‘From Knowledge to Invention: exploring user innovation in Irish agriculture’ was a successful doctoral research project conducted at The Open University (UK) from 2012-2016 with funding from Teagasc’s Walsh Fellowship Scheme. The study explored the processes and motivators of farmers who invent useful artefacts for the farm and their relationships with formal agricultural organisations. It investigated the economic, social, and cultural factors that influence whether they share or commercialise their inventions. In terms of methodology, five semi-structured interviews with Irish innovation support organisations and five in-depth Biographic-Narrative Interpretive Method interviews with male farmer-inventors took place in 2015. This collection contains four anonymised interview transcripts: two with farm advisors and two with farmer-inventors.
All names have been anonymised. Access to the transcript is through application to the Irish Qualitative Data Archive and is restricted to bona fide researchers and teachers, and to students that are currently registered at a third-level academic institution.
