Coordinator resources

The coordinator plays a crucial role in the overall success of any field lab and ensures the effective collaboration and participation of everyone involved in the trial. We have often found that the quality of a field lab is determined by the quality of engagement and support provided by the coordinator. Your responsibilities will include:

• Encouraging meaningful engagement and discussion between participants in a field lab, including farmers and researchers.
• Organising and facilitating group meetings.
• Leading the group to co-develop, design and agree the design of the trial, ensuring it aligns with farmers' research priorities while considering the feasibility of implementation within their individual setups and time constraints.
• Making use of participatory methods to ensure everyone's ideas and input has been considered when designing the field lab, while guiding the group in refining their core objectives and prioritising key elements that add the most value in addressing their research questions.
• Compiling, in consultation with the farmers and researcher, the field lab proposal and request for grant funding from the Research Fund.
• Regular phone check-ins 1:1 with each trialist and researcher and/or data collector to check on progress and identify any issues that may need addressing
• Setting up and maintaining communication channels for the group to discuss the progress of the field lab, routinely prompting the group to share management practices, experiences and photos/videos, to enhance group learning.
• Actively seeking opportunities for the group to learn, e.g. identifying useful external speakers or additional stakeholders to join the group, linking with similar projects.
• Updating the Innovative Farmers team on progress, activity, achievements and dissemination opportunities.
• Working with the Innovative Farmers team to expand opportunities for knowledge exchange, e.g. suggesting the development of useful technical guides, blog articles or webinar ideas, sharing updates and photos with the team. Organising and speaking at one or more open farm events for other farmers to learn from the field lab.
• Managing the field lab, including monitoring progress to milestones, quality assurance of trial design (engaging with triallists and researchers throughout the trial), delivery and distribution of the Research Fund grant and assistance with writing up the research report.
• Guiding group and individual evaluation of the field lab at the concluding meeting, using Innovative Farmers resources.

Where the coordinator's time is not covered through their existing role, we may be able to offer financial support to cover their time and travel expenses. Please get in touch to discuss this with the Innovative Farmers team before submitting your field lab proposal.

The full process can be found in the documents above.

The process of setting up a field lab starts with submitting an Expression of Interest (EoI) on behalf of the farmer group. If we like the idea, we will send you a full proposal form for you to complete. As part of setting up a field lab, you will need to run workshops/meetings to co-design trials with the farmers and researcher. If the group doesn't have a researcher in mind, we can help you find one.

If your application is successful, it will then be your responsibility to monitor how the trials are going, create opportunities for the farmers and researchers to share progress, keep things on track and provide regular updates. We also rely on coordinators to identify opportunities to promote the field lab (e.g. through social media, blogs, events).

At the end of the field lab, you will assist the researcher with the final report and run a closing workshop with the group to evaluate your findings, experiences and next steps.

Yes, if you have suitable project management skills, experience working with farmers on the ground, an understanding of co-design and a willingness to embrace the realities and practicalities of farmer-led research!