HORTIPS – A NEW CONCEPT IN HORTICULTURAL KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

HorTIPS (Horticultural Technology into Profits) was established as a government funded project to provide access to sources of technological innovation for the horticultural industry in England and Wales.
Focus was given to the needs of small and medium sized growers.
The pilot program had three phases: 1. Identification of the major technical constraints inhibiting profitability in the industry; this was derived from a survey of trade press, published reports and discussions with each sector of the supply chain; 2. Identification of relevant technical information that addressed these business constraints, including text- and web-based sources of information from 1,000 hours of web searching that was quality controlled, collated and posted at the Project website http://www.hortips.co.uk; 3. Outreach to growers and consultants through meetings, conferences, technical articles in trade journals, web-based communication and a distance learning module.
The HorTIPS Project united expertise from universities, commercial consultants and grower organizations increasing accessibility to knowledge.
Electronic communication has been essential for information exchange, organization and project management.

XXVI International Horticultural Congress: The Knowledge Business: Horticulture Education and Knowledge Transfer

G.R. Dixon, L.V. Hardiman, C.C. Payne, S.M. Swan, T. Harwood, J. Deen, D.N. Whalley, J. Wood

technology transfer, specialists, distance learning, research and development, consultancy, profitability

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2004.641.16