This event, which forms part of the Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 2 InfoWeek, will present existing policy initiatives in the field of digitising European industries and building a European data economy. It will show how these initiatives can bring opportunities for agriculture, food value chains - on land and at sea - and society at large. Finally it will connect digital policy with the investment opportunities under the Horizon 2020 Work programme 2018-2020.

Objectives

The objectives of the event will be:

• to raise awareness on initiatives under the Digitial single market strategy which are relevant for agriculture and food value chains up to the citizens;
• to link these initiatives with the ambitious research and innovation activities which will contribute to achieving the broader EU policy objectives; 
• to raise awareness on the full span of innovative digital technologies applying to agriculture, food value chains and nutrition, taking stock on what has been supported so far and on future research needs;
• to provide opportunities for networking to members of the science, innovation, farm, food and IT community involved in these topics, therefore contributing to high-quality proposals under the future Horizon 2020 calls.

Target audience

We expect the attendance of around 400 people including:

• representatives of the farming and food sectors, including farm advisors;
• representatives of the agricultural technology, food technology and digital technologies providers;
• scientists (research institutes, innovation agencies, technology transfer offices etc.);
• policy-makers (European Commission, European parliament, national governments, managing authorities in particular regions involved in related actitivities under the RIS3 Agri-Food platform);
• journalists.

Programme

The European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural development Phil Hogan will open the event.

The programme will then include:

• a plenary session highlighting the broader Digital single market policy and major trends in the farm and food sectors;
• two parallel sessions presenting initiatives in the field of digital innovation hubs and platforms and of data management;
• A stakeholders panel reflecting on opportunities for the future and on major obstacles to be overcome;
• three parallel sessions showcasing inspiring examples in the farm, food and marine domains.

The "marine digitisation" session is joint with the "Blue growth and research and innovation" event running in parallel.  

Download the full event programme.

Background documents & useful links

The event concludes a series of events organised in 2017 with a focus on farm digitisation:

• EIP-Workshop 'Data Sharing: ensuring a fair sharing of digitisation benefits in agriculture' - 4-5 April 2017, Bratislava (SK): event page - final report
• EIP-AGRI Seminar 'Digital Innovation Hubs: mainstreaming digital agriculture', 1-2 June, Kilkenny (IE): event page - short report
• Agri-Innovation Summit 2017, 11-12 October 2017, Lisbon (PT): event website

Read the latest publications on successful EU farm digitisation projects:

• Horizon 2020 Magazine "EU’s future cyber-farms to utilise drones, robots and sensors"
• CORDIS Result pack "Precision farming: sowing the seeds of a new agricultural revolution"

Browse the relevant EU policy pages:

• Europe's Digital Single Market Strategy
• European Open Science Cloud

Practical information

This event forms part of the Horizon 2020 Societal challenge 2 InfoWeek which will take place from 14 to 17 November.

As for other events, participation is free of charge but participants are asked to make their own travel and accommodation arrangements. 

Registration will open in the last week of September. A single registration system will be provided for the whole week, allowing participants to select sessions they wish to attend.

EFFECT communication experts will help you design a communication strategy to boost awareness, engagement and uptake of your research results, and to support your project sustainability. In line with the H2020 dissemination and communication requirements, the webinar will guide you in choosing the right tools and channels to approach your targets and measure the effectiveness of your strategy.

The webinar will be focused on Communication and Dissemination in Horizon 2020; tips on how to write a Dissemination and Communication Plan and how to define context, objectives and impacts; tips on how to define the target groups and key messages to be delivered; and last but not least, how to choose the right tools and channels and how to measure the effectiveness of your strategy

 The webinar is free of charge. If you are interested in the event and would like to know more details and how to register, please visit the EFFECT website or contact the project at info@fetfx.eu.

EGVIA & ERTRAC are organising the 1st European-wide conference to showcase the results of selected H2020 funded projects on road transport related areas (Green Vehicles, Mobility for Growth: Road, Urban Mobility, Logistics, Intelligent Transport Systems …). Various technological challenges will be covered in order to highlight the contribution of ongoing EU-funded research projects to meet EU policy goals.  
 
The selected projects will present their preliminary results giving the participants an overall picture of the achievements of EU-funded research.
 
Agenda and registration form will follow soon, stay tuned !

Please note that this will be the last cut-off date for the two calls under the current 2016-2017 work programme.

A FET-Open video is available on the EU Science & Innovation YouTube platform.