Food security is a global challenge and is impacted by, rapidly compounding effects including climate change, supply chains, human labour shortages, driving the need for traceability, and technological innovation and automation to name a few. The latest important price increases of agricultural row products show the limitations of the available resources. Through this Joint Undertaking, the AGRARSENSE consortium of 57 partners (including 4 affiliates) plan to take agricultural technology and productivity to the next level, beyond the State-of-the-Art, by combining some of the most advanced organisational capabilities from across European industrial 16 Large Enterprises, 25 SMEs and 16 Research & Technology Organisations (RTOs), from 15 countries. The development of the most advanced sensory and autonomous agricultural capabilities requires a sophisticated governance structure, ensuring that all partners are aligned across Use Cases and Work Package deliveries. The AGRARSENSE consortium has one of the world’s leaders in Forestry automation, Komatsu, as Project Coordinator. The AGRARSENSE project goal of creating a holistic ecosystem of sensory and automated capabilities will further extend Europe’s lead in optimizing and securing agricultural value chains. To drive such an ambitious impact agenda, we have selected seven Use Cases which will, collectively, contribute to solving the challenges outlined. These Use Cases are Greenhouses (UC1), Vertical Farming (UC2), Precision Viticulture (UC3), Agri robotics (UC4), Autoforest (UC5), Organic Soils & Fertilizers (UC6) and Water (UC7). These Use Cases are fused together by the most advanced hardware, software and system integration technologies, which will drive new solutions for partners and the collective AGRARSENSE impacts at scale.

Water quality and quantity are under arising pressure from agricultural activities that may cause overexploitation of natural waters and pollutants runoffs (e.g., nutrients, pesticides). These stresses are also compounded by climate change effects. To address the complex challenges of agri-water management, the UNIVERSWATER consortium will adopt a ‘system of systems’ approach by developing and improving technologies designed to optimise water resources uses in a fully integrated way. A dedicated interdisciplinary and intersectoral consortium of 15 partners from six European countries will: a) develop innovative portable and in-situ sensors for a number of parameters and pollutants (salinity, nutrients, CEC, microbiological indicators) and b) couple them with earth observation imaging and advanced explainable and robust artificial intelligence techniques, as well as c) develop cost-effective, sustainable methods based on nature-based and technology-based solutions for water remediation at the point of need and d) promote the adoption of the developed methods through pricing incentive provision. These technologies will be integrated into decision support systems (DSSs) that will be tested at three case studies tackling on-farm treatment of dairy soiled water, mitigation of soil salination through water reuse, and optimisation of fertiliser/pesticide application for freshwater preservation. Going beyond, UNIVERSWATER will upscale these local DSSs into a common platform where a suite of DSS tools can be adapted to different situations after being tailored to the local factors, thereby developing a modular, extensible and holistic universal DSS.

The main objectives of SMARTWATER are: 1) to reinforce the networking, research and innovation capacities of the University of Banja Luka (UNI-BL), University of Sarajevo (UNSA) and other institutions from Bosnia and Herzegovina in the field of sustainable agricultural water management; and 2) to increase their competences and fund-rising skills for a successful participation in the EU Research and Innovation Programs. The project will develop a large set of joint activities promoting networking, joint experimental fields, research cooperation and the exchange of knowledge and experts on specific topics, which are compatible with the overall national research strategy and include the application of smart technologies (cloud-based and remote sensing) in agricultural water management, optimization of water-energy-food nexus and climate change impact and adaptation measures. SMARTWATER foresees the publication of joint research documents in international conferences and peer-reviewed journals. The project will provide technical assistance and expertise to improve research and innovation capacities of BH institutions and delineate adequate national research strategies and policies for the future. The project will boost the S&T capacity through a series of capacity building actions focusing mainly on the early stage researchers. These include advanced training courses, participation in a joint MSc program, summer schools and hands-on workshops on R&I funding. A modern scientific strategy for stepping up and stimulating scientific excellence and innovation capacity will be outlined following a multi-stakeholder participatory approach. An effective communication and dissemination strategy for the adequate promotion of twinning activities and ensuring the expected impacts at regional, national, EU and global level will be adopted. The activities will be carried out in collaboration with three reputed EU international research partners (CIHEAM-IAMB, CSIC and ISA), and SME.

The IoF2020 project is dedicated to accelerate adoption of IoT for securing sufficient, safe and healthy food and to strengthen competitiveness of farming and food chains in Europe. It will consolidate Europe’s leading position in the global IoT industry by fostering a symbiotic ecosystem of farmers, food industry, technology providers and research institutes. The IoF2020 consortium of 73 partners, led by Wageningen UR and other core partners of previous key projects such as FIWARE and IoT-A, will leverage the ecosystem and architecture that was established in those projects. The heart of the project is formed by 19 use cases grouped in 5 trials with end users from the Arable, Dairy, Fruits, Vegetables and Meat verticals and IoT integrators that will demonstrate the business case of innovative IoT solutions for a large number of application areas. A lean multi-actor approach focusing on user acceptability, stakeholder engagement and sustainable business models will boost technology and market readiness levels and bring end user adoption to the next stage. This development will be enhanced by an open IoT architecture and infrastructure of reusable components based on existing standards and a security and privacy framework. Anticipating vast technological developments and emerging challenges for farming and food, the 4-year project stays agile through dynamic budgeting and adaptive decision-making by an implementation board of representatives from key user organizations. A 6 M€ mid-term open call will allow for testing intermediate results and extending the project with technical solutions and test sites. A coherent dissemination strategy for use case products and project learnings supported by leading user organizations will ensure a high market visibility and an increased learning curve. Thus IoF2020 will pave the way for data-driven farming, autonomous operations, virtual food chains and personalized nutrition for European citizens.