Synergy Days is designed to celebrate and showcase European research projects that are transforming the European agri-food sector. Who are they, and how are they using digital technology to innovate the sector? We spoke to 4Growth to learn more about the project, its goals and journey.

 

 

What inspired the creation of your project? 

The fulfilment of the EU’s vision for the European Digital Strategy requires more to be done in terms of understanding the state of play of digital and data-driven agriculture and forestry, pinpointing good practices, key barriers and suitable governance models and, ultimately, disseminating the relevant knowledge and tools to the wider community so as to foster its speedier and more effective adoption. The overarching objective of 4Growth is to understand where, how and to what extent digital and data technologies in agriculture and forestry are being adopted. This will contribute to a deeper knowledge of what influences market uptake, which in turn will allow 4Growth to develop robust forecasts to guide policymaking and increase further uptake.

What are some of the project goals and first steps towards achieving them?

Having kicked off in 2024, with a duration of 3 years, 4Growth will carry out a comprehensive state-of-the art analysis in relation to user uptake of digital and data technologies across all disciplines of agricultural and forestry activities. 4Growth will build a robust market monitoring and forecasting tool (MMFT) providing hard data for informed decision making along both the agriculture and forestry value chains. 4Growth will complement the market monitoring, forecasting and foresight activities with tangible “ground truth” data gathered via the distributed “4Growth Observatories”. These Observatories will be managed by dedicated observatory partners who will use their vast professional networks to develop an ecosystem which covers the full breadth of digital and data agriculture and forestry activities across Europe. 4Growth will showcase the uptake through the “4Growth Visualisation Platform” that will combine powerful storytelling with advanced visualisation of market data. Through interaction with the platform, users will see where and how different technologies are being implemented in their sectors of choice, the associated benefits and profitability of given sectors and sub-sectors as a result of technology adoption and how future regulations/economic conditions/technological developments are likely to affect all of this.

What innovative technologies or methods are you most excited about within your project? 

4Growth’s “bottom up and top down” market analysis i.e., the continual “ground truth” data collection via distributed observatories, plus the ingested macro-economic data, plus the foresight analysis presented on an interactive visualisation platform is an innovative approach in itself. However, 4Growth is also analysing various other “Innovative Approaches to Market Monitoring” that could be used to further complement the activities of 4Growth via a dedicated task. This will help ensure the monitoring of the uptake of digital technologies in agriculture and forestry continues beyond the life of the project.

What advice would you give to other innovators looking to make an impact in the agricultural / food sector through digital technologies? 

It is important to understand the potential implications of policy/economic changes moving forward in order to facilitate/incentivise increased uptake. It is also important to understand the benefits of digital technologies including profitability, best practices, and potential future implications of technology adoption. This can help in reducing investment risk and encouraging further technology uptake.

What is the added value of Synergy Days for your project? 

Synergy Days helps 4Growth by stimulating the exchange of ideas and the development of innovative solutions to common challenges. This event also serves as a platform for 4Growth to gather data that can inform our project and ultimately improve the efficiency, sustainability, and competitiveness of the agri-food sector.

Want to meet them and learn more about the project? Join 4Growth at Synergy Days 2024! More details and how to register.