Partners

​The University of Seville is the third largest university in Spain, boasting over 70,900 students and 6,900 staff members. It is recognized as a vibrant research hub with 453 national, 74 regional, and 58 European projects currently open. The Higher School of Agronomical Engineering at the University of Seville offers a Master of Science program in Digital Agriculture and Agri-Food Innovation. Launched in September 2018, this program caters to the growing demand for skilled professionals in the agri-food sector by focusing on acquiring technological skills applied to agriculture. The program benefits from the expertise of an international faculty comprising 30 lecturers from Spain, Portugal, Germany, and the Netherlands, reflecting its global perspective.

The “Smart Biosystem Laboratory”, actively engaged in the VTskills initiative, has extensive experience in technology transfer projects with industries focused on sustainability, agribusiness, and artificial intelligence applications in agriculture. Specializing in precision agriculture, the research group develops advanced solutions in agricultural machinery, UAV design, GNSS/RTK technology, precision irrigation management, and innovative weed management systems. The group is involved in several key European and national framework projects, including the 7th Framework Programme, ICT-AGRI, and ERASMUS+, where they contribute to pioneering advancements in farming technologies.

The University of Florence is one of the biggest HEI in Italy, with 1.800 professors and researchers, 1.600 technicians and more than 1.600 PhD students and fellow researchers.

The university offers a wide range of different curricula and topics organised in 10 faculties. DAGRI (Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry) Department originated in 2019 from the union of two former Departments (GESAAF and DISPAA), bringing together a century-long tradition of Agricultural and Forestry studies at the University of Florence. DAGRI is the second largest Department of the University of Florence and the only one in the Agricultural field. It has over 125 academic staff, 60 technicians and administration personnel, 40 PhD students, 60 post-docs and 50 research fellows.

The Biosystem Engineering Division of DAGRI and AgrismartLAB are devoted to the whole field of agriculture and forestry machinery, hydraulics and rural buildings. In the mechanics unit, important research has been carried out in safety in the use of machines and agroforestry devices, innovative machinery and support systems on vineyards and olive, renewable crops mechanisation, rural management, precision farming technology, labelling smart tools for LCA footprint indexes in the mechanised agricultural operations, procedures for fleet management, training of farmers and dissemination of innovations.

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  Prof. Marco Vieri

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  Prof. Daniele Sarri

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The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is one of the largest and oldest universities in Greece. Research activities cover all scientific (theoretical and applied) fields. The university includes 10 faculties, consisting of 40 Schools and 1 single-School Faculty. There are 88.283 students study at the university, 77.198 in undergraduate programmes and 6.588 in postgraduate programmes. There are also 3.952 at Doctoral level.

AUTH has coordinated or participated in several related projects (H2020, TEMPUS, ERASMUS+, PRIMA, etc.). Among the highest active faculties of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is the Department of Agricultural Economics of School of Agriculture that are participating in this proposal. The Department has participated/coordinated in several FP5, FP6, Horizon 2020, Prima, Erasmus+ and Tempus projects and has organized workshops, international conferences, educational and training activities. Some indicative projects are:

• DEEPHORIZON “DEploying Ecosystemic solutions to imProve soil Health and uncOveRing subsoil functIons in the critical ZONe” (2023-2027) (HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-01)
• BOOST “BOOSTing agribusiness acceleration and digital hub networking by an advanced training program on sustainable Precision Agriculture” (2022-2025) (ERASMUS-EDU-2021-PI-ALL-INNO);
• BIOVALUE “Fork-to-farm agent-based simulation tool augmenting BIOdiversity in the agri-food VALUE chain” (2021-2025) (H2020, SFS-01-2018-2019-2020);
• AGRICORE “Agent-based support tool for the development of agriculture policies” (2019-2024) (H2020-RUR-2018-2020);
• SPARKLE “Sustainable Precision Agriculture: Research and Knowledge for Learning how to be an agri-Entrepreneur” (ERASMUS+ Knowledge Alliance)

AUTH VTskills Team

• Anastasios Michailidis
  Position/Affiliation: Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, 52124, Greece
  Contact details: tassosm@agro.auth.gr
• Efstratios Loizou
  Position/Affiliation: Professor, Department of Regional Development and Cross Border Studies, University of Western Macedonia, Koila campus, Kozani, 50100, Greece
  Contact details: eloizou@uowm.gr
• Aikaterini Paltaki
  Position/Affiliation: PhD, Department of Agricultural Economics, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, 52124, Greece
  Contact details: apaltaki@agro.auth.gr
• Dimitra Lazaridou
  Position/Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Forestry and Natural Environment Management, School of Plant Sciences, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece
  Contact details: dlazaridou@aua.gr; dimitral@for.auth.gr
• Thomas Bournaris
  Position/Affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, 52124, Greece
  Contact details: tbournar@agro.auth.gr
• Stefanos Nastis
  Position/Affiliation: Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, 52124, Greece
  Contact details: snastis@agro.auth.gr
• Maria Partalidou
  Position/Affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, 52124, Greece
  Contact details: parmar@agro.auth.gr

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  Professor Anastasios Michailidis

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  Professor Efstratios Loizou

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  PhD Aikaterini Paltaki

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  Assistant Professor Dimitra Lazaridou

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  Associate Professor Thomas Bournaris

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  Professor Stefanos Nastis

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  Associate Professor Maria Partalidou

Ghent University was established in 1817 and has 11 faculties, which offer high quality and research-based educational programmes. Ghent University is a pluralistic university open to all. The credo of the institution is ‘Dare to Think’, challenging everyone to question conventional views and dare to take a nuanced point of view.

Currently there are about 15 000 staff members and over 50 000 students at Ghent University. Approximately 15% of the student population is international. Ghent University encourages each of them to seek personal growth and rewards its students and staff for what they set in motion.

Ghent University is a research-intensive university which invests in fundamental and applied and demand-driven research, and has built up a solid scientific reputation over the years.  In various international rankings (n° 83 in the Shanghai ranking and n° 115 in the Times Higher Education World Universities Ranking), Ghent University is considered among the ‘world class universities’ and has been at the forefront of the implementation of all European higher education funding programmes since the start of the Erasmus programme. The Erasmus mobility was recognised as a “success story” by the European Commission and UGent obtained the ECTS label from the very beginning.

Apart from educational projects, Ghent University is active in many research projects (Horizon Europe), and in a number of collaborative development projects, financed by both national (VLIR: Flemish Interuniversity Council, DGDC, BTC) and international organisations (UNESCO etc). 

For Ghent University internationalisation offers important opportunities to enhance the quality of its education, research and services to society. It aims to achieve greater international visibility and competitiveness, as well as to contribute to the development of external policies (Flemish, Belgian and European) in the field of international cooperation.

Brief description of Precision Soil and Crop Engineering (Precision Scoring)

The vision of the Precision Scoring group is to combine cutting-edge sensors and advanced data fusion and geostatistical modelling approaches with system control technology to optimise farm input for sustainable increase in yield. Our scientists are from a variety of disciplines, including bio-engineering, mechatronic engineering, soil science, electronics and agronomy.

Expertise of Precision Scoring

Our multidisciplinary team gives us the opportunity to tackle complex research topics with the most advanced technologies available.

Research topics of Precision Scoring include:

• Variable rate technologies and the quantification of yield limiting factors
• Numerical finite element and discrete element modelling of the interaction between soil and agricultural equipment (e.g., tillage, mechanical weeding, traction, among others)
• Agricultural engineering soil mechanics related topics
• Optical (e.g. near infrared, mid Infrared, X-ray fluorescence, hyperspectral, thermal and fluorescence spectroscopy) methods and associated modelling tools for agricultural, environmental and food applications
• Mapping of hydrocarbons and heavy metals contaminations based on proximal soil sensing

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  Prof. Abdul M. Mouazen, Ghent University

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  Manuel Vázquez Arellano

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  Robotic platform of Precision Scoring

Agroplanning is a start-up created in 2016, after years of research and development in Precision Farming and ICT. Through data management and digitisation, the company offers a comprehensive service to farm managers to optimise processes and save resources.

They have created a web platform for farm management that monitors all types of vehicles, tasks, operators, etc. bringing the user a way of efficient management in a simple way, regardless of the manufacturers of their vehicles.

On the northwest side of the city of Alexandroupolis, Thrace, Greece, is the location of the vineyards and winery of Hatzisavva Family. The Land of Thrace, with long history of winemaking is an ideal place for the cultivation of the grapevine. The vineyard located on a hill, facing from Ainos until the Island of Samothrace, breaths the aura of Thracian Sea.

Currently the varieties of Mavrudi, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Assyrtiko, Malagouzia and Vidiano are cultivated in our 7 hectares, always respectful to soil and environment. The Permaculture practices used, offer the harmonical coexistence of the vine with the local flora and fauna, a pattern that goes back thousands of years, while using modern technology for a holistic approach of the cultivation of our vineyards.

The small but cozy winery includes the necessary room for production, bottling, maturing and aging. Only the self produced grapes, collected and selected by hand, are used for the winemaking.

Respectful to the final product and its uniqueness, we use traditional technics with the minimum invasion in winemaking procedure. All our wines as wild fermented with indigenous yeast only. To avoid any loss of flavor and aromas, the wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Due to the catastrophic fire of the 21st August 2023 where all our vineyards burned, and in order to continue our wine production, we rent 5hectares of vineyards in the area of Didimoticho, on the hills just opposite from Ivaylovgrad.

IFV (French Wine and Vine Institute) is an engineering organization that develops technical references necessary for the progress of the wine industry in the fields of plant breeding, viticulture, wine making and product marketing.

IFV develops its work in some twenty units located throughout the French winegrowing regions, and is linked to a network of analysis laboratories and technological platforms close to the winemakers and companies in each region.

The IFV has diversified means of disseminating progress (websites, publications, dissemination in the professional press, training, technology transfers in companies).

The Hellenic Agricultural Organization – DIMITRA (ELGO-DIMITRA) https://www.elgo.gr/ is a Legal Entity under Private Law, supervised by the Hellenic Ministry of Rural Development & Food (HMRDF). The overarching goal of the Organization is to support rural development and modernization through research, knowledge dissemination, consulting, and certification, as well as rural vocational education and training, in all sectors of the agri-food chain. ELGO-DIMITRA provides scientific and technical support to the Ministry of Rural Development and Food in policy development and implementation. 

Regarding Education and Training, ELGO-DIMITRA is the leading certification body for VET (Vocational, Education, and Training) of the Ministry of Rural Development & Food, with the primary mission of organizing and supporting vocational professionals and training employees in the agricultural sector. At the same time, it contributes decisively to the planning of national policy in this field. It promotes the professional knowledge, skills, and abilities of the human resources of the agricultural sector, as well as the continuous transmission of scientific and technical information and data for the implementation of modern production processes of competitive agricultural products. Finally, it operates in the framework of professional schools on agricultural production and training centres to promote knowledge and innovation in agricultural production. Under the aegis of the Organization, there are 11 Agricultural Research Institutes, 6 Vocational educational schools, 25 Training Centers, 6 Centers for the quality assurance of milk and meat production and 7 Laboratories for milk quality control.

The Agriculture Economics Research Institute (AGRERI) (www.agreri.gr) is one of the 11 research institutes of the Directorate General of Agricultural Research of ELGO-DIMITRA. AGRERI focuses on economic, managerial, and social issues in the agri-food sector. It has been involved since 1999 in more than 40 EU and national projects related to organizing, collecting, and evaluating agricultural systems for a broad range of agricultural sectors on a wide variety of topics (agricultural policy measures, innovation, sustainability, young farmers, advisory services and rural entrepreneurship).

Erre Quadro s.r.l. is an Italian consulting and R&D company, specialized in the development of algorithms and software for the automatic analysis of technical texts, in particular patents, with the aim of supporting the enterprises in their needs for intellectual property protection, knowledge management and retrieval, business intelligence and strategic intelligence.

Over its 10 years of activity, Erre Quadro has integrated the most advanced NLP software with proprietary algorithms for data cleaning and for signals identification and correlation, as well as with a proprietary knowledge base of thousands of engineering concepts. Such infrastructure allows achieving the best results in a variety of tasks such as information extraction, comparison or classification, at least for what concerns the specific target of technical documents.

The quality of Erre Quadro’s software has been recognized also by the European Patent Office, with a joint research project already over and a new one about to start.

Erre Quadro uses its software and expertize to map and analyse the Intellectual Property landscape, to support clients both at R&D level (design around, identification of white spaces to guide the design process, …) and at strategic level (early detection, assessment of the potential of new technologies, evaluation and due diligence, technology foresight, definition of lateral threats or opportunities for new partners or new markets, support to decision making, …)

Erre Quadro’s clients are large enterprises (including some of the most famous Italian companies), SMEs, patent attorneys, banks and public institutions alike; so far we have worked in a wide range of technological sectors, from biomedical devices to automotive industry, from renewable energy to manufacturing processes, and so on.

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  Riccardo Campolmi, Project Manager

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  Giovanni Pianigiani, Product Owner

The Tuscany Region is an Italian Regional Government located in the center of Italy. It has direct legislative competences in the field of agriculture and it is Regional Managing Authority of Rural Development Operative Programme.

By acting as Managing Authority, Tuscany Region has a direct competence in allocating resources, fostering innovation and selecting innovative projects and initiatives related with rural and agricultural sectors. Furthermore, Agricultural innovation is an important asset in the Regional Innovation Smart Specialization Strategy, which dedicates a specific roadmap to Rural Development.

Besides this Institutional role, the Tuscany Region is also at the lead of an informal European Network called ERIAFF (European Regions for Innovation in Agriculture, Food and Forestry) which collects the adhesion from about 92 European Administrations of regional level from Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Spain and United Kingdom. It promotes collaborations among Regions to foster innovation in several agricultural and rural domains. ERIAFF has a Working Groups focusing on agricultural food and forestry innovation and policies actives since 2012.

The Tuscany Region is also members of others EU Networks of Regions which are focused on agricultural issues: AREPO (The Association European Regions of Origin Products), AREFLH (The Assembly of European Regions of Fruit, Vegetables and Horticulture) and ERRIN (The European Regions Research and Innovation Network).

The participation of the Tuscany Region in the VtSkills project is assured by the Dept. “Agriculture and Rural Development Unit Management of RDP measures for consultancy, training, innovation, for young farmers and for the diversification of agricultural activities”, which directly manages the Rural Development measures related with innovation and it is also involved for the ERIAF.

Other achievement:

• the successful submission (July 2016) and kick-off (December 2016) of a thematic proposal under the S3 Agrofood Platform to establish a partnership of Regional Authorities to mobilize joint investments for high tech farming (http://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu/agrifood), receiving support from European Commission DG REGIO;
• RT is the coordinator of Italian Region for research and Innovation Network, Its a national network to promote collaboration among regional responsible on PAC and its programming. Italian Inter-regional network has working Groups focusing on agriculture, food, forestry, hunting and fishing and activities on AKIS;
• Tuscany Region, has already experience in the demofarm development (NEFERTITI project) and has a high persuasive capability on the farming sector, at least in Italy.

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  The Terenzuola estate was founded in the Municipality of Fosdinovo, in the heart of the Colli di Luni, in an impressive location 350 meters above sea level and five minutes from the coast. www.terenzuola.it

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  Fausta Fabbri, Responsabile di settore Gestione delle misure del Psr per la consulenza, la formazione, l'innovazione, per i giovani agricoltori e per la diversificazione delle attività agricole.

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  Alessandra Gemmiti, Policy officer in Tuscany Region Government - Dept of Agriculture and Rural Development - Unit:” Management of RDP, measure for Advisor, Training and Innovation, young farmers and diversification of agricultural activities”

Biodistretto del Chianti is an association of farmers, technicians, citizens, tour operators and local administrations which make a deal for sustainable resources management, where organic farming and food consumption represent a starting point for a new model of innovative local development.

The mission of Biodistretto del Chianti is to extend organic management and principles to the whole Chianti region (Chianti Classico Docg wine production area) with a multiactor and stakeholder approach. The association is committed to support farmers and consultants by spreading knowledge about good practices as well as technical and scientific innovation in the field of organic farming. It acts as a network and lobby for the local growers, practitioners and advisors to promote the organic model and the related skills at local, regional and national level. Biodistretto del Chianti is recognized by AIAB (the Italian Organic Farming Association) and takes part in the Rete dei Biodistretti AIAB (biodistrict network) which facilitates relations with other organic production vocated areas.