Digital Innovation Hub for the agri-food and forest sectors (CIDAF)
About this good practice
CIDAF CAT is a structure born upon the joint demand and effort of 13 public and private entities that in 2021 signed a manifesto committing themselves to organise and promote services to boost the adoption of digital technologies in the agri-food and forest sectors. Such entities were the Catalan Government, the Lleida Provincial Council, the Lleida Local Council, the University of Lleida, the Lleida AgroBioTech Park, the Official Chambers of Commerce of Lleida and Tàrrega, Eurecat Technology Center, the Institute of Agri-Food Research & Tecnhology (IRTA), the Forest Science & Technology Center of Catalonia (CTFC), the Catalan Cluster of Agricultural Production Means (FEMAC), the Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives of Catalonia (FCAC), and the IT Companies Association of Catalonia (Sinèrgia-TIC). The office was launched in December 2023.
The mission of this one-stop-shop is promoting the services offered by both public and private entities to ease the production companies finding the appropriate provider. The office can only set up new services in the case they are needed and there is no provider in Catalonia. In addition, the CIDAF CAT office also encourages and mediates in the participation of Catalan entities in R&D projects to develop and mature digital technologies in these sectors, with a strong focus on data exploitation and high TRL.
Resources needed
An agreement signed by the Catalan Government, the Lleida Provincial Council and the Lleida Local Government commissioned the set up of CIDAF CAT and BioHubCat to the Lleida AgroBioTech Park, with a committed funding of 1,1M€ (that is, 550,000€ for CIDAF CAT) for a 3-year period.
Evidence of success
This year (2024) the activity is focused on detecting and clustering the needs and organising and approving the services (following the procedures for quality assessment). A list of 118 services has already been approved. In the first 3 months, the office has participated in the preparation of 5 EU projects (including direct or affiliated entities participation, either as beneficiaries or associate members).
Potential for learning or transfer
Digital Innovation Hubs are widely spread structures throughout Europe (including those acknowledged as European DIH (EDIH), the most remarkable aspect of CIDAF CAT in terms of interest is its governance. The model defines 4 roles: 1. founding members (the ones providing funding for the office operations); 2. promoter members (the other entities that signed the manifesto and provide the core of the services catalogue with their own means); 3. affiliated entities (which make their capacities and services available to the Hub to help achieving its goals, e.g. companies providing services); and 4. sponsoring members. Such organisation allows CIDAF CAT to act not only as a facilitator for companies, but also as a quadruple-helix, multi-actor approach working group to define priorities to be included in regional strategies and straight mechanisms from different administrative levels to support the adoption of digital technologies in the agri-food and forest sectors.
Further information
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Good practice owner
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