European Union funds digital research and innovation for agriculture to tackle societal challenges

The European Union avails 100 million euros funding for digital research and innovation that is made available under The Horizon 2020 work programme 2018-2020 which (inter alia) seeks to advance the development and uptake of digital technologies in agriculture and rural areas.

Digital technologies in agriculture pitch very high on the European Union’s agenda, for example the European policy makers recently at the Digitising agriculture and food value chains conference outlined policy developments in agricultural research and innovation and stated how digital technologies can bring forward agriculture and food sectors in the region.

The European Innovation Partnership for Agriculture (EIP-AGRI) has been a successful vehicle in connecting farmers and researchers. The programme works to foster competitive and sustainable farming and forestry.

It is hoped that digital technologies can help farmers overcome the challenges of seeking to produce more and better from less; reducing the impact on environment; keeping with consumer demands while ring faces farmers from the effects of market forces.

Digital technologies can help agriculture in many ways including,

• Supporting farm productivity
• Tracking weather patterns and biodiversity
• Animal sensors to monitor livestock
• Pests and disease control
• Weeds and pestcides management

Major funding Opportunities include

• RUR-02-2018: Socio-economic impacts of digitisation of agriculture and rural areas
• RUR-13-2018: Enabling the farm advisor community to prepare farmers for the digital age
• RUR-14-2018: Digital solutions and e-tools to modernise the CAP
• DT-RUR-12-2018: ICT Innovation for agriculture – Digital Innovation Hubs for Agriculture
• DT-ICT-08-2019.- Agricultural digital cross-cutting integration platforms
• DT-ICT-09-2020.- Digital service platforms for rural economies (details to be published at a later stage)

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