ExpectedOutcome:
In line with the European Green Deal, the farm to fork strategy in particular, and the headline ambition of a Digital Age, a successful proposal will support the capacities to understand and forecast the development of markets and the use of data and digital technologies in agriculture and forestry, particularly through the development of innovative assessment and modelling approaches. It will therefore support decreasing the risk of investing into digital infrastructure, and indirectly contribute to the enhancement of the sustainability performance and competitiveness in agriculture through further deployment of digital and data technologies as key enablers, and to the development of innovative governance models.
Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
The potential of digital and data technologies in the agricultural and forestry sectors to enhance their sustainability and economic performance and working conditions has been acknowledged. The uptake of digital technologies in the sectors and the development of supplementing data- and data-technology-based solutions in the EU are increasing. However, there is hardly comprehensive, independently collected data about the actual uptake and use of digital technologies by farmers and foresters, about the trade of sector-related data and digital technologies, and about the extent and structure of the provision of digital and data services in the agricultural and forestry supply chains, which are of global outreach.
At the same time, policies and the regulatory framework directly or indirectly influencing the deployment of digital and data technologies in the EU are evolving in a fast pace and will continue to do so.[1] Also trade regimes are continuously changing. For stakeholder in the agricultural, forestry and the digital sectors to invest in digital and data technologies, it is important to be able to assess the possible implications of changing regulatory and market conditions on the development, purchase and use of data, and digital and data technologies. This is also supported by an increase in information on markets and related actor networks, and information on the storage and the flows of goods and data, through increased transparency and a strengthened position of users and consumers. Such information as well as capacities in modelling and in carrying out foresight analyses for the development of markets and of the situation in the agricultural sector is also one pre-requisite for tailored policy-making.
Fostering the provision of insights into markets of data, and digital and data technologies in the agricultural and forestry sectors, the proposals should address the following:
Project(s) are expected to consider innovation in digital technologies brought onto the market during the life-time of the project. It is expected that the project(s) are working with targeted stakeholders, including farmers, foresters, agri-businesses, farm advisors, policy-makers etc. to test demonstration and communication tools.
For the assessment of the uptake of digital technologies by farmers and foresters, statistical approaches evolving in the EU are to be considered, if applicable; assessment approaches may vary between continents.
In this topic, the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.
Specific Topic Conditions:Activities are expected to achieve TRL 3-5 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.
[1] See, e.g. the announcements in the Digital package published by the European Commission in February 2020: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/policies/building-european-data-economy.