EXPERTISE BROKERAGE REGIONAL HUBS AS INTERFACE FOR ADVICE, SUPPORT AND CONSULTANCY FOR RURAL AREA

Abstract

The expertise brokerage hubs are interface structures articulated as network that identify, quantify, and facilitate the expert interventions meant to contribute at problem-solving and answering the needs of the rural actors and general population. The proposed structures have a regional distribution in complete synchronisation with the regional specificity beyond the administrative limits of the county, region or macroregion. Technically, the hubs are fully equipped to answer technical or logistic needs for intervention in the field or remote operating laboratory and IT hardware and infrastructure. The provided services include counselling, supporting, expertise brokerage, consultancy, training and facilitating knowledge and innovation transfer. Basically, the hubs are answering the needs of intermediation and transport of expertise required by farmers and rural actors ensuring the selection and involvement of the highest-level expertise in the respective fields or domains overpassing past or present administrative or procedural barriers. Reversely, the innovation generators retrieve in the hubs' network the brokerage partner that can reach and intermediate to the relevant public and participants to test or validate their innovative products or processes. The public structures of the local administration aiming to develop and modernise the public services for the citizens from rural and small-urban centres ca largely benefit of the hubs' expertise, including the dissemination of the best practices towards the most relevant institutional public while targeting the highest standards of service quality. The regional operation of the hubs develops on the LAG network structure and grows by the addition of other associative structures active in the fields of social, environment or community development. The construction of the network is proposed and participatory bottom-up construction to feed the future AKIS consolidation for the upcoming programming period.