Innovation is risky and challenging by definition. Only a small fraction of all innovation initiatives result in a successful new material, process or product. Networked research projects, as those conducted by a distributed consortium in-volving multiple domains and with global coverage, constitute an opportunity for innovation. However, the distributed nature of these projects introduces additional challenges, not present otherwise. The RUC-APS project is a European funded project whose goal is to enhance and implement knowledge based ICT solutions within high risk and uncertain conditions for agriculture pro-duction systems. Partners in the RUC-APS consortium are located in France, Italy, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, Argentina and Chile. Some of these partners are academic institutions, and some are companies, farms, or government dependent organizations. Partners have expertise in different domains such as computers sci-ence, business management, and agriculture. Interaction among partners —two or three partners at a time— takes place regularly throughout the year, in periods of one or two months of duration. This paper reports on a case study in which strategies of Design Thinking —which heavily depends on co-located, face to face interac-tion— were adapted to the distributed nature of the project. A proposal of how to adopt and adapt DT in distributed research and innovation projects is presented. In addition, a discussion is presented in relation to this kind of approach.