Wide consensus on the EU ICT Strategic Research Agenda for Agri-food and Rural Development opens door to future joint activities

As it was addressed in The Community Lisbon Programme – an Agenda for Growth and Jobs presently Europe faces new challenges. A key medium term policy priority refers to the implementation of measures focused on the creation of growth and jobs in rural areas [1], as well as the promotion of activities oriented to achieve the European leadership in sectors such as agrifood and Information Communication Technology, among others.

In line with several of the objectives highlighted in the scope of the Reviewed Lisbon Strategy and the i2010 initiative, and under the Information Society Technologies (IST) European Union policy, the AMI@Netfood Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) aims to identify the key challenges of the agri-food industry as well as exploring possible solutions to the challenges facing rural development in the EU.

During AMI@Netfood project execution, two consultation processes were carried out. The first consultation process was oriented to identify the main challenges and future trends in AMI@Netfood domain.

The objective of the second consultation process was twofold, first to achieve maximum consensus on the project results presented in a Strategic Research Agenda and secondly to gain commitment to participate in proposals for potential joint activities to partly implement some of the SRA activities. AMI@Netfood accounted for more than 25 validation activities in which Policy Makers, Universities, RTD organisations and Industry from some 15 EU countries have proactively provided their views on the SRA and contributed to improve the final result.

This wide consensus has been essential to define a final Strategic Research Agenda which intends to be a major tool for European policy makers supporting the elaborating of long term strategies in AMI@Netfood domain domains.

The challenges described in AMI@Netfood Strategic Research Agenda are related to:

• increasing the level of consumer involvement in the food chain;
• improving the collaborative potential of citizens by raising their skill levels in use of ICT;
• supporting the rural sector through the development of new and innovative ICT solutions;
• creating new business models to take advantage of the innovations in technology;
• creating more attractive living conditions and jobs particularly for rural dwellers, with a view to holding the rural population in rural areas.

In order to advance this set of priorities, and progress development of these key technologies, the AMI@Netfood Strategic Research Agenda has proposed the following four Research and Technology Development domains:

• ICT applications for the complete traceability of products and services throughout a networked value chain.
• Collaborative environments in agri-food industry and rural areas.
• ICT applications supporting the management of natural resources and rural development creating value for citizens and businesses.
• Innovative ICT applications in rural areas using broadband infrastructure.

The figure bellow shows the six challenges identified in AMI@Netfood domain and the existing interconnections between them and the RTD priorities proposed.

As result of AMI@Netfood project, potential joint activities to be developed in future European initiatives have been also selected. More than 50 organisations across Europe have shown their interest in participate in those activities. The potential joint activities proposed are:

• Pilot project to develop integrated traceability solutions for the agri-food meat processing domain.
• Pilot project to develop Collaborative Working Environments solutions for the agri-food industry.
• Pilot Experiment to implement eHealth networking system in rural areas for improving rural inhabitants’ quality of life.
• Training activities to increase rural business competitiveness using broadband infrastructure.
• Pilot experiment to implement a technical infrastructure to support decision making in natural disasters.

The most important AMI@Netfood Project achievement is the wide consensus obtained during whole project performance. By this, the proposed Strategic Research Agenda and Joint Activities reflect the real needs and objectives of AMI@Netfood domain.

Sources:
The AMI@Netfood website: http://www.ami-netfood.com/
Strategic Research Agenda

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[1] Common Actions for Growth and Employment: The Community Lisbon Programme. COM(2005) 330 final