMUR project. During the conference project's main conclusions and policy implications were presented. Also, several chaired discussions took place during the conference.

To read more about BSC involvement in the project visit http://bscresearch.lv/en/projects/glamur

Terry Marsden, TRANSMANGO researcher and professor at Cardiff University, shares his reflections on the European policy. Why not a Common Food and Nutrition Policy for Europe? is an opinion paper that should open up the debate. The TRANSMANGO consortium welcomes your comments on twitter @transmango, #commonfoodpolicy or on our facebookpage https://www.facebook.com/transmango

Dichotomies serve as ideal types that allow orienting in the diversity. Yet, to comprehend the reality we should rather search for the way how to bridge the gap between them. Recently the researchers’ interest in how to go beyond the simplified binary interpretations of agro food systems has risen. Two of the BSC researchers (Grivins & Tisenkopfs) have published an article on this matter.

Researchers from Baltic Studies Centre have presented results from Latvia in the Second International Conference on Agriculture in an Urbanizing Society in Rome. The Conference was focusing on reconnecting agriculture and food chains to societal needs and was aiming to advance the scientific state of the art in research on multifunctional agriculture, local food chains and urban-rural relations by bringing together scholars from a wide range of disciplines (sociology, economics, spatial planning, land-use planning, regional planning, urban planning, crop sciences, animal sciences, soil sciences, architecture, etc.) from many parts of the world.

Joint article by Lani Trenouth and Talis Tisenkopfs - "The Evolution of Household Foodscapes over Two Decades of Transition in Lativa" has been published in Journal of Baltic Studies. The article traces changes in household food consumption patterns comparing the late Soviet period and the present day based on household interviews and interpretive analysis.

The XXVI European Society for Rural Sociology congress "Places of Possibility? Rural Societies in Neoliberal World" has taken place in Aberdeen, Scotland on 18-21 August, 2015. Four participants from BSC participated in the conference and two papers were presented.