Abstract
Agriculture and forestry are facing wicked challenges, driven by a complex set of social, economic and ecological factors. Innovation is a key to devising viable, resilient and sustainable solutions to these challenges but, for innovations to have impact, they need to be ‘scaled’. The current policy context, in the European Union and elsewhere, encourages the use of the ‘interactive’ model of innovation through the so-called ‘multi-actor’ approach. In this study, we explore the dynamics of scaling within agricultural and forestry co-innovation partnerships. Drawing upon evidence from eight co-innovation actions across Europe, encompassing varied contexts, scales and funding mechanisms, we identify four distinct forms of scaling: scaling out, up, deep, and introducing a novel concept, ‘scaling in’. Scaling in reflects the important role in ‘interactive innovation’ of external knowledge flows in optimising the contextual relevance and embedding of innovations. The selection by co-innovation partnerships of strategies and enabling mechanisms in pursuit of scaling is dependent on factors such as funding conditions, contextual norms and partnership objectives. Partnerships need to be clear about the type of scaling they aim to achieve, have an in-depth understanding of contextual complexities, and ensure that scaling is an integral part of the entire project cycle. Co-innovation partnerships can be effective catalysts for transformative change, provided scaling complexities are navigated and enabling mechanisms leveraged adeptly. Our insights advance the understanding of scaling dynamics in co-innovation actions and offer evidence-based strategies for practitioners, policymakers and researchers to bolster the impact of innovation initiatives in agriculture and forestry sectors.