Objective
The VERA project will establish four multimedia application experiments in the agricultural services sector, especially intended to investigate how rural businesses can overcome problems of distance and remoteness, by making use of communications reflecting the future rural infrastructure.
The project will run commercial trials to determine the techno-economic benefits of the chosen technology; the level of commercial interest from users; the benefits and exploitation; and the wider impact on the associated rural communities.
The main objective of the research was to establish 4 multimedia application experiments in the agricultural services sector, specifically intended to investigate how rural businesses can overcome distance and remoteness problems by making use of communications reflecting the future rural infrastructure.
The research involves commercial trials to help determine:
the technical and economic benefits of the technology;
the level of user commercial interest, benefit and exploitation;
the wider impact on associated rural communities.
The research has established 4 complementary experiments in 4 member states of the European Community intended to become integral parts of respective businesses beyond the period of the research itself:
in Brittany, marketing and selling of high quality breeding cattle and progeny, associated with artificial insemination services;
in Scotland, marketing and electronic auction of breeding and store livestock including providing examples of commodities to establish confidence and price levels by prospective purchasers;
in Ireland, providing remote consultation and diagnosis services more efficiently (in terms of quality to service to the customer and operational efficiency to the provider), in the area of crop management and disease;
in Portugal, remote consultancy and administration of livestock health and productivity service in the dairy industry.
Four working applications have been established in different rural businesses, with the work having focused on identifying the true business information and communication needs of rural enterprises. Extensive trialling over 1.5 years allowed determination of the technoeconomic adequacies of the technology used in addressing the needs of the rural business, and identification of the obstacles which prevent the uptake of this type of technology and the attitudes of the end users to this type of technology.
The benefits and drawbacks of introducing advanced communications into rural business have been assessed.
Existing communications infrastructures were used, ranging from N-ISDN to 2 Mbit/s networks, reflecting IBC services in the context of end user commercial constraints today but, at the same time, representative of the realistic future communications capabilities likely to be available to rural communities.
By piloting specific uses of technology in existing agriculture based businesses, the project has shown the impact it has on efficiency, accessing wider markets and increasing the viability of existing economic activities.
Technical Approach
The project has two main evaluation phases.
- Techno-economic Analysis (Cost Benefit Analysis)
- User Acceptability.
Each experiment provides input to an analysis of the adequacies of the technology used, and the obstacles encountered in the use of this technology.
Key Issues
- Applicability, viability and benefit of multimedia services for predominantly rural businesses.
- Achieving a balance between realistic commercial trials (producing more effective evaluation results) and network bandwidth and costs (orienting the evaluation towards rural broadband needs).
- Service and usage requirements for other rural applications in the same generic classes exemplified by VERA.
- Importance of telematics support for the rural agricultural business sector.
Expected Impact
By piloting specific uses of technology in existing agriculture-based businesses, the project has shown the impact it has on efficiency, accessing wider markets, and increasing the viability of existing economic activities. The rural agricultural sector formed an excellent model for trials of the technology, both in the sense of its continuing central importance in the rural economy and in terms of generic value of the multimedia applications in remote expertise delivery, marketing and sales.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine gynaecology reproductive medicine
- agricultural sciences animal and dairy science dairy
- social sciences economics and business economics production economics productivity
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture agronomy
- agricultural sciences animal and dairy science domestic animals animal husbandry
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Data not available
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Data not available
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
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.
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.
Data not available
Coordinator
NE35 9PE Boldon
United Kingdom
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.