THE AGRIFOODTEF EUROPEAN PROJECT IS KICKING OFF
January 31, 2023
With a total budget of 60 million euros and a time horizon of 5 years, AgrifoodTEF aims to develop testing and experimentation infrastructure to facilitate the adoption of services and products based on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in the European agrifood sector. The project’s kick-off will take place in Trento on February 1 and 2, hosted by Fondazione Bruno Kessler, the project’s coordinator.
Following a successful application to a call for proposals of the Digital Europe Program, a total budget of 60 million euros and a time horizon of five years, the project AgrifoodTEF is going to kick off on Feb. 1 and 2, 2023, at the premises of the coordinator (Fondazione Bruno Kessler) in Trento (Italy).
The project aims to develop facilities and services for testing and experimenting, in real-life conditions, new products and solutions based on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, in order to support the European agrifood industry and speed-up the transition of innovation to market.
The winning consortium consists of some of Europe’s leading players in the field of digital innovation applied to agrifood production, organized in three national nodes (Italy, Germany, France) and four satellites (Belgium, Poland, Sweden and Austria). AgrifoodTEF is funded 50 percent by the European Commission and 50 percent by the governments of the member states participating in the consortium.
“Thanks to the geographical location and the technical excellence of the consortium’s partners” explains Raffaele Giaffreda (FBK), the project’s coordinator responsible also for the Italian Node, “the project well addresses the needs of the European agrifood industry, providing services to clients from all over Europe.”
In terms of mutual positioning of the various Partners assets and roles, the project ensures complementarity between all nodes and satellites, exploiting facilities and contextual background in relevant regions of Europe, that maximise impact and coverage of many agrifood production sectors.
In particular the Italian node focus on services that foster quality primary food production, while “our focus will be on services for agricultural machinery in arable farming systems” says Stefan Stiene, coordinator of the German node. “Competences and regional facilities available through different Partners in France will ensure the delivery conformity assessment and testing services for AI and AI-driven devices” reports Agnes Delaborde, coordinator of the French node.
“The impact of proposed solutions for agri-business ecosystem, will be validated using a co-creation approach, sharing important lessons from the involvement of farmers as end users of validated technologies”; This will be a very important aspect of the services offered by the Flemish node ensures Jürgen Vangeyte, the lead for the Belgian satellite. “Agrifood production in the north faces different challenges compared to other parts of Europe, so our focus will be on services that explore new frontiers for sustainable farming in our Scandinavian region” illustrates Jonas Engstrom, coordinator of the Swedish satellite. Lukasz Lowinski plans for the Polish satellite to “leverage competences and High-Power Computing assets, looking at how such technologies and extensive Polish hubs facilities can be used to instantiate virtual services that serve agrifood and forestry sectors”. “AI and Robotics solutions designed for alpine regions, grassland and arable farming will find validation services within our satellite facilities” guarantees Heinrich Prankl, coordinator of the Austrian satellite.
Companies willing to take advantage of AgrifoodTEF’s services can get in touch with the project or find more information via the project website at agrifoodtef.eu.
