Projects

Title: Future Oriented Collaborative Policy Development for Rural Areas and People
Short name: PoliRural

Grant agreement no: 818496
Duration: 06/2019 – 05/2022
H2020 topic: Building modern rural policies on long-term visions and societal engagement (RUR-01-2018-2019)
H2020 type of action: Research and Innovation Action
Total budget: 5,999,875 EUR
Coordinator: Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague
Website: https://polirural.eu/

PoliRural – Changes in rural areas, such as depopulation, land abandonment and the loss of biodiversity, may proceed very slowly yet are often irreversible. Policymakers can steer these developments in order to reduce their negative impacts but this requires knowing whether current policy instruments are effective, who is benefiting from them and in what measure, what driving forces will be most influential and how they will affect people, planet, profits and land-use. To be truly useful, this knowledge must transcend siloed thinking and be the corollary of a joint effort uniting different actors under a common cause.

PoliRural will provide this knowledge by combining several key activities needed to design effective place-based, human-centric and forward-looking rural policies. These include actionable research that takes place within an inclusive learning environment where rural populations, researchers and policymakers come together to address common problems; an evaluation exercise that uses text mining to assess the perceived effectiveness of past or planned policy interventions; and a foresight study that tries to glean the development trajectory of agriculture and its allied sectors until 2040 using several scenarios in which the evolution of rural populations occupies a central place.

As a result of these activities, PoliRural will leave decision makers at different levels of government better equipped to tackle existing and emerging rural challenges, rural populations more empowered and rural areas more resilient.

UHubs4Data

Duration: 08/2021-12/2023

Sub-grant agreement to the EUHubs4Data project on providing services and datasets for the EUHubs4Data open calls.

The European federation of Data Driven Innovation Hubs aims to consolidate as the European reference for data driven innovation and experimentation, fostering collaboration between data driven initiatives in Europe, federating solutions in a global common catalogue of data services, and sharing data in a cross-border and cross-sector basis.

With the objective of serving as reference to the establishment of the Common European Data Spaces, the federation is initially composed of 12 DIHs, covering 10 countries and 12 different regions, and plans to increase the geographical coverage by incorporating other relevant initiatives in the upcoming months.

Plan4all DIH is supporting two experiments which are as part of the third open call of EUH4Data:

• SBKN - SaveBiking is working with insurance companies to attract, through a mobility app that rewards users for sustainable mobility. It may seem obvious for common sense that "if you drive less you cause less accidents", but insurance managers using conservative actuarial methods do not consider this a strong theory; in fact, for example, a low frequent driver may lose driving capabilities. We expect that an extensive experiment to verify those assumptions is going to not only help our startup business, but also generate useful knowledge for insurance companies. They will therefore push their clients to drive less, in favor of micromobility, convinced by our extensive actuarial experiment.
• OSM2TRAMOD - RoadTwin offers an online, cloud based application for transport modelling, TraMod Web App. The application needs to be fed by a detailed traffic model from the area of interest in order to provide reliable results. In the past, RoadTwin was able to create a usable traffic model from OpenStreetMap (OSM), but always with direct hands-on involvement of traffic engineers. In this experiment we would like to develop a set of tools (OSM2TraMod) for automated creation of a traffic model for any given city. This would allow us to create a cost-efficient TraMod Web App.

Title of experiment: MANDOLIN - sMart plAtform for regioNal fooD shOrt suppLy chaINs

DIH-WORLD and Experiment overview

Country and region: Czech Republic (a part of West Bohemia in the Posumavi Region)

The MANDOLIN experiment will run in part of West Bohemia in the Posumavi Region. Uhlava as Local Leader Group is a member of Plan4all and has also cooperation cross-border with Bavaria. The region is famous for a large number of small local food producers and there already exist solutions supporting local promotion and selling of these products. Target community will be small food producers. They have limited access to digital technologies supporting quality of production including food traceability, logistics and distribution. Also their support for consumers is limited. The goal of the experiment is to integrate existing data and tools in DIH, with technologies of Lesprojekt SME into a platform to overcome the lack of solutions for small producers.

Deliverable Description

DIH: P4ALL

Name of the DIH: Plan4all (P4ALL)

Plan4all (Plan4all z.s., K Rybníčku 557, 33012 Horní Bříza, Czech Republic)

Experiment Participant
Website: www.plan4all.eu
Email: info@plan4all.eu
Contact information: Tomas Mildorf (mildorf@plan4all.eu and info@plan4all.)
Tel. +420 735 713 957
DIH Website: https://www.plan4all.eu/

DIH description

Plan4all is a DIH for cooperation and experimentation with specific focus is on geospatial or location based open data and their utilization in different domains including spatial/urban planning, rural development, transport, environment, tourism and precision/autonomous farming.

Plan4all is an umbrella organization of 60 partners from 22 countries including public bodies, universities, research organizations and business partners. Plan4all is a proud member of the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) initiative, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), Big Data Value Association (BDVA) and Research Data Alliance (RDA). Plan4all Association became one of the 133 Participating Organizations of the Group on Earth Observation (GEO).

DIH main services

• The key services of the Plan4all DIH include:
• Experimentation space on cloud including storage space
• Service of cloud operator and possibility to install additional tools
• Tools for development of new geospatial applications
• Open geodata provision
• Knowledge transfer

Additional information

Plan4all is a DIH for cooperation and experimentation with specific focus is on geospatial or location based open data and their utilization in different domains including spatial/urban planning, rural development, transport, environment, tourism and precision/autonomous farming.

Plan4all DIH is the main organizer of the INSPIRE Hackathons organized globally several times a year. The INSPIRE Hackathon is a collaborative event for developers, researchers, designers and others interested in open data, volunteered geographic information and citizen observatories. The main driving force for the INSPIRE Hackathon is provided by experts from existing EU projects, and its primary objective is to share knowledge and experience between the participants and demonstrate to wider audiences the power of data and information supported by modern technologies and common standards, originating from INSPIRE, Copernicus, GEOSS and other initiatives.

SME: LESP

Partnership: Lesprojekt - služby (LESP)
Experiment Leader: Lesprojekt - služby s.r.o.
Karel Charvat (charvat@lesprojekt.cz)
SME name: Lesprojekt
Website: https://www.lesprojekt.cz/

Activities

Lesprojekt is an innovative company offering information and knowledge services for the agri food sector and forestry.

History

The company Lesprojekt has had a significant market position for more than 20 years and focuses primarily on business activities in the fields of services for the food industry, agrarian sector and forestry.

Company size: 10+

Digitization experience

It has experience from research and transferring the results of previous research activities are offered mainly in the form of services. Lesprojekt is member of Artemis network  https://artemis-ia.eu/  Association strives for a leading position of Europe in Embedded Intelligence supporting activity in agrifood sector and Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition: GODAN https://www.godan.info/aboutgodan.

Products/services

Services using spatial data offered as SaaS (software as a service), DaaS (Data as a Service ) and IoT solution) in various domains including agriculture, forestry, environment and rural development.

Type of clients: Public administration, farmers, food producers, foresters

Number of clients: 50+

Other relevant information

Role: Lesprojekt will integrate a platform supporting small food producers and sharing data across all chains. It will be responsible for deployment of IoT solutions on selected producers and also for integration of technology. After the project Lesprojekt will offer these services in the form of SaaS and DaaS to a network of producers and will be responsible for extension of these services in other regions.

Objectives

The MANDOLIN experiment has one strategic objective and 6 operational objectives:

To support Regional Short Food Supply Chain by secure system to guarantee access to necessary knowledge related to food production from region and sharing knowledge across all chains including food producers, primary producers (farmers), retailers and consumers  in a secure form.

The result will be a prototype of a solution integrating in secure form IoT;  Data analytics; Artificial Intelligence; Cloud technologies, Interaction; Cybersecurity to support local production of food, circular economy and local consumption. Delivery in M6 of the project

O1: To build a local community of Stakeholders - food producers, farmers, resellers, local supporting organizations,  which will be included into the experiment.

O2: Implement Blockchain Technology on Lesprojekt cloud, which will be secure for integrating data of all members of the chain and which will allow the members of the chain to share information in trusted form.

O3: Implementing traceability tools for primary production supporting monitoring of quality of input for food production.

O4: Implementation of logistic solution, which will help optimize collection and transport of products and which will also monitor conditions during the transport

O5: The integration with the platform supporting selling of local production with data from production and logistics will be connected. This will give information to the consumer about the quality of production.

O6: Pilot validation of all chain.

Challenges

The main challenge of the experiment is to integrate existing high level technological solutions into one platform and integrate it with block chain technologies to support production of small producers and regional circular economy and food safety. The SME food producers have limited access to digital technologies, information about production and also logistic tools. The solution will support regional innovation as well as the regional economy. The concept is to offer to small producers a cloud  platform combining principles of Software as a Services (SaaS) and  Data as a Services (DaaS).

This solution will not require investment for small producers, they will pay only for selected services. Other topics will be communication with primary producers on the basis of secure communication. Every partner will have possibilities to decide, with whom will be shared data. The solution will also support sharing of data about products with customers. The solution will be based on existing components, which were partly developed commercially, partly as part of previous projects and some of them were developed as part of INSPIRE Hackathons organized by Plan4all DIH.

SEMINAR: Use of satellite and sensor data in practice (April 28, 2022)

The seminar was held with the financial support of the DIH-World project funded under the European program H2020, grant agreement No. 952176

Title: AgriHub made in CzechoSlovakia
Short name: AgriHub CZ&SK
Sub-Grant agreement no: 2282300354-EXPAND-6
Duration: 08/2021 – 07/2022
Total budget: 497,875.00 EUR
Coordinator: Plan4all, Czech Republic
Websites: www.agrihub.cz, www.agrihub.sk

The AgriHub CZ&SK project supports the digital innovation hubs for Czech Republic and Slovakia funded by the SmartAgriHubs (Grant Agreement No. 818182) H2020 project. It will promote digital innovation in the agri-food domain and will facilitate set-up and realisation of Innovation Experiments (IEs) in the region with additional mobilised funding. The main idea of the 12 month project is to integrate activities of existing Innovation Hubs in Czech and Slovakia and to support the interaction of all players in the agriculture production chain (farmers, advisors, machinery producers, researchers, developers) to move Czech and Slovak farming sector towards SmartFarming 4.0.

AgriHub CZ&SK will become a platform inter-connecting various stakeholders from industry, training, start-ups support, farm consultancy and services to support the introduction of SmartFarming 4.0. This platform aims to build a fertile environment for networking of organisations and individuals, mobilisation of talents, in the agri-food chain and facilitate cooperation. These efforts will result in a new, smart, environmentally, socially and economically more sustainable agriculture.

In total,  8 organisations (Czechia - Plan4all z.s., Czech Center for Science and Society, Agricultural Association of the Czech Republic, CzechInno; Slovakia - Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Technical University of Kosice, ADDSEN s.r.o. and AGCO in Germany) offer a wide range of experienced capacities and relevant competence, with appropriate geographical coverage. The main ambition of the project is to boost digital innovation in a relatively immature environment with specific conditions central European space is facing after the recent societal changes. Main strategy of the project is to support efficient and progressive approaches, helping region and domain in smooth and fast transition to period addressing new societal and climatic challenges. 

It will be done in line with the main principles and objectives defined by the relevant global and European strategic frameworks. Platform proposes 6 main types of digital innovation hub services and identifies 15 types of target stakeholders groups, foreseen to be approached. Aside from the main focus on the agri-food domain, synergies with other domains and regions will play an important role. This will help to strengthen the end-user driven perspective in design and deployment of the IEs. These will provide the validation of the possible solutions addressing the needs and expectations expressed by the targeted stakeholders. 

The project has identified 7 innovation experiments (IE). AgriHub CZ&SK will support communication of ongoing innovation experiments as well as new IEs discovered during organising INSPIRE hackathons with farmers. Its aim is to build bridges between the farming sector and research projects to make a better linkage with current research with farmers’ needs. An important part of the solution will result in defining IPRs and business models for future commercialization of results. AgriHub CZ&SK will provide infrastructure and maintenance for running these services, with potential extension of infrastructure on the base of recognized needs.

Title: Smart Spaces Safety and Security for All Cities
Short name: S4ALLCities
Grant agreement no: 883522
Duration: 09/2020 – 08/2022
H2020 topic: Security for smart and safe cities, including for public spaces (SU-INFRA02-2019)
H2020 type of action: Innovation Action
Total budget:  EUR
Coordinator: EXUS Software Monoprosopi, Greece
Website: https://www.s4allcities.eu/

Smart cities have frontline responsibility to ensure a secure and safe physical and digital ecosystem promoting cohesive and sustainable urban development for the well being of EU citizens. S4AllCities integrates advanced technological and organizational solutions in a market oriented unified Cyber – Physical Security Management framework, aiming at raising the resilience of cities’ infrastructures, services, ICT systems, IoT and fostering intelligence and information sharing among city’s
security stakeholders.

Three pilot cases, with the engagement of a total of 5 cities in 4 countries (Spain, Romania, Czech Republic, Greece), enable S4ALLCITIES System of Systems to deploy and validate its intelligent components and functionalities on actual environment, ensuring the delivery of solutions and services in line with smart cities emerging requirements, focused on: risk-based open smart spaces security management; cyber security shielding; suspicious activity and behaviour tracking; identification of unattended objects; real-time estimation of cyber-physical risks in multiple locations and measures activation for effective crisis management. S4ALLCities smart components, integrated within 3 Digital Twin Systems, will demonstrate their technological advances in tackling terrorist attacks with high risk for mass casualties, within the complex environment of open crowded spaces.

The multidisciplinary consortium (9 EU countries) will exploit project’s innovative technological systems in the global market providing a cost efficient and market ready integrated solution. S4ALLCities exploitation phase will promote good practices
and guidance material across EU cities so as to enhance capacity building of involved stakeholders, reduce the vulnerabilities of public spaces, mitigate the consequences of adversary attacks, raise public awareness and strike a balance between improving security and preserving the open nature of public spaces as well as citizens’ sense of freedom.

Title: Digital Urban European Twins for smarter decision making
Short name: DUET

Grant agreement no: 870697
Duration: 11/2019 – 10/2022
H2020 topic: GOVERNANCE FOR THE FUTURE (DT-GOVERNANCE-12-2019-2020)
H2020 type of action: Innovation Action
Total budget: 3,999,282 EUR
Coordinator: Flanders Information Agency
Website: https://www.digitalurbantwins.com/

DUET is an Innovation project designed to leverage the advanced capabilities of cloud and high-performance computing (HPC) to evolve the traditional public policy making cycle using large open data sources. The aim is to help public sector decision-making become more democratic and effective, both in the short and long term, through the development and use of Digital Twins for policy impact exploration and experimentation in entire cities and regions. These digital replicas of a cities
system will

• enhance day-to-day city management by helping city managers react quickly to real-time events through rapid experimentation of different decision impacts, and
• ensure longer term policy decisions are more effective and trusted by enabling city managers from different units, to explore and discuss with citizens and businesses city issues in a visual, easy-to-digest way via a common view.

Thanks to the 3D interface public administrations will, for the first time, more easily harness the collective intelligence of ALL policy stakeholders to tackle complex, systemic policy problems that require innovative thinking from multi-sectors to develop
transformative solutions.

Developed and tested in cities and Regions at different points in their digital transformation journeys – Flanders Region, Belgium, the City of Athens, Greece and City of Pilsen, Czech Republic – DUET will create the concept of Policy-Ready-
Data-as-a-Service and ensure all cities across Europe will be able to create their own their own Digital Twins that address ethical considerations around data use whilst also complying with Europe’s stringent privacy and security regulations.

Find out more at https://www.digitalurbantwins.com/media.

Title: Policy Development based on Advanced Geospatial Data Analytics and Visualisation
Call identifier: H2020-SC6-CO-CREATION-2017
Topic: CO-CREATION-06-2017
Grant agreement no. 769608

PoliVisu (http://polivisu.eu) – PoliVisu is a Research and Innovation project designed to evolve the traditional public policy making cycle using big data. The aim is to enhance an open set of digital tools to leverage data to help public sector decision-making become more democratic by (a) experimenting with different policy options through impact visualisation and (b) using the resulting visualisations to engage and harness the collective intelligence of policy stakeholders for collaborative solution development.

Working with three cities to address societal problems linked to smart mobility and urban planning, the intention is to enable public administrations to respond to urban challenges by enriching the policy making process with opportunities for policy experimentation at three different steps of the policy cycle (policy design, policy implementation, and policy evaluation). Experimentation of policy options will enable the cities to tackle complex, systemic policy problems that require innovative thinking to develop transformative solutions.