The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) has published the agreement signed with the University of Córdoba that will allow the contribution of 2.5 million euros of national financing to the European test and trial infrastructure project TEF (Testing and Experimenting Facilities ) for the incorporation of artificial intelligence and robotic technologies in the agri-food and forestry sector.
The AgriFoodTEF Spain Network Satellite Node will be able to manage, in the coming years, 5 million euros, 2.5 million coming from the European Commission and another 2.5 million contributed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Specifically, the node will offer technological services to companies, especially SMEs that design digital products or services aimed at the agri-food sector that are in an advanced state of development or close to the market. These companies will be able to benefit from the Spanish satellite node to test, validate or certify their products and services before their launch on the market, both in physical facilities and platforms for virtual testing.
There will be three geographical areas that will concentrate most of the physical infrastructure offered by the Spanish satellite node and that will serve different subsectors:
• Córdoba Through the facilities and resources of the University of Córdoba, it will offer a range of services aimed at arable crops, horticulture and fruit trees, extensive livestock farming and the food industry. The Spanish company Hispatec will provide support to this headquarters.
• A Coruña Through the CIAM facilities (Agrarian Research Center in Mabegondo, belonging to AGACAL) and the Gradiant equipment, its service offering will be more oriented towards forage production and dairy production. The Galician digital innovation center DIH Datalife will collaborate in this initiative.
• Lleida. Through the facilities and resources of the University of Lleida, Agrotecnio, the Porcine Studies Center and those of the Agrobiotech Park of Lleida, it will be mainly focused on the pork sector, fruit growing and agri-food data spaces.
The origin
This initiative began in 2022, when the European Commission launched a call to support a single pan-European network of controlled artificial intelligence test spaces for the agri-food sector or Agrifood TEF.
The resulting project has already been launched and plans to mobilize an investment of 60 million euros over the next 4 years, divided into main nodes and satellite nodes, deployed in nine Member States (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, France, Holland, Italy, Poland and Sweden), with a total of 30 participating entities.
