EIP-AGRI Seminar "Digital Innovation Hubs: mainstreaming digital agriculture"
| Dates | Thursday, 1 June, 2017 - 09:00 to Friday, 2 June, 2017 - 13:00 |
| Type of event | EIP-AGRI seminar |
| Location | Ireland |
The final report of this Seminar has been published.
The EIP-AGRI seminar ‘Digital Innovation Hubs: mainstreaming digital agriculture’ took place on 1-2 June 2017 in Kilkenny, Ireland.
Scope
The overall objective of the "Digitising European Industry" Communication (COM(2016)180) is to ensure that "any industry in Europe, big or small, wherever situated and in any sector can fully benefit from digital innovations to upgrade its products, improve its processes and adapt its business models to the digital change".
The farming sector has never stopped innovating and every generation brings new technological and organisational improvements and competencies. However, the pace of technological innovation is proceeding faster than ever before and it is important to ensure that EU farmers take full advantage of this "digital revolution".
ICT developers and agricultural businesses are keen to assess which technologies, including the most disruptive ones like the Internet of Things, Big Data, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence etc., could help the sector meet the current challenge of ‘producing more with less’. However, the farming sector can find it difficult to see the real added value of these technologies, to decide which ones to invest in, when to invest and to what extent.
|
In that sense, the EU is already supporting the development of Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs). DIHs can act as one-stop-shops enabling any business to access the latest knowledge, expertise and technology for testing and experimenting with digital innovations. They provide connections with investors, facilitate access to financing for digital transformations, and help connect users in agriculture with ICT suppliers of digital innovations across the value chain. DIH can help both agricultural businesses and ICT companies to become more competitive, thus boosting growth and job creation. |
Overall aim of the seminar
The general objective of this event is to enable policy makers, research and technology organisations, the agriculture sector, and investors to share knowledge, expertise and needs to develop Digital Innovation Hubs for agriculture.
Specific objectives of the seminar:
1 – To clarify the concept of Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) and how they can contribute to mainstream digital innovation in agriculture.
2 - To identify and connect existing initiatives and entities in Europe with the capacity to share technical, financial, training and/or other services to contribute to the development of DIHs in agriculture.
3 - To identify and discuss about the specific needs and potential barriers to develop DIHs in Europe focused on agriculture.
4 - To define main priority steps to further develop DIHs in agriculture [and to foster collaboration among them at European level.
Presentations (in order of the programme)
Day 1: Thursday 1 June 2017
- Ronan Burgess, European Commission DG CNECT - The policy framework: Digitising the EU Industry and Digital Innovation Hubs
- Cato Bechtold, Ministry of Economic Affairs The Netherlands - Building effective innovative ecosystems: an example of Digital Innovation Hub
The main building blocks of a DIH in agriculture:
- Peter Liggesmeyer, Fraunhofer - DE
- Tom Kelly, EUFRAS/TEAGASC - IE
- Mihai & Stefan Stanescu, AGRISO - RO
- Hubert Cottogni, EIF (presentation, handout)
- Alfonso Ribas Álvarez (INGACAL) & Luis Pérez Freire, (Gradiant) - ES
- Daniel Azevedo poster, hashtags, COPA-COGECA
Seminar documents
Background documents - interactive discussions
More information on Digital Innovation Hubs
- http://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/system/file/ged/dei_working_group1_report_dec2016_v1.2.pdf
- https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/system/file/ged/161010_digital_innovation_hubs_2.pdf
- European Commission's Digital Innovation Hubs catalogue. Click here for information on the cataolgue, click here for the draft catalogue
- AIOTI WG 06 report entitled “Digital Innovation Hubs: democratising digital technologies in agriculture”
Related content:
