Periodic Reporting for period 1 - XGain (Enhancing Competitiveness, Resilience and Sustainability of Remote Farming, Forestry and Rural Areas through Holistic Assessment of Smart XG, Last-mile and Edge Solutions’ Gains)
Reporting period: 2022-09-01 to 2024-02-29
New trends such as teleworking and e-commerce, as well as the need for a further increase of digital tools in all sectors (i.e. health, education, transportation, farming, etc.) demanded by the Covid-19 pandemic, are pointing out once again digital territorial inequalities, supply-chain disruptions and deficiencies in economic opportunities that hamper resilience and prosperity of rural communities. XGain fosters a sustainable, balanced and inclusive development of rural, coastal and urban areas by facilitating access to relevant stakeholders, such as municipalities, policymakers, farmers, foresters and their associations, to a comprehensive inventory of smart XG, last-mile connectivity and edge computing solutions, and of related assessment methods. The XGain overall project objective is, to deliver a Knowledge Facilitation Tool, facilitating business model development, supporting decision-making in the selection of an ecosystem of technologies, consisting of connectivity options and edge processing solutions, by following a multi-actor and practitioner-oriented approach, and by coherently assessing their socio-economic and techno-environmental effects, aiming at: increasing systemic resilience and energy efficiency; contributing to climate mitigation; and reducing the digital divides between different types of citizens, farms, sectors and regions.
The main XGain objectives are the following:
- Obj. 1: Empowering public participation and multi-actor approach in transition towards enhanced sustainability design, social acceptance and fair solutions, through the interactive identification of endusers’ needs and co-creation of XGain system and Use Cases requirements.
- Obj. 2: To design and deliver a user-centric, interoperable and easy-to-use knowledge facilitation tool, for supporting actors of rural and coastal communities in their decision-making process on internet connectivity and edge technology options with appropriate operational business models.
- Obj. 3: To develop, establish and facilitate the selection of the most appropriate innovative business models that will include systemic level and cross-sectoral approaches.
- Obj. 4: To validate the outcome of the Knowledge Facilitation Tool in 6 unique fields with different technical, environmental, societal and economic structures and needs.
- Obj. 5: To accelerate the adoption of XGain solutions by the wider community, and ensure impact maximisation to the realisation of sustainable, balanced and inclusive development of rural areas’ vision.
The XGain pathway to impact discriminates between medium-term impact and long-term impact.
Medium-term Impact includes: a) Reduce (the risk of) digital divides; b) Contribute to increase the competitiveness and social and environmental sustainability of rural areas; c) Facilitate decision-making, for municipalities, farmers, foresters and their associations; d) Increase energy efficiency through analysing and developing connectivity options and contributing to climate mitigation.
Long-term Impact is realised by XGain Contribution to the expected wider impacts: a) Societal; b) Environmental; c) Economic; d) Scientific
The main XGain objectives are the following:
- Obj. 1: Empowering public participation and multi-actor approach in transition towards enhanced sustainability design, social acceptance and fair solutions, through the interactive identification of endusers’ needs and co-creation of XGain system and Use Cases requirements.
- Obj. 2: To design and deliver a user-centric, interoperable and easy-to-use knowledge facilitation tool, for supporting actors of rural and coastal communities in their decision-making process on internet connectivity and edge technology options with appropriate operational business models.
- Obj. 3: To develop, establish and facilitate the selection of the most appropriate innovative business models that will include systemic level and cross-sectoral approaches.
- Obj. 4: To validate the outcome of the Knowledge Facilitation Tool in 6 unique fields with different technical, environmental, societal and economic structures and needs.
- Obj. 5: To accelerate the adoption of XGain solutions by the wider community, and ensure impact maximisation to the realisation of sustainable, balanced and inclusive development of rural areas’ vision.
The XGain pathway to impact discriminates between medium-term impact and long-term impact.
Medium-term Impact includes: a) Reduce (the risk of) digital divides; b) Contribute to increase the competitiveness and social and environmental sustainability of rural areas; c) Facilitate decision-making, for municipalities, farmers, foresters and their associations; d) Increase energy efficiency through analysing and developing connectivity options and contributing to climate mitigation.
Long-term Impact is realised by XGain Contribution to the expected wider impacts: a) Societal; b) Environmental; c) Economic; d) Scientific
- The final reference architecture of the KFT was completed.
- The final list of services and sectors considered by the KFT was identified.
- An exhaustive stocktaking of radio and computing technologies to be used by the KFT for technology mix suggestions was done.
- At M18, the achieved dissemination and communication KPIs were proven to be in line with the planned achievement percentage.
- An interactive mock-up was created for streamlining discussions about features and designs, for development, and for being able to present the KFT to stakeholders.
- The first version of the KFT was implemented.
- Co-creation workshops were held to engage stakeholders with the project, present the KFT, and to extract the requirements. Follow-up surveys were done to further understand the necessities of the stakeholders.
- Stakeholders provided feedback during the workshops on the design and features of the KFT.
- Each XGain use case defined the main use case scope, planned execution and requirements to be satisfied. Lab environments were used to test the targeted technologies to be used for the trials.
- First exploitable elements were identified; this activity is followed up with the IPR management.
- The framework for implementing the six UCs was established, alongside a detailed testing and operational management plan for the validation procedures in the field trials.
- UC owners collectively provided an overview of each UC, detailing topology, socio-demographic profiles, and service requirements. This collaborative approach enables the mapping of UC needs to KFT functionalities and supports the conduct of impact assessment analyses.
- An External Independent Ethical Advisor was appointed as requested by the EU. The external independent Ethics Advisor prepared a report which was submitted as deliverable D7.2 at the end of the current reporting period.
- The final list of services and sectors considered by the KFT was identified.
- An exhaustive stocktaking of radio and computing technologies to be used by the KFT for technology mix suggestions was done.
- At M18, the achieved dissemination and communication KPIs were proven to be in line with the planned achievement percentage.
- An interactive mock-up was created for streamlining discussions about features and designs, for development, and for being able to present the KFT to stakeholders.
- The first version of the KFT was implemented.
- Co-creation workshops were held to engage stakeholders with the project, present the KFT, and to extract the requirements. Follow-up surveys were done to further understand the necessities of the stakeholders.
- Stakeholders provided feedback during the workshops on the design and features of the KFT.
- Each XGain use case defined the main use case scope, planned execution and requirements to be satisfied. Lab environments were used to test the targeted technologies to be used for the trials.
- First exploitable elements were identified; this activity is followed up with the IPR management.
- The framework for implementing the six UCs was established, alongside a detailed testing and operational management plan for the validation procedures in the field trials.
- UC owners collectively provided an overview of each UC, detailing topology, socio-demographic profiles, and service requirements. This collaborative approach enables the mapping of UC needs to KFT functionalities and supports the conduct of impact assessment analyses.
- An External Independent Ethical Advisor was appointed as requested by the EU. The external independent Ethics Advisor prepared a report which was submitted as deliverable D7.2 at the end of the current reporting period.
- We designed and delivered the first version of the KFT that promotes the development, selection, and implementation of innovative business models, taking into consideration last-mile connectivity solutions, as well as far edge and edge processing alternatives. The tool performs its analysis on specific sectors and services, considering location and infrastructure needs in three different levels: Farm level in the first version, in addition then Community and Regional levels for the final version. In this context, the XGain KFT provides recommendations on the technology mixtures to be used, further suggesting good practices for their support.
- We jointly targeted communication, processing and environmental requirements and constraints. This led to novel problem formulations and corresponding solutions, realised in the form of algorithms that were designed, developed and integrated into the XGain Knowledge Facilitation Tool.
- We examined the existing and emerging business models and provide guidelines for the selection of the appropriate model, taking into consideration the techno-economic feasibility and social and environmental impact.
- We integrated into the KFT tool, quantifiable and semi-quantitative information to assess environmental, social and economic aspects.
- We jointly targeted communication, processing and environmental requirements and constraints. This led to novel problem formulations and corresponding solutions, realised in the form of algorithms that were designed, developed and integrated into the XGain Knowledge Facilitation Tool.
- We examined the existing and emerging business models and provide guidelines for the selection of the appropriate model, taking into consideration the techno-economic feasibility and social and environmental impact.
- We integrated into the KFT tool, quantifiable and semi-quantitative information to assess environmental, social and economic aspects.