Hasmik Hovakimyan on conference visit in Évora, Portugal

The 14th European Farming Systems Conference (IFSA) was held at the University of Évora, Portugal, and hosted by the Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development (MED), from 10 – 14 April 2022. The main focus of the conference was Farming Systems Facing Climate Change and Resource Challenges. Researchers and practitioners from both natural and social science backgrounds joined the IFSA 2022 Conference, participated actively in the discussions, and contributed with presentations of their work.

The unique part for me personally was the PhD course that took place days before the conference and lasted till the end of the conference. Four professor facilitators were providing highly relevant content during tight-scheduled classes on Systems thinking nourished with practical examples and system development tools. Exchange with dozen other PhD students from all over Europe was an interesting experience; individual poster presentations on the research methods, group works, field visits to Evora's typical farm system Montado and family-run wine making companies were very informative and also quite inspiring. The conference was closed by the final group presentations by all the PhD students.

The course and conference contributed in critical social learning system knowledge generation and employing systemic perspective for further research.