Thematic Smart Specialisation Platforms for Agri-Food / Industrial Modernisation

Transcription

1 Contribution ID: 205d6c45-d516-4fb7-9b84-a241660b6da7 Date: 10/11/ :38:16 Thematic Smart Specialisation Platforms for Agri-Food / Industrial Modernisation Expression of interest for the development thematic sub-areas Fields marked with * are mandatory. EU regions and member states are invited to propose a thematic area that is of their interest and it is linked to agri-food or industrial modernisation and their smart specialisation strategies (RIS3), and in which they wish to collaborate on with other regions or members states in perspective of starting a partnership for co-investment in the development of new value chains. Submissions are welcome from one region or a group of regions which are keen to act as coordinating/leading region(s). To submit your proposal, please fill in the survey below. Title of proposed subtheme/focus area Rural diversification and Smart Agri-Food destinations 1

2 * Please indicate the most relevant Thematic Platform for your proposed area: Agri-food Industrial modernisation * Your name Region of Central Macedonia: Apostolos North Brabant: Terry Province of * Your surname Region of Central Macedonia: Tzitzikostas North Brabant: De Zoete Province of * Region / country Region of Central Macedonia / Greece North Brabant / Netherlands Province of * Your affiliation and function within the institution Governor of the Region of Central Macedonia Agrofood Brabant Program manager * Your a.tzitzikostas@pkm.gov. gr tdzoete@brabant.nl Your telephone * Description of the proposed subtheme/focus area 2

3 According to a recent EAFRD Communication on the topic of Smart and Competitive Rural Areas, rural diversification and sustainable communities are among the main objectives that the Common Agriculture Policy has to achieve. Particularly, smart approaches to rural development need to think about the broad range of (potential) rural economic activities beyond the key strands of agricultural and forestry production. Diversification can mean rural producers expanding their activities into new areas or other forms of rural entrepreneurship, exploiting for instance the linkages with cultural heritage, tourism and the wellbeing of local communities. Smart approaches to rural development need to ensure that rural communities are vibrant and attractive places to live and work. FAO has recently discussed the role of city region food systems. In fact, it is a matter of fact that national and transnational consortia of cities and regions have been created to enhance branding efforts and attract international visitors. Many of them consider food as a vehicle not only to promote their towns but also to follow sustainable development paths in a holistic way, proposing new and innovative governance models and supporting healthy and active lifestyles. City region food system is a reasonable approach to face challenges that are bound to specific places, in terms of causes, impacts, and governance. In fact, according to Jennings et al. (2015), at least three macro-categories of linkages exist between urban and rural areas: ecological, comprising ecosystem services and appropriate land-use planning; socio-economic, including shorter, more direct supply chains; and governance, bringing together urban and rural governance structures in a democratic and participatory way. Thus, this proposal wants to create an international partnership following the recent suggestions of the EU policy brief on Food and Gastronomy as elements of regional innovation strategies where it is recommended that it is crucial to explore niches in the agro-food sector that have the potential to generate new innovative products and services. These niches can emerge from the cross-fertilisation of traditional agro-food sectors and services, e. g. agriculture, food production and gastronomy with other sectors including tourism, hospitality, handcraft and education. Specifically, the role of specific ICT tools to increase the accessibility, openness and reputation of food destinations will be investigated. Some examples includes (but are not limited to): - SENSEABLE SPACES FOR AGRI-FOOD DESTINATIONS Latest improvement on mobile devices capabilities definitively changed the way people experience their surroundings. In this area a research focus on experimental senseable spaces applied to agriculture and agri-food will be carried on. In this interactive spaces users can walk and discover with the help of image processing, environmental sensors, and social media analysis. The senseable agri-food sub-project provided an introduction to theories and models of how people move, talk and interact in rural and urban space, and how this information can lead to a better design for food promotion, biodiversity knowledge, agricultural innovation, etc. In a countryside scenario customers have the opportunity to transform the space using a variety of objects and marking tools, taking photos or living comments, interacting with natural or artificial objects, using augmented reality applications. Cameras and mobile sensors captures the activity as it 3

4 happened, while servers collect social media traces in real-time. Producers and policy makers can analyze the information collected in the space and demonstrate how image processing and sensor networks can detect foodies paths, behaviors, and group dynamics automatically. They can also visualized the noise, pollutant, and social media data, shown in readable graphs and invite participants to suggest strategies on that results. - DIGITAL FOOTPRINTS AND SENSORY PROFILES FOR AGRI-FOOD INNOVATION AND RURAL DIVERSIFICATION Agri-food productions can gather on digital footprints and novel sensorial profiles that are based on user generated contents and active/passive collection of digital footprints data. A passive digital footprint is created when data is collected without the owner knowing, whereas active digital footprints are created when personal data is released deliberately by a user for the purpose of sharing information about oneself by means of websites or social media. In this field the research project try to collect activities and sensorial profiles based on passive (multimedia contents) and active (sensorial data collection on statistics bases) collection to provide low cost and high profile data for communication, marketing and internationalization of Agri-Food products, contributing in this way to the diversification of city region food systems * Are you involved in the design and/or implementation of research and innovation strategies for smart specialisation (RIS3) in your region/member State? Please explain. * Mr. Apostolos Tzitzikostas is the Governor of the Region of Central Macedonia, the Head of the Region's Managing Authority and is the main responsible for the design and the implementation of RIS3 in the Region of Central Macedonia. * Terry de Zoete is responsible for the agri-food part of the S3 strategy of North Brabant. On daily basis she and her team are implementing the S3 strategy for agri-food by working on several (European) projects. North Brabant is the managing authority for the Southern Netherlands. 4

5 * Please explain the transformative nature of your proposal. What are you aiming to achieve? During the last years, the agricultural system faced a period of huge transformation. For instance, the dynamics of collaborative economy are reshaping agriculture and food to compete in the global market. Moreover, starting from the fact that innovation is a central factor for the development of rural areas, both in terms of diversification and the possibility to increase the competitiveness, more research is needed to understand the relationship between the actors in the alternative agribusiness sector. At the bottom of the sharing economy model there is the multi-stakeholder engagement, which involved a redefinition of the roles and relationships among actors and that can be described in broad terms as a continuous collaborative process among different individuals (government, consumers, producers, suppliers, creditors, community, investors, trade unions etc. etc.) with a common goal. But the real factor that makes the new business model unique is its aspect of digital community, created through the use of digital technologies, and the possibility to offer an experience thanks to online platforms, even in agro-food sector. The agriculture ecosystem, in fact, is already starting to invest in these digital technologies, expanding the production across borders. There are already websites trying to connect home gardeners with food pantries through digital platforms, thus giving the chance to share extra portions of food or even apps that allow restaurants with unused seats to offer a last minute discount for clients. Thus, the creation of a collaborative and digital atmosphere among different actors in local food networks is crucial. Although the role of social networks and digital technologies remains poorly investigated in the agribusiness sector, this project proposal explores how digital technologies can support the aggregation management and collaborative economy. They represent a way to help local communities both to create digital coordination between all the stakeholders and around the chain and to help them to challenge the market and improve their social, cultural and economic activities, overtaking structural and physical limits and providing opportunities for rural diversification. 5

6 * Please detail main challenges in relation to your proposed sub-area that may be addressed through interregional collaboration. As it has been recently outlined by a policy brief on Global Value Chain, regions have widely different eco-systems of innovation. Particularly, there is a broad variety of rural regions in Europe. Some of these use advanced science-based knowledge in food production, often well-connected to sophisticated and established value chains and knowledge providers, others, are fragmented and are locked into narrow trajectories of development. In some regions, there are clear connections between agrifood chains and diversification opportunities; in others it is still difficult to follow diversification paths. The main challenge of this proposal is to allow a cross-fertilisation between regions that are developing and studing the crossover effects between agriculture and the fields of tourism, cultural heritage and the wellbeing of rural communities. This would allow the creation of new business models allowing rural producers to expand their activities into new areas, involving local communities to manage vibrant and attractive places to live and work. Interregional collaboration can help to: share mutual information and good practice; experiment with policy learning and transfer of good practice from other regions; align policies in specific areas and joint actions and form strategic alliances for a continuous pipeline of joint actions and projects * Please indicate any commitment and political support (regional/national level) for this proposed sub-area. Please also indicate approximate amounts and sources of funding to be provided during a period of at least 2 years. Province of North Brabant: There is a wide support on political level from the province of North Brabant, the Triple Helix network Agrifood Capital and the whole Southern Netherlands region for this proposal. We re expecting appr. an investment of 4 mln. euro s in the period : 2 mln. from SME s, and 2 mln. from regional authorities. Region of Central Macedonia: The Regional Authority is committed to invest in coherent implementation of its RIS3 strategy all amounts appropriate. Despite the current situation of tight capital supply, one of the main strategies of the region is to create a platform participating stakeholders managing either private & public money. Participants of this platform will be entities responsible for public subsidies, Venture Capitals, Business Angel Networks, Banks and any other type of funding entities, in an effort to leverage existing capital and increase private R&D spending. Regarding the funds that are under the regional authority s management (ROP) 6

7 the first three priority axes under ERDF budget are dedicated of supporting regional innovation and entrepreneurial strategy and action plans. These priority axes are: I. PA1 - Improving R&D and Innovation capacity in the region. The whole ax has a public budget of approximately 18,4m and will be financing R&D infrastructure focusing on the strategic priorities (mainly in AgroFood &Tourism), Co-Investments between private and public entities again on the same areas and setting up ecosystem support mechanisms to enhance Research and Business cooperation. II. PA2 Improving the access to ICT infrastructure and applications. This ax s goal is to develop new ICT based products and access to ICT tools of the companies and public entities in the RIS3 thematic areas but mainly in AgroFood & Tourism. The budget of this ax is almost 9m. III. PA3 Improving competitiveness of the private sector in the main RIS3 thematic areas that are AgroFood & Tourism. The axes is focusing in helping setting up startup companies in these markets, developing new innovative products and services in the same markets and increase extrovert capacity and mentality. The total public ERDF budget for this axis is almost 83,3m. Lastly the ROP has a total budget of more than 15m for technical support, and a percentage of that will definitely fund actions under this platform. In the previous budget per axis it will be also added the national and private contribution bringing the total budget to approximately close to 120m. The great majority of the budget of these axes is going to be spending in the AgroFood and Tourism since these sectors represent more than 40% of region s GDP. Apart from that we can also find a number of already established clusters, Excellence R&D centers focusing in the whole value chain, Big companies with AgroFood exports and a number of interregional networks and platforms. Today the regional authority along with all of its organizations and triple Helix partners are working very hard to define and specify the detailed action plans again based on the following principles: Build state of the art and long term interregional and global networks and platforms that will help increase the region s extrovert capacity Existence of Strategic mass in both R&D&I and entrepreneurship areas and Mobilize private capital The new RIS3 of the Region of Central Macedonia includes the creation of two big clusters (minimum of one million Euros per each), one in the field of Agro-Food and the other in the field of Tourism (with interregional and transnational perspective). Possible instruments and financings are to be allocated on measures and announces of structural funds (in particular, EARDF and ERDF). The new INTERREG EUROPE program, the cross-border programs, the Adriatic Ionian program (based on the EUSAIR macro regional strategy), the new ENI CBC MED program etc., are giving the opportunity for inter-regional cooperation especially in sectors like Agro-Food, Blue growth, Tourism and cultural heritage. 7

8 At the end we can mention that the Regional Development Fund of Central Macedonia can provide funding for this project (from its budget). * Which other regions/countries are interested in this proposed sub-area? Describe their interest and current level of commitment as well as complementarities and value added. Also, please add contact details. In the context of this proposal, interested Regions received a survey and answered to the following questions: 1. Is the proposal in line with your RIS3 priority areas? 2. What do you think about the proposal? Mention other points and suggestions. 3. Please express your level of ambition and commitment (political and financial) for the envisaged collaboration. 4. Please express your envisaged involvement of stakeholders (industry, academia, public authorities, civil society), including clusters and business networks. The Regions that have answered the survey are: 1. Tuscany Region, Italy (Fabio Boscaleri). fabio.boscaleri@regione.toscana.it 2. Marche Region, Italy (Francesca Perretta). francesca.perretta@regione.marche.it 3. Basilicata Region, Italy (Restaino Rocco Vittorio). vittorio.restaino@regione.basilicata.it 4. Region of North Aegean, Greece (Theologos Athanaselis, North Aegean Managing Authority) athanaselis@mou.gr 5. Castilla y Leon Region, Spain (Yolanda Arias Piedras, Jose Francisco Diego Calvo). s: AriPieYo@jcyl.es DieCalJo@jcyl.es 6. North-East Region, Romania (Macoveiu Gabriela). gmacoveiu@adrnordest.ro 7. Podravje Region, Slovenia (Vladimir Rudl). vladimir.rudl@mra.si 8. Republic of Srpska, Bosnia Erzegovina (Bojan Cudic, Republic Agency for Development of SMEs). bojan.cudic@rars-msp.org 8

9 9. Extremadura Region, Spain (Inaki Luaces) Lapland Region, Finland (Havukainen Ilari) Savonia Region, Finland (Tiina Kuosmanen) Cim Alto Minho, Portugal (Alexandrina Monteiro, Comunidade Intermunicipal do Alto Minho) Hadju - Bihar County Government, Hungary (Dr. Csaba DOBI) jegyzo@hbmo.hu Also there are several other Regions that received the survey (at this moment we do not have their answers). Answers to question 1: YES (description of the related RIS3 priorities) Answers to Question 2: Positive opinion about the proposal, other points and suggestions (some of them have been incorporated in the proposal, some of them are subject for further analysis and discussion in future meetings). Answers to Question 3: The political and operational level of ambition and commitment is very high (the Extremadura Region is an exception). The financial level of commitment varies but the main result is that we can focus on each partners ERDF budget (mainly from the technical assistance), private contribution, existing funds and possibly EARDF allocation. Answers to Question 4: The envisaged involvement of the quadruple helix stakeholders, including clusters and business networks, from all the Regions is very high. We would like to highlight the following: European Regions of Gastronomy (ERG, Leader: North Brabant) Agrofood Capital for Province of North Brabant Brainport Tuscan Food Quality Center The Institute Terre di Toscana The Enterprise Europe Network Five bronze labeled Artic Smartness Clusters The Agri-Food partnership of the Region of Central Macedonia * Please describe the extent to which this sub-theme is supported by businesses (clusters) and/or academia and/or civil society in your region. Province of North Brabant: 1. In our project not only businesses (esp. SME's) and schools are involved but also the "public" and civil society. They are asked to join with project ideas to help achieve this change in perspective and through this process renew their pride in the Agrifood sector which is such an important economic driver for our region. 2. Brainport: one of Europe s leading technology areas, regarded worldwide as 9

10 a center for innovation and high-tech. Centered in the city of Eindhoven in the Southeast Netherlands, Brainport creates solutions for the challenges facing society both today and tomorrow. 3. Agrifood Capital: The Northeast Brabant AgriFood cluster contains such high quality and is so complete, it is unique in its kind. At this moment the cluster is already responsible for 1.9 billion in economic added value and 30% of the region's employment. 4. European Region of Gastronomy (ERG): The European Region of Gastronomy Platform and Award aim to contribute to better quality of life in European regions, by highlighting distinctive food cultures, educating for better health and sustainability and stimulating gastronomic innovation. 5. HAS university of Applied Sciences for Agri-Food (education - research - innovation) 6. Eindhoven University of Technology (education - research - innovation) 7. Farmers Union: ZLTO (southern land and agricultural organization). Region of Central Macedonia: 1. At Regional level this sub-theme is supported by the stakeholders and policy makers of the quadruple helix. We can mention particularly those that have participated and contributed to the Entrepreneurial Discovery Process, mainly in the Agri-Food, Tourism and ICT priority areas. 2. Agricultural Products Basket of the Region of Central Macedonia: Aim and objective of this initiative is the agricultural products to be marketed and exported standardized, certified, with high added value and, where possible, with designation of origin. 3. Agro-Food Partnership (non-profit triple helix cluster): It's purpose is to highlight, display and promote quality products produced in the Region of Central Macedonia. Partnership: Field of activity: * The primary sector of Agro-Food * The secondary sector (production and primary processing) of Agro-Food * Catering and services * Synergies with tourism 4. Quality brand "Products of the Macedonian Land" (Region of Central Macedonia): 5. Business network of Chalkidiki ( Primarily is an agri Network complementary businesses with these main branches of Food and Beverage Production, Accommodation and Food. 6. Enterprise Greece (invest & trade, Enterprise Greece is the official agency of the Greek State. Three of the main investment sectors of Enterprise Greece are: Food & Agriculture, Tourism and ICT.The Region of Central Macedonia is in close collaboration with Enterprise Greece. 7. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki: The biggest University of the Balkans (education - research - innovation) 8. University of Macedonia 9. Center for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH, five research institutes) 10

11 * Please provide some details related to the implementation of your proposal from its conception phase to the development phase of concrete investment projects, including milestones and expected outcomes at each phase. Step 1: As it has been suggested by the S3 platform, in the first step of this proposal, the aim is to organise specific workshops under a Triple-Helix approach. Promoted by Regional Managing Authorities in charge of the development of S3 priorities, at least 3 specific workshop would be organised, involving Universities and Industrial partners (Farmers' associations, Tour operators, Cultural Heritage Managers, etc..) to identify common interests, to underline good practices and discuss implementation actions. Then, Peer exchange and Learning (PXL) methodology will be applied to reviewing specific elements of innovation strategies for smart specialisation and territorial development strategies. More generally, the whole methodology of S3 will be applied to support partnerships in identifying missing competences and to organise partnering and matchmaking events for industrial partners aimed to discuss, facilitate and accelerate the development of joint transnational proposals. Step 2: Simultaneously, at regional level, at least one Entrepreneurial Discovery Process event will be organised to disseminate and share the relevant good practices discovered in STEP 1, and to discover and produce information about potential new activities and to identifying potential opportunities connected to the Regional Operative Programmes. This process would bring to a reflection about revision and update of every Regional RIS3 of the involved regions. Step: 3 The cross-fertilisation between regions and information exchange would be implemented by benefiting of the S3 Agrifood platform tools. A continuous monitoring of EU direct funds will be also carried out to assess new transnational funding opportunities and to encourage the collaboration between regions. Step 4: After 2 years, the consortium will organise a conference/matching event to disseminate the main results of the setting up process and to involve more international partners to take part to this consortium. 11

12 Please include any additional comments. Please, include Mr. Ioannis Spandos (Regional Development Fund) as contact person for Central Macedonia Region: Please, include Mr. Peter de Boer as contact person for Province of North Brabant: This joint proposal is the continuation and the synthesis of the two different proposals that submitted from the Region of Central Macedonia and the Province of North Brabant in the first call of expressions of interest (till the 20th of July 2016). * *Do you agree that your proposal, your name, institution and address are published at the S3 Platform website? Yes No Thank you! S3 Platform Contact Fatime-Barbara.HEGYI@ec.europa.eu 12