Knowledge exchange visit rewards for top three INCREDIBLE NWFP innovations

Successful exchange visits were awarded to the top innovators in the INCREDIBLE Knowledge Contest on NWFP, with the visits taking place earlier this year. Winners were selected during the INCREDIBLE FINAL Conference in April 2021 by the participants, who chose the three good practices or innovations having the most positive impact from among the final shortlist. These had been whittled down by experts to eight finalists, chosen from more than 200 contributions collected. All the innovations submitted to the contest are now available as factsheets from the INCREDIBLE Knowledge repository. 

Alexandros Pantazis of Greece won the contest with the idea of Cooperatively designing and manufacturing tools for small-scale agricultural production. The selected runners-up were A new technology for extracting the fixed (non-volatile) oil of Pistacia lentiscus for the benefit of rural women represented by Sondes Fkiri of Tunisia, and New drilling method for resin extraction in Segovia by Santiago Michavila Puente-Villegas of Spain. 
The authors of all three contributions were each awarded an EFI grant to support a knowledge exchange visit. The winners could make a physical visit to an INCREDIBLE partner organisation of their choice and other connected entities, allowing them to spend several days of exchange with NWFP professionals. 

•    Alexandros Pantazis, the community organiser from the Greek organisation Tzoumakers, visited INCREDIBLE’s partner  Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC), Spain, and other three connected organisations: Parc De Les Olors,  Col·lectiu Eixarcolant, and  L’Era. Espai de Recursos Agroecològics – to network and support the further development of his project.
•    Sondes Fkiri, a Tunisian researcher from National Research Institute of Rural Engineering, Water and Forests (INRGREF), had the opportunity to meet not only researchers from INCREDIBLE’s partner the Spanish National Institute for Agricultural and Food research and Technology (INIA) but also PiñonSol, Coop and private forest owners. 
•    Santiago Michavila Puente-Villegas, a Spanish PhD student from INIA and ETSI de Montes of UPM, went to Sardinia to visit INCREDIBLE’s partner FORESTAS.

Read more on INCREDIBLE’s blog on how these visits which took place at the beginning of 2022 strengthened INCREDIBLE's knowledge-sharing community and gave the winners the opportunity to discuss their NWFP innovation with stakeholders in the field.
Tzoumakers knowledge sharing visit: from Greece to Catalonia, Spain
Valorization of Mediterranean forest tree nuts in the food industry: from Tunisia to Madrid, Spain
Pinus pinaster stands with protective and protection value: from Spain to Sardinia, Italy

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INCREDIBLE Knowledge Contest