Digitising agriculture and food value chains

This event, which formed part of the Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 2 InfoWeek, presented existing policy initiatives in the field of digitising European industries and building a European data economy. It showed how these initiatives can bring opportunities for agriculture, food value chains - on land and at sea - and society at large. Finally it connected digital policy with the investment opportunities under the Horizon 2020 Work programme 2018-2020.

Objectives

The objectives of the event were:

• to raise awareness on initiatives under the Digitial single market strategy which are relevant for agriculture and food value chains up to the citizens;
• to link these initiatives with the ambitious research and innovation activities which will contribute to achieving the broader EU policy objectives; 
• to raise awareness on the full span of innovative digital technologies applying to agriculture, food value chains and nutrition, taking stock on what has been supported so far and on future research needs;
• to provide opportunities for networking to members of the science, innovation, farm, food and IT community involved in these topics, therefore contributing to high-quality proposals under the future Horizon 2020 calls.

Target audience

The event assembled an audience of around 300 people including:

• representatives of the farming and food sectors, including farm advisors;
• representatives of the agricultural technology, food technology and digital technologies providers;
• scientists (research institutes, innovation agencies, technology transfer offices etc.);
• policy-makers (European Commission, European parliament, national governments, managing authorities in particular regions involved in related actitivities under the RIS3 Agri-Food platform);
• journalists.

Programme

The European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural development Phil Hogan opened the event.

The programme then included:

• a plenary session highlighting the broader Digital single market policy and major trends in the farm and food sectors;
• two parallel sessions presenting initiatives in the field of digital innovation hubs and platforms and of data management;
• A stakeholders panel reflecting on opportunities for the future and on major obstacles to be overcome;
• three parallel sessions showcasing inspiring examples in the farm, food and marine domains.

The "marine digitisation" session was joint with the "Blue growth and research and innovation" event running in parallel.  

Recordings and presentations

The event was recorded by room. you can watch the recordings freely for up to two years after the event by clicking on the name of the room in which the session of interest took place:

Room DE GASPERI

• 8:45 - High-level opening
  • Digital technologies' potential for addressing future challenges in food and farming - Phil Hogan, European Commissioner for agriculture and rural development
  • How could national digitisation strategies benefit food and farming: the Estonian case - Toomas Kevvai, Estonian Ministry of rural affairs
• 09:30 – Plenary - Digital revolution, agriculture, food and R&I: what's going on?
  • The digital single market: the overall policy framework - Pearse O'Donohue, DG CNECT
  • Digitising agriculture: what are the trends in precision farming and overview of R&I activities - Niels Gotke, ICT-AGRI 2 ERANET
  • EIT-Food: towards a more people-centric and resource smart food system - Klaus Beetz, Siemens
• 11:00-12:00 - Parallel session 1: Digital innovation hubs and platforms: what potential for farming, value chains and society?
  • Digital innovation hubs: outcomes of the EIP seminar in Kilkenny and opportunities under H2020 WP 2018-2020 - Ana Cuadrado Galvan - European Commission DG AGRI
  • The alliance on internet of things (AIOTI): the potential of digital platforms in agriculture - Marcos Alvares, Gradiant, AIOTI sub-group on innovation
  • IOF2020: a large-scale pilot on Internet of things for food and farming - George Beers, WUR
  • Flanders Food: realising the potential of digitisation for food production, distribution and nutrition - Inge Arents, Managing Director of Flanders Food
• 12:00-13:00 - Plenary session – Stakeholders panel: what are the opportunities and challenges brought by digitisation?
• 14:00-15:30 - Parallel session 1: Digital solutions to meet future agriculture challenges
  • RECAP - Personalised public services in support of the implementation of the CAP - Machi Symeonidou - Draxis Environmental
  • DataBIO - Data-driven Bioeconomy -Athanasios Poulakidas - Intrasoft-intl
  • EU-PLF - Bright farm by Precision Livestock Farming - Vasileios exadaktylos, BioRICS
  • SWEEPER - Sweet Pepper Harvesting Robot - Jos Balendonck, WUR
• 16:00-16:45 - Reporting & closing session
  • Flash report by Katrina Sichel
  • Concluding remarks by Nathalie Sauze-Vandevyver

Room MANSHOLT

• 11:00-12:00 - Parallel session 2 - Improving data management from farm to fork
  • Data sharing: outcomes of the EIP workshop in Bratislava- Louis Mahy (EC DG AGRI) and policy follow-up - Célina Ramjoué (EC DG CNECT)
  • European open science Cloud: sharing and reusing research data in agriculture, food and nutrition - Wim Haentjens, (EC DG RTD)
  • Agriculture in Big Data Europe - Nikos Manouselis, Agroknow
  • Big expectations from big Data: reflections from interacting with stakeholders - Grigoris Chatzikostas
• 14:00-15:30 - Digitising food research, processing and consumption
  • E-ROSA - Towards an e-infrastructure roadmap for open science in agriculture - Odile Hologne, INRA
  • RICHFIELDS - Research infrastructure on consumer health and food intake using e-science with linked data sharing - Monique Raats, University of Surrey
  • Picknpack - Flexible robotic systems for automated adaptive packaging of fresh and processed food products - Erik Pekkeriet, WUR
  • PeptiEUForce - Using artificial intelligence and DNA analysis to find new disease-beating molecules in natural foodstuffs - Emmet Browne, Nuritas

Room JENKINS

• 14:00-15:30 - Marine data and digitisation - See presentations on the Blue Growth and R&I event page.

Outcomes

The outcomes of the discussions were quickly reported on two slides used by Katrina Sichel during the reporting session.

Background documents & useful links

The event concluded a series of events organised in 2017 with a focus on farm digitisation:

• EIP-Workshop 'Data Sharing: ensuring a fair sharing of digitisation benefits in agriculture' - 4-5 April 2017, Bratislava (SK): event page - final report
• EIP-AGRI Seminar 'Digital Innovation Hubs: mainstreaming digital agriculture', 1-2 June, Kilkenny (IE): event page - short report - New! Full report
• Agri-Innovation Summit 2017, 11-12 October 2017, Lisbon (PT): event website

Read the latest publications on successful EU farm digitisation projects:

• Horizon 2020 Magazine "EU’s future cyber-farms to utilise drones, robots and sensors"
• CORDIS Result pack "Precision farming: sowing the seeds of a new agricultural revolution"
• EIP-AGRI brochure "Shaping the digital (r)evolution in agriculture"

Browse the relevant EU policy pages:

• Europe's Digital Single Market Strategy
• European Open Science Cloud