In the agricultural and food sectors, innovation is characterized not only by specificities arising from its relationship to nature and social condition of food, but also from the wide diversity of its stakeholders, ranging from farmers to consumers, and including intermediaries such as the research community and advisory services. Innovation emerges from interactions between these actors, who mobilize resources and produce knowledge in collaborative mechanisms in order to generate changes. It encompasses domains as varied as production practices, resource management, market organization, or new food and eating habits. Innovation in agriculture and food system is also marked today by the convergence of global challenges, such as food security, climate change, ecological transition, social and territorial issues…. Innovations are thus being reshaped in the current transitions of our societies, calling for new perspective to both economic actors and researchers who analyse on the evolution of agriculture and food. This communication presents the main insight from a research program carried out by the joint research unit “Innovation”(Cirad, Inra, Montpellier Supagro), and based on the analysis of innovation processes in Europe and Southern countries1. Five points will be developed: - Innovation in the agricultural and agri-food sectors is the subject of increasing debates that give it a very political dimension. We present these debates according to five plans: the ethical considerations that define what is a "good" innovation; the definition of its objectives that go beyond the economic aspects and open up to the challenges of sustainable development; the debates on the beneficiaries of the innovation; the recognition of the actors of innovation and the way to innovate, with more open and collaborative methods that question the actors in agriculture and food sectors - Innovation in agriculture and food system is more and more analyzed by interdisciplinary research tha