S3 Partnership Food Packaging: Connecting Clusters for a Sustainable and Resilient EU Food Packaging Value Chain

Thomas De Bock

Pack4Food, established office of S3 Partnership Food Packaging

SOSfood Project: leveraging AI to create a Sustainable Food System

Raffaele Bini

Project Consultant in DATAlife

Sustainability of the food system is a global challenge with significant environmental, economic and social implications. In response to these pressing issues, SOSfood project advocates for the leveraging of data exploitation and AI technologies to enable informed decision-making across all stakeholders in the European food system, resulting in greater productivity, inclusivity, sustainability and resilience.

Driving Transformation in Agri-Food through new metrics and reinforced partnerships

Cecilia Gañán

International Consultant

Cecilia Gañán summarizes the S3 Conference 2024 held in Rimini. Attendees highlighted the role of interregional networks and new KPIs in driving sustainable agri-food innovation and regional development.

Welcoming 2025: Reflecting on Progress and Strengthening Collaboration

Mar Cátedra & María José Valverde

Traceability & Big Data Coordination Team – Andalusia

As we step into 2025, it is a time to reflect on the milestones achieved in 2024 and reaffirm our collective commitment to advancing the agrifood value chain through innovation, collaboration, and strategic alliances.

Artificial Intelligence and Agriculture: The ENIA International Chair promotes innovation in the agrifood sector

Rosa Gallardo

Director of the International Chair of Artificial Intelligence and Agriculture at the University of Cordoba

This Chair was created with the aim of promoting and transferring scientific and technical knowledge and innovative solutions in the application of Artificial Intelligence.

Innovation diffusion in a nutshell

Susana Elena-Pérez

Senior Consultant and Policy Analyst, EFIS Centre

Innovation diffusion in the context of S3: implementation challenges related to the diffusion of new technologies and innovative practices.

Promote short distribution chain and local market, reusing public data

Fausto Villani

EXO President of the Board and co-founder

An European traceability system. Following the “mad cow disease crisis (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy - BSE)” the European Union has established, among other measures, a “System for the identification and registration of bovine animals and regarding the labelling of beef and beef products”: Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000, amended with Regulation (EU) No 653/2014.

Personalisation, sustainability, traceability and collaboration: technological innovation to transform the food industry

Carolina Najar

Food Market Director at AZTI

In an environment increasingly dominated by technological innovation, the food industry must address a significant transformation. The field of technological innovation and food engineering is establishing itself as a key theme to address the challenges of the sector, from sustainability, efficiency, personalisation of consumption and the search for new ingredients.

From Precision to Artificial Intelligence: productive scenarios for a sustainable horticulture

Marco Foschini

Project Manager of the Clust-ER Agrifood

Agrifood value chain Traceability & Big Data implementation for sector digitalization - review of activities in Hajdú-Bihar County, Hungary

Peter LENGYEL, Szilvia BOTOS and Tünde SZABÓ

University of Debrecen / University of Debrecen / Hajdú-Bihar County Government

Thanks to its strong agri-food character, Hajdú-Bihar County is committed to building and maintaining an efficient, accountable and traceable supply chain, strengthened by responsible and knowledgeable actors.

Fair data and living lab data in agriculture

Petri Linna

Project Manager, Tampere University

Agriculture is currently undergoing a significant transformation from the perspective of data. New devices and technologies are rapidly emerging, which generate large amounts of data in multiple ways. How to make better use of these data is still an open question.

AGROTWIN: A drone-based agronomic DSS

PhD Niccolò Bartoloni

COO Agrobit s.r.l.

This project aims to exploit 3D point clouds (big data) generated by consumer-grade RGB drones to develop a Decision Support System based on innovative AI computer vision algorithms.

ACTIONbook. Innovation for place-based transformations

Joint Research Centre - Seville

European Commission

In January 2024, the Joint Research Centre and the European Committee of the Regions jointly published ‘Innovation for place-based transformations. ACTIONbook, practices and tools’.

Trust Boost: EIT Food’s Consumer Observatory

Begoña Villareal

Director EIT Food South

In a groundbreaking move towards fostering sustainability, health, and trust in the food sector, EIT Food, Europe’s leading food innovation initiative, working to make the food system more sustainable, healthy and trusted, has unveiled the Consumer Observatory. This newly established hub stands at the forefront of collating invaluable consumer insights on agrifood topics, marking a significant stride towards an informed and consumer-centric food industry transformation.

A Road Map for the Future

Ilaria Marcolin

Fondazione Agrifood & Bioeconomy FVG (FAB FVG)

Following T&BD S3P’s Steering Committee in Malaga (November 2022), and the networking activities that have been carried out throughout 2023, a clear need has emerged: how could we make the best out of Traceability & Big Data Partnership, by supporting the strategic priorities of regions involved and capitalising on concrete existing potentials and resources, whilst ensuring an effective operational working methodology at the interregional level?

TITAN project: Advanced tools for transparency of the food supply chain

Andrey Ipatov & Marta Prado

Research Engineer Food Quality and Safety Research Group, INL / Distinguished Researcher Campus Terra University of Santiago de Compostela

TITAN is an EU-funded project that will demonstrate the latest transparency-related solutions to help drive the formation of a demand-driven European economy predicted on the production and consumption of healthy, sustainable, and affordable food. TITAN has the ambition to build transparency in food supply chains via implementation of innovative, including digital technologies to boost the health, sustainability, and safety of products, processes, and diets.

Transforming Agriculture: The Power of Data and Interoperability

Federica Rossi

Ri.Nova Soc. Coop.

Food Days Seinäjoki – connecting innovations, businesses and people

Elina Koivisto

Development Manager, Into Seinäjoki Ltd

DEMOFARM Andalusia: applying digital solutions in real farms for a wider spread

Ricardo Alarcón

Technical Advisor for the General Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock and Food of the Andalusian Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development.

Main results of Horizon 2020 Project FAIRShare

Iratxe Díez Delgado & Juan Pedro Romero Trueba

Subdirectorate of Innovation and Digitization, Directorate of Rural Development, Innovation and Agri-Food Training of the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

Main conclusions about F4F-ExpoFoodTech 2023

Rogelio Pozo

CEO AZTI

Interview to Rogelio Pozo, from CEO AZTI, about about Food4Future-ExpoFoodTech 2023 main conclusions.

Interview to Daniel Sanz about eTIC4FOOD: ICT tools for smart labeling of sustainable fruit and vegetable production

Daniel Sanz

Hispatec

Interview to Daniel Sanz about eTIC4FOOD: ICT tools for smart labeling of sustainable fruit and vegetable production

S3 Community of Practice: Services offered to S3 practitioners

Els Van de Velde

Senior Expert in Competitiveness & Innovation - S3 Community of Practice Secretariat.

Optimal impact for Europe's digital transition- Why down to earth engineers move faster below the data-clouds

Jan Jacobs & Annemiek Canjels

Fontys Green Tech Lab & Province Limburg, The Netherlands

GAIA - The Gender Alliance for Innovation in Agriculture

Lorena van de Kolk & Margaux Plurien

Schuttelaar & Partners

From policy recommendations to practical implementation

Pia Kattelus and Soila Huhtaluhta

South Ostrobothnia

Interregional Innovation Investments Instrument and Smart Specialisation Community of Practice

Silvia Alvarez-Santos and Tomislav Pinter

DG Regional and Urban Policy.

Some thoughts after our Technical Meeting

Mar Cátedra Cerón

Technical Coordinator of S3P Traceability & Big Data

A 4-year-relationship of close cooperation within Regional Cluster Iberia

Noemí Molina and Pompeu Pais Dias

Technical adviser of AGAPA (Spain) and Research Manager of Consulai (Portugal)

The future of food is digital

Veerle De Graef

Flanders’ FOOD, coordinator of S3FOOD and established office of SS4AF.

European opportunities to finance the agrifood sector

José Manuel González

Representative of the Spanish Delegation to Cluster 6 - CDTI. European Programmes Division

FoodWay, identifying needs and testing methods for data and information flow in the food chain

Satu Välijärvi

RDI Team manager. Natural Resources, Oulu University of Applied Sciences.

Cross-regional approach to innovation in agrifood: The CREDAS Project in Italy

Marco Foschini

Clust-ER Agrifood Manager

Data spaces in the European agrifood chain to grow in alliances

Rosa Gallardo & José Emilio Guerrero

Technical High School of Agronomics and Forestry Engineers, University of Córdoba

DEMETER Farmer Survey – The Results

Gráinne Dilleen and Dave Hearne

Waterford Institute of Technology and Walton Institute

New initiatives and priorities for the S3 Partnerships

Technical Coordination team

S3P Traceability & Big Data

DATAlife: digitising the environment

Lucía Gómez Fernández

Communications of DATAlife

Healthy foods (and habits), healthy young people

Begoña Pérez-Villareal

Director South, representing the EIT Food South team

Exploring collaboration opportunities on food production, sustainability and rural development

J. Barreiro Hurle, F. Guzzo, C. Lavalle, R. M’Barek, F. Mérida Martín, C. Perpiñá Castillo, A. Rainoldi and T. Ronzon

The JRC-SEVILLE team

How can smart farming support gender equality?

Margaux Plurien

SmartAgriHubs Work Package 1, Digital Innovation Hubs and Ecosystem Building

SmartAgriHubs – The time of the harvest

George Beers

SmartAgriHubs Project Coordinator

The contribution of the Thematic S3 interregional partnerships to the EU Digital transition

Cecilia Gañán de Molina

External EC Expert on Regional and Urban Policies

New projects and perspectives

Mar Cátedra

Technical Counsellor for General Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock and Food of Andalusia

S3 and Interregional Innovation Investments in the new programming period

Valentina Pinna

Project & Programme Manager - Smart & Sustainable Growh unit DG REGIO

Two new French regions join TBD

Isabelle Guichard

Head of European Affairs

Agrifood transformation, economic recovery and SDGs

Maika Díaz

Project Manager, Foundation FUNDECYT Scientific and Technologial Park of Extremadura

Measuring the SDGs in EU cities and regions

Alice Siragusa

Team Leader, Joint Research Centre, European Commission

S3 thematic partnerships and new policy agendas of EU Green Deal and Agenda 2030 for sustainable development

Katerina Ciampi Stancova

European Commission, Joint Research Centre

The Sustainable Development Goals as a roadmap to plant production

Marga Vintges and Mario van Vliet

Greenport West-Holland

Localising the SDGs at the interregional level

Cecilia Gañán de Molina

International Consultant and external European Commission expert in support of regional and urban development

Human Intelligence plus Artificial Intelligence is Intelligence Augmented

Annemiek Canjels and Saskia Goetgeluk

Province Limburg

Empowering women among the vineyards

Charo Jimenez

CEO of Lagar La Primilla (Agrimenez S.L.)

Working in Brussels – a woman’s perspective

Angèle Liaigre

Policy Officer of the regional representation of Pays de la Loire (France) in Brussels

Life as a Dutch woman in Innovation

Marga Vintges

Municipality of Westland and the Greenport West-Holland

Making Europe more equal and inclusive

Isabelle Seigneur

Scientific Officer in the Smart Specialisation Platform of the JRC's Territorial Development Unit

Extremadura Region is committed to a sustainable economic model that supports R+D+I for companies

Patricia da Costa Félix, Operations Manager, & Maika Diaz, Project Manager

Foundation FUNDECYT Scientific and Technologial Park of Extremadura

Agrifood green and digital transition

Cristina de Toro Navero

General Director of Industries, Innovation and Agri-Food Chain, Region of Andalusia

Empowered Women, Empowering Tokat Project

Mehlika DICLE

Coordinator of Tokat Investment Support Office at Middle Black Sea Development Agency (OKA)

Supporting Bulgarian farmers against COVID-19

Lyubov Trenkova and Gergana Kaloyanova

Chief experts in regional development at Pazardzhik Regional Administration

Covid-19 forced micro enterprises to reshape and invest in the development of their business

Teija Rautaiainen and Helena Merikoski

Research Managers at South Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences

A concrete challenge: The digitalisation of the agrifood sector

Pierpaolo Rovere

Director of AGRIFOOD FVG - Friuli Venezia Giulia Agrifood & Bioeconomy Cluster Development Agency

Recovery in times of crisis: Regions at the forefront to prepare for a digital and greener future

Lydie Bernard

Vicepresident of Pays de la Loire region in charge of Agriculture and Agrifood Industry.

Innovation as a key factor to tackle the crisis

Alain Marenghi

ART-ER, Emilia Romagna co-lead region

In these hard days, for Europe, for Italy and for my region, we have touched the importance of the agri-food sector. Italy industrialized after…

Opening note

Katerina Ciampi Stancova

European Commission, Joint Research Centre

It is my great pleasure and honour to write an opening note for this first issue of the Newsletter of the Traceability and Big data interregional partnership.