The kick-off meeting of the European project TRACK took place today in Brussels (Belgium) with the aim of promoting cooperation between European regions for the application of Big Data and the improvement of traceability of the agri-food sector, especially in crop production. 

Funded by the COSME programme of the European Union and with a term of two years, is coordinated by VEGEPOLYS (France) and integrates 4 other European partners: AgroTransilvania Cluster (Romania), Emilia-Romagna Regional Agrifood Clust-ER (Italy), Technological Corporation of Andalusia (CTA) and Greenport West- Holland (The Netherlands). 

The aim of TRACK is to create an interregional ecosystem that stimulates innovative solutions for the agri-food chain and joint investments for the development of agribusiness 4.0 (smart agrifood), focusing on the plant production value chain and fostering the ICT sector’s approach to the agri-food industry, especially through SMEs.  

The consortium will work on a common vision of the different cluster included in the project and a joint action plan will be proposed to stimulate innovation aimed at improving the efficiency and traceability of the crop food chain. Likewise, an interregional system will be created to bring the ICT sector closer (especially Big Data and traceability) to the agri-food sector, with tools to improve collaboration between SMEs from both sectors. It also aims to bring out pilot projects to facilitate the development of innovative solutions and to increase their competitivity. 

TRACK arose from the S3 Platform, the trans-regional partnership promoted by the regional Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development of Andalusia (CAPDER). The thematic partnership aims at encouraging, motivating and facilitating the incorporation of necessary digital technologies and data application in agri-food sector value chains. 

Finally, TRACK will offer support to selected ICT SMEs to accelerate the deployment of their solutions for the agri-food sector. 

Under the acronym TRACK, the full name of the project is “Tracking opportunities to develop and strengthen data collection and big data in agri-food chain to increase competitivity of SMEs”.