The first concept came from researcher U.J. Nagel of Wageningen University in 1980, who introduced the Agricultural Knowledge System (AKS). His work was a departure from the traditional Transfer of Technology (ToT) model, which assumed that innovation was a linear process starting in a laboratory and ending in a field.
In the late 1980s, Professor Niels Röling, also from Wageningen University, expanded this into the Agricultural Knowledge and Information System (AKIS). By adding Information, Röling highlighted that knowledge was not just a static product of research but a dynamic flow that required sophisticated management and communication networks to be effective.
The “I” in AKIS then shifted to become Innovation in the early 2000’s as more modern theories suggested that Innovation focused more on the interactions between actors, not just what they knew, but how they collaborated to create new knowledge, products and processes. The concept then entered European policy through the Standing Committee on Agricultural Research (SCAR), when the SCAR Strategic Working Group formally adopted AKIS as a framework for future European agricultural policy in 2012.
Today, at the European Union level, the governance of AKIS has become increasingly formalised to address the fragmentation of knowledge across Member States.
