To achieve its objectives, METROFOOD-PP consortium acted on three main levels: building METROFOOD-RI; structuring METROFOOD-RI; strategic planning.
To organise the future legal entity, activities were focused on legal and administrative aspects, such as: definition of the legal requirements to set up the ERIC; preparation of the necessary contracts; definition of the management and organizational structure; elaboration of the financial plan and cost book; definition of the business plan. Policy documents for the ERIC were elaborated, with reference to intellectual property rights, procurement, dissemination, human resource, data management, access, and scientific evaluation.
For the operational framework, the overall working model of METROFOOD-RI as distributed infrastructure was defined focusing on the specification of the roles of the Central Hub and National Nodes and how the different components relate and interact. The infrastructure architecture for both the physical and the electronic component was technically defined, identifying the synopsis and key requirements of the physical facilities (analytical laboratories, plants for Reference Material production, experimental fields/farms/plants for food primary production and processing, and kitchen labs) and elaborating the plans for their integration within the physical component and with the electronic one. Specifically for the e-RI, the Data Management Plan was defined, along with the specification of its architecture and components, data models, and APIs for the different data domains. Use cases for physical, remote, and virtual access were defined and transnational access was provided to users by launching dedicated calls. To organize the service provision, the procedures and responsibilities were defined, and the service chart was elaborated. Finally, activities were performed to define the quality and security management system.
For the strategic framework, activities were performed to ensure that the infrastructure will deliver an integrated understanding of the main scientific issues related to metrology in food and nutrition and address the key societal challenges associated with the agrifood system. As final output, the “Research & Innovation Agenda” was delivered and the workflow for its monitoring and periodic update defined. Potential links with other major European and global infrastructures and organisations were examined to better position METROFOOD-RI in the current landscape, along with strategies for collaboration with industries and networking at a global level. Furthermore, to evaluate the socio-economic impact of the infrastructure, Key Performance Indicators were defined along with methodologies for impact assessment and monitoring and strategies for impact communication. As for risk evaluation, the analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) and of social, technological, economic, environmental, political, values (STEEP) were completed, and TOWS action plans defined, thus elaborating the “risks and contingency plans”. Finally, actions to enhance the user engagement were taken and the “user engagement and communication strategy” elaborated.
Specific activities were carried out to ensure a proper communication of the project outcomes and the infrastructure, and the Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation of Results was prepared and updated. Due to the COVID-19 crisis and related sanitary restrictions, the plan was revised reconsidering the organization of some initiative or boosting the improvement of on-line solutions.
