Stella
STELLA aims to develop a holistic digital system (STELLA PSS) to aid in the early warning and detection of regulated pests together with a response strategy by using modern sensing technology and Artificial Intelligence.
The STELLA PSS will be tested over three years at field, farm and regional levels across 6 Use Case Pilots (UCPs) covering arable, orchard and vineyard crops as well as large, difficult to reach areas (forests). STELLA focuses on eight (8) different RNQP and quarantine diseases transmitted in a variety of ways, that expand across 4 European countries with different climate and geological characteristics and New Zealand. STELLA will perform capacity-building activities in order to equip farmers, agronomists, and stakeholders with the necessary skills to use the STELLA system and encourage them to adopt eco-friendly crop protection methods.
Policy recommendations generated through the STELLA PSS findings, will be targeted to policy makers and decision makers aiming to support the European Commission’s goals of reducing pesticide use, managing priority plant pest outbreaks and promoting digitalisation of EU agriculture and forestry. A networking strategy will be developed to exchange ideas, leverage existing knowledge and enable links with relevant organisations, citizens, networks, projects, and initiatives.
Partners:
- Geoponiko Panepistimion Athinon
- Universita Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore
- Eigen Vermogen Van Het Instituutvoor Landbouw- En Visserijonderzoek
- Universitaet Fuer Bodenkultur Wien
- Green & Digital
- Foodscale Hub Greece
- Association De Coordination Technique Agricole - Les Instituts Techniques Agricoles
- Horta SRL
- Pessl Instruments Gmbh
- Green Supply Chain DIH
- Agrifood Lithuania DIH
- Edencore Technologies
- Institut Francais De La Vigne Et Du Vin
- Lincoln Agritech Limited
Project website: https://stella-pss.eu/
SOS-Food
In the current environmental emergency, the food system has to become more productive, inclusive, sustainable, and resilient. SOSFood will therefore use data-exploitation and AI-based technologies to provide a holistic and comprehensive image of the EU food system and develop tailored predictive tools to support well-informed decisions of all stakeholders of the food chain, with a multi-factorial, multi-actor and multi-scale approach, thanks to its multidisciplinary consortium of experts, from private and public sectors, academia research and food system representative (consumers, producers and industries). Although several initiatives have been taken in the same line, none has fully succeeded at considering the global picture of the system or delivering a reliable and accessible message to the target audience.
Hence, SOSFood will result in a consolidated food data space focused on sustainability and health and decision-making tools adapted to each level of the chain (a predictive dashboard displaying data and predictions for industries, and a mobile app for consumers comprising an eco-healthy fingerprint visualization plot, a greening indicator of industries, reformulated European recipes promoting healthy, local and seasonal ingredients and general recommendations), following these steps:
- Creating a multi-actor network gathering social, political, legal, economic, technological, food, health, environmental and climatic data, promoting transparency and data-sharing;
- Mapping the food system scenario with a multidimensional strategy, exploiting the interoperability of data with advanced impact analysis and innovative AI-technologies;
- Co-designing solutions i.e., decision-making tools fitting the context and priorities of each user, validated through field case studies to ensure viability and representativeness.
Partners:
- Universidade de Vigo
- Universidade de Santiago de Compostela
- Stichting Radboud Universiteit
- Universita Degli Studi di Ferrara
- Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
- Universidade Nova de Lisaboa
- Asociación DIH Datalife - HUB de innovación dixital Datalife
- Agrifood Lithuania DIH
- Smart Agro HUB anonymi etairia
- Softeam
- JIBE company BV
- Contactica SL
- Ignacio de las Cuevas SA
- Vikonda grupė, UAB
- YIOTIS anonimos emporiki & viomixaniki etaireia
- Communaute Europeenne des Cooperatives de Consommateurs
- Axencia galega de desenvolvemento rural
Project website: https://www.sosfood-project.eu/
Sixfold
SIXFOLD unites partners from the ‘Smart Sensors 4 Agri-food’ Partnership, and its network of Living Labs with a clear aim, Stimulating innovation experiments in food processing live demonstrators.
The twin transition stands at the heart of the Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategy. The agri-food sector plays a critical role in the realisation of these ambitions. The nature of deep tech innovation also shows the need for a transition via responsible regulatory frameworks. Living Labs are looking for more experimentation by engaging societal stakeholders and addressing innovation barriers experienced by agri food companies. SIXFOLD aims to facilitate implementation of deep tech within the agri-food sector, by building a robust network of Living Labs across the EU. This network will support a dynamic and regionally embedded ecosystem thriving with deep tech innovations relevant for the agri-food industry such as AI and machine learning, robots and co-bots, biotech, etc. throughout the food system. The timing is critical for agri-food companies to experiment with innovative technologies and collaboration with deep tech innovators.
SIXFOLD builds on an existing framework. Nevertheless, a careful assessment of the current state of play through interviews and study visits is made after which assessed barriers to innovation is tackled by a tailor made co-creation process. This ensures maximum participation of external experts, regulators, and broader societal actors on regional and European levels and in turn generates a more complete and validated Action Plan adapted to real-world needs. The network of Living Labs will in this way facilitate collaborative knowledge exchange by actively engaging stakeholders from various regions and ensuring inclusivity and diversity in participation. Amongst other objectives, the updated Operational Handbook of the network of Living Labs will form the basis of a successful transition towards sustainable food systems across Europe.
Partners:
- Agrifood Capital BV
- Seinajoen Ammattikorkeakoulu OY
- Agrifood Lithuania DIH
- Flanders' Food
- Fundacion Instituto Tecnologico De Galicia
- Technische Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe
Rurbanive
RURBANIVE will establish a novel Rural-Urban innovation framework, supported by technical and social innovations to enhance territorial governance and existing policy tools.
A community store of Rural-Urban Enablers realised through Rural-Urban immersiveness will promote experimentation and innovation focused on building up the well-being economies of rural and urban areas. In addition, a Community of Practice Suite will challenge the current status quo by putting rural citizens at the centre of policy.
Together, they will enable rural-urban interactions through enhanced social connectivity, cooperation, and instant realisation. Participatory processes will support dialogue and cooperation and enable stakeholders to assess and evaluate processes and future scenarios that contribute further to the development of synergies and recommendations.
Partners:
- Institute of Communication and Computer Systems
- Agricultural University of Athens
- Fundación CARTIF
- RISE Research Institutes of Sweden
- Foodscale Hub
- European Association for Innovation in Local Development
- Czech University of Life Sciences Prague
- Alchemia-Nova Research and Innovation
- AgriFood Lithuania DIH
- IMERYS
- The Lisbon Council for Economic Competitiveness
- Trikala Municipality
- Kėdainiai District Municipality
- South Aegean Region
- Innovation Campus Lemgo
- Partnership for Rural Europe
- BioBASE
Project website: rurbanive-project.eu
Prudent
PRUDENT aspires to change the way agriculture and forestry systems currently operate and to accelerate the transition to sustainable agriculture and forestry practices and smart farming technologies. The project will identify and evaluate the most effective green nudges that can enable farmers/foresters’ behavioural change to more sustainable agriculture and forestry.
Nudges will be also tested in natural contexts to evaluate the interactive effect of nudges with actual policy changes in the transition to sustainability. Innovative nudging tools will be employed to boost farmers/foresters’ self-regulatory capacity and enhance the durability of nudging effects.
Four different systems, representing major farming and forestry systems in Europe (arable crops, perennial crops, livestock and forests) in various EU regions (Northern, Southern, and Central Europe) will be studied to account for the heterogeneity of farming/forestry systems and contexts in the EU.
PRUDENT will provide a set of social innovations and business models establishing roadmaps for a shift towards sustainable agriculture and forestry and will develop a series of policy recommendations and tools to foster behaviorally informed policy design and implementation.
Partners:
- Agricultural University of Athens
- Politecnico di Milano
- Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici
- ILVO
- Università di Trento
- Green & Digital
- The Association Of Balkan Eco Innovations
- Athens University of Economics and Business
- European Forest Institute
- Q-Plan International
- AgriFood Lithuania DIH
- Asnacodi
- Boerennatuur Vlaanderen
- Boerenbond
Project website: prudent-project.eu
Locality
The main objective of LOCALITY is to develop circular and sustainable value chains, linking industrial players to stimulate co-creation and bring new and innovative algae-based products to regional and global markets while protecting and restoring Europe’s aquatic ecosystems.
LOCALITY sets the basis for the market uptake of innovative, socially responsible, and sustainable food, aquafeed ingredients, agriculture, and textile products formulated using algal biomasses and ingredients from side streams and the Baltic and North Seas, demonstrate their social and economic benefits, define commercialisation strategies and ensure consumer and market acceptance. Project results, developed technologies, and products to relevant stakeholders, thus fostering the replication of such circular ecosystems are disseminated.
LOCALITY is based on novel approaches and innovative products involving local stakeholders and international markets. The Consortium is completely market-oriented, with industrial partners addressing all value chains. Value chain reinforcement, consumer perception and acceptance, regulatory and technological barriers surpassing, business models, and market strategy development are key LOCALITY components. The designed products will gain a strong position in the European marketplace in the coming years.
Partners:
- NIVA
- Wageningen University
- GreenCoLab
- IRTA
- Algaia
- ESCI
- Civitta
- Proviron
- Algen
- Nord University
- Lgemsynalgae BV
- Lovely Day Foods Gmbh
- AgriFood Lithuania DIH
- University Of Agriculture Krakow
- Umea University
- Sparos LDA
- Riasearch
- Food & Bio Cluster Denmark
- Folvengaard AS
- BaMS Innovation Cluster
- Origin By Ocean
- Aller Aqua Group AS
- Viva Maris Gmbh
- Nordic Seafarm AB
- University Of Applied Sciences Boras
- Mounid AB
- Vital Seafood AS
- Quazy Foods
Project website: www.locality-algae.eu
GFarm for LIFE
GFarm for LIFE brings together key stakeholders from science, business, public and state sectors to jointly implement and develop a project which aims to develop a systematic ecosystem model for a more accurate and reliable assessment and register of GHG in agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector and design a framework for a national carbon absorption certification and monitoring.
The specialness of our project is that its actions take place directly in parallel with the upcoming EC regulations, allowing direct involvement in the process and helping design a national strategy that would have the potential to be an example in Europe.
Challenges
Strategic Challenge: Achieving national and EU climate change mitigation and adaptation targets by enabling systemic change in part of Lithuania’s AFOLU sector and governance regarding GHG emission reduction and implementing carbon farming initiatives.
- Lack of common procedures and holistic approaches for AFOLU sectors’ climate impact assessment at scale.
- The technological ecosystem for GHG emission and sequestration monitoring, accounting, and informed decision-making within the AFOLU sector is underdeveloped.
- Insufficient positive incentives to promote behavioural change within the AFOLU sector and support the transition towards carbon farming practices.
Objectives
- Holistic Methodology
To develop, pilot and validate holistic methodologies and streamlined procedures for GHG emission and sequestration assessment for the Lithuanian AFOLU sector at local (farm), regional and national levels - GHG Monitoring Database And Carbon Register
To collect, update and validate soil and forestry monitoring databases at the local – farm/land site, regional – different country area and national -Lithuania levels as a framework for monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) structure - Data Calculation And Measuring Technological Infrastructure
To develop, pilot and implement a common technological infrastructure and cross-platform digital tools for GHG balance monitoring, accounting, data exchange and governance for the agriculture sector - Recommendations For Promoting A Carbon Farming System
To establish and pilot an incentives framework at the national level for reducing the climate impact of the Lithuanian AFOLU sector based on market principles (by encouraging additional investment), policy guidelines and farmer behavioural change
Partners:
- AgriFood Lithuania DIH
- UAB ART21
- UAB Dojus Agro
- UAB Litagra
- National Paying Agency
- Lithuanian State Forest Service
- Vytautas Magnus university
- Lithuanian Forest and Land Owners Association
- UAB Melda
- UAB Strategy Labs
Project website: www.gfarm.lt
Forest 4.0
The overall objective of the FOREST 4.0 project is to establish a Centre of Excellence (CoE) to transform the forest environment monitoring, data acquisition, and analysis, and capture value from the collected data by implementing innovations based on artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT).
The CoE will be founded by two Lithuanian partners (Vytautas Magnus University – VMU) and Kaunas University of Technology – KTU) teaming with a leading counterpart from Sweden (Linnaeus University – LNU) and three networking and business development partners (InteriorCluster from Sweden, ART21 UAB and AgriFood Lithuania Digital Innovation Hub from Lithuania). The CoE will be created as a new legal entity and will comprise leading researchers from different domains that will implement an ambitious long term research and innovation strategy. The CoE will also provide innovation services to businesses and host a startup incubator. The impact of the project will be a rise in research excellence and reputation in forestry management and AI/IoT technologies for Lithuania; the constitution of a critical mass of excellent international researchers in the targeted domains; the production of a growing amount of research (publications) and innovation (patents, new technologies, startups) outputs; and expanding international networks for the Lithuanian partners.
Project Coordinator:
- Vytautas Magnus University
Partners:
- Kaunas University of Technology
- Linnaeus University
- Interior Cluster Sweden
- UAB ART21
- AgriFood Lithuania DIH
Project website: forest40.lt
FarmTopia
Farmtopia is a Horizon Europe project spanning three years, from September 2023 to August 2026. Comprising 22 partners from 12 countries, Farmtopia’s goal is to democratise digital farming, making it accessible to all.
Despite the agricultural industry’s increasing interest in Agricultural Digital Solutions (ADSs), their adoption among European farmers, particularly small-scale ones, has remained limited. This creates a significant gap that needs addressing to enhance the economic and environmental aspects of the agricultural sector.
Farmtopia envisions a future where ADSs cater to the needs of small farms more readily, encompassing their creation, deployment, and affordability.
The envisioned impact includes providing validated ADSs to over 64,000 small farms. As the project advances, we will continually update our website with further details about the SIPs (Sustainable Innovation Pilots), digital solutions, and results.
Partners:
- Neuropublic
- Green Supply Chain
- AgriFood Lithuania DIH
- Foodscale Hub
- Politecnico di Milano
- Agricultural University of Athens
- UAB “ART21”
- University College Dublin
- Pilze-Nagy Ltd.
- Substratproduktion Kynast-Löcke GmbH
- Anamob
- SmartRDI
- Agricolus s.r.l.
- Sata s.r.l.
- Gaia Epicheirein
- Ku Leuven
- W. Govaerts & Co.
- ITC Murska Sobota
- Arvalis Institut Du Vegetal
- Carbon Bee AgTech
- Fédération Régionale des cuma de l’Ouest
- Poios Einai To Afentiko?
Project website: farmtopia.eu
EDIH4IAE.LT
The consortium implementing the initiative "EDIH4IAE.LT" (otherwise - "Digital transformation of the industry, agriculture and energy sectors in Lithuania") was established by the Confederation of Lithuanian Industrialists, Vytautas Magnus University, the Lithuanian Innovation Center, the agro-food sector technology company "ART21", digital innovation center "AgriFood Lithuania", Science and Technology Park of the Institute of Physics, Lithuanian Energy Institute and Smart Energy DIH.
EDIH4IAE.LT will provide an opportunity for agro-food, energy and industrial companies and authorities in the region of Western and Central Lithuania to integrate environmental, digital and social solutions into their main business models. EDIH4IAE.LT has the best opportunities to support the ambitions of the 2021-2027 Digital Europe Program, which aims to ensure that Europe undertakes the digital transformation of the economy and society and provides its benefits to companies and citizens.
The goal is to make the digital transformation of the industry, food and energy sectors more efficient, giving priority to business and public entities operating in the region of Western and Central Lithuania and to the implementation of basic digital technologies (high performance computers, artificial intelligence and cyber security).
Tasks:
- increase the demand and absorption potential of digital technologies;
- develop digital skills necessary for digital transformation;
- reduce the risk of investing in digital technologies, helping companies to attract additional financial resources;
- with the help of digital technologies and business models, to increase the integration of Lithuanian economic entities into the EU and international value creation chains.
Coordinator:
- Lithuanian Innovation Center
Partners:
- Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists
- Vytautas Magnus University
- Lithuanian Energy Institute
- UAB "ART21"
- Science and Technology Park of the Physics Institute
- AgriFood Lithuania DIH
- SmartEnergyDih
Project website: e-dih.lt