The new agricultural EU policy aims at strengthening actors' capacities for innovation by taking into account the complexity of innovation processes. This paper aims to characterise the key innovation support services (ISS) which are needed to support actors to innovate. In the EU AgriSpin project, we analysed 57 case studies describing innovation processes. We used a common grid to characterize ISS. Our results show that ISS depends on the phase of the innovation. During the initial phases, there is a nee d for innovative support services (e.g. network building, support to innovator). In the latter phases, there is a need for more conventional services (e.g. training, credit) both at farm level, value chain level and territory level. Brokering functions and new services are key in supporting actors to innovate by facilitating interactions for co-production of knowledge, co-design of technologies and, identification of new institutional arrangements.