A majority of the selected projects concerned the agri-food sector (90%), compared to Forestry (7 %) and Environment (4%), but many digital solutions developed for agri-food can easily be applied to forestry and for environment. Within the Agri-food chain, the first step of primary production, for crop production, was covered in majority (63%) through projects of smart farming. Irrigation, nitrogen status of plants or pesticides application monitoring are examples of topics addressed through new low-cost sensors or sensor networks. There is a confirmed trend of frugal innovation focusing on expected functionalities rather than a technical performance. New satellite images from the sentinel family also gave the opportunity of more affordable services for agriculture. Besides, new ideas of projects have emerged around the concepts of data economy (data valorization, traceability, security, incentivizing and shared added-value) and sharing economy (share of time, equipment, knowledge). DIVA will certainly help fostering the emergence of digital solutions that were not imagined so far in relationship with the very fast development of the digital sector. New trends in innovation include agricultural robotics to replace chemical weeding or avoid heavy labour, the use of IOT in animal husbandry and animal welfare characterization, digital twins and automated phenotyping for plant breeding. In terms of technology, it is the technologies related to data acquisition (sensors, IOT) and processing (IA, Data sciences) that are in demand.
The main recommendations to the SMEs are 1) to consider frugal, low-tech and organizational innovation together with high-tech solutions 2) to think “smart” and not only “Big data and AI”, as real big data situations where artificial intelligence can meet its full potential are not yet so often met in agriculture 3) to have in mind that farmers are not the only target of the digital transformation as many different players are part of the industrial value-chains (e.g. equipment manufacturers, input producers,...) with specific digital needs to be addressed 4) to combine “IT for Green” and “Green IT” to take into account the environmental foot-print of the digital solutions.
For the EU policies, there is a need 5) to unlock the barriers to data exchange and secure data flows to exploit its valorization potential as data is probably at the heart of the digital economy of tomorrow 6) to promote experimentation sites and facilities, and further, living labs to offer full demonstration test-beds for digital solutions in interaction of the end-users 7) to push forward cascade funding schemes with vouchers that turns out to be particularly relevant to boost innovation with SME as it allows to test ideas, which would not be done otherwise or require more time, 8) to give the possibility of intermediate size funding schemes since higher funding levels cc 300 k€ - 500 k€ are necessary for projects requiring more investment (e.g. robotics) and targeting higher TRL levels (7-8), 9) to give the possibility by way of derogation for experimentation outside the regulatory framework to unleash innovation and prepare future solutions. 10) Innovation clusters play a key role to reach SMEs and act as a catalyst for innovation within their ecosystems, together with intermediary organisations such as Research and Technology Transfer Organisation (RTO) and Experimentation Centres.
The European label of the project also provides visibility, and credibility when it comes to attract investors. Among the 180 beneficiaries, 34 SMEs benefited from an equity investment. Total equity investment represented 3,9 M€ and budget investment by the SMEs represented 4,8 M€. As a whole, 8,4 M€ of private investment have been made on the DIVA supported projects, which represents a leverage effect of 3,1 for the investment of the EC (2,7 M€ of vouchers). Finally, DIVA contributed to creating dynamics that find an echo at regional levels and European level. At regional level, the Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) initiative will typically build on some of the DIVA regional actions. The community built will be further valorised through the Green Deal and Horizon Europe programs to meet the European digital transformation and environmental sustainability objectives.
