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Autonomous Indoor Farming

Project description

High-tech farming transforms greenhouses

As the demand for fresh food surges and the need for climate-resilient agriculture intensifies, the high-tech indoor farming sector faces a critical challenge. Poised to expand from 60 000 to 80 000 hectares by 2025, the automation of labour and crop management is lagging behind. In this context, the EIC-funded AUTOFARM project is set to transform greenhouse operations with a revolutionary plant system that enables unprecedented automation and boosts yield by 30 %. At its core, AUTOFARM introduces a new approach to greenhouse operations, unlocking plant mobility through a novel growing system. This innovation paves the way for enhanced robotisation and AI, creating a food factory of the future. Imagine a scenario where 50 % of labour is automated, and crop management is driven by data mining and AI.

Objective

AUTOFARM brings a disruptive and novel automated way of operating greenhouses to the market, applying a revolutionary new growing system that unlocks plant mobility for optimal use of robotisation and artificial intelligence.

World-wide the high-tech indoor farm sector is expanding from 60k hectares to 80k in 2025. This growth is triggered by the societal need for climate resilient food production, the fast growing market demand for fresh food and the economic need for greater resource use efficiency. To enable this growth, many high-tech indoor farming processes have been standardised and optimised, but the automation of labour availability and crop management is lagging behind.

SAIA introduces through AUTOFARM a paradigm shift towards a food factory of the future where 50% of the labour is automated and crop management is supported by data mining and artificial intelligence. SAIA’s novel plant system enables year-round steady production which allows for 30% more yield.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

HORIZON-EIC-ACC-BF - HORIZON EIC Accelerator Blended Finance

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) HORIZON-EIC-2022-ACCELERATOR-01

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Coordinator

SAIA AGROBOTICS BV
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 2 500 000,00
Address
NIEUWE KAZERNELAAN 2 D-42
6711 JC EDE
Netherlands

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Oost-Nederland Gelderland Veluwe
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 7 648 750,00

Participants (1)

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