What is it about?

Agricultural research and innovation supports the sector in coping with a complex mix of challenges it is facing, including for example the pressures on natural resources and farm revenues. Knowledge creation and accessible information systems and tools to monitor, gather, transform and above all share vital information between key stakeholders can help the sector of Agricultural research to become more sustainable. However, as well as the potential for new knowledge, a substantial part of the existing knowledge and its underpinning information flows, has yet to be exploited to its full potential. The resulting performance gap has strong social, ecological and economic implications. An improved functioning of the agricultural knowledge and innovation systems is needed, for timely innovation and to speed up the rate of knowledge creation. One of the most important constraints concerns the limited interoperability and lack of openness of different technical systems, thus limiting the choices farmers can make between suppliers of new technologies. An enhanced interoperability would allow for increased data sharing and the resulting knowledge generation. Another main constraint is the lack of information on the effectiveness of new technologies which slows down their take up.

Scope:

Pilots should address all of the below aspects:

• Building platforms integrating different technologies like Internet of Things (IoT) devices, cloud, photonics, networks, delocalisation and robotics combined with applications based on data analytics and knowledge management.
• Sharing data and generating knowledge via capturing and translating more and precise information.
• Developing decision support systems that will include, but are not restricted to, a benchmarking system on the productivity and sustainability performance of farms, services, technologies and practices.

Expected Impact:

• Demonstrate measurable benefits from intensified data and information flows across a wide range of farm types, notably small farms;
• Improved and inclusive information flows and management within and among the targeted agricultural sectors based on transparent and fair data governance practices;
• Identification of user needs, validation of user acceptance, especially demonstration of viable concepts addressing privacy, security, vulnerability, liability and trust in connected data spaces;
• More information on environmental, social and economic performance of technologies, practices and management, increasing their respective adoption;
• Creation of opportunities for entrepreneurs by promoting new market openings, providing access to valuable datasets and direct interactions with users, expanding local businesses to European scale;
• Exploration and validation of new industry and business processes and innovative business models validated in the context of the pilots.

In the same framework, IED has already implemented several innovative projects which included innovative practices.  If you are interested in applying for this call you could contact us and further discuss the available options.

Submission deadline: 14 November 2018 17:00 (Brussels time)

Budget:

The indicative maximum amount earmarked for the call DT-ICT-08-2019 – IA Innovation action is: 30,000,000

Eligibility of the applicants:

• Legal entities established in the following countries and territories will be eligible to receive funding through Horizon 2020 grants
• International European interest organisations4 will also be eligible to receive funding from Horizon 2020.
• Legal entities established in countries not listed above will be eligible for funding when such funding is explicitly foreseen in the call