MITTIC:Technological Modernisation and Innovation based on ICT in strategic and traditional sectors

With economies heavily dependent on agriculture, forestry, and agri-food businesses, Spain’s Extremadura region, Portugal’s Centro and Alentejo regions were hit particularly hard by the economic crisis of 2008. In the years since, the regions have seen low levels of economic development and high levels of unemployment. To overcome these challenges, MITTIC took a long-term approach aimed at transforming these traditional economic sectors into larger, more competitive companies by investing in research, innovation, knowledge transfer and the use of ICT.
As a core focus of the project was to incorporate technological innovation into the regions’ traditional economic sectors, MITTIC developed and implemented a number of innovative proposals and tools.
For example, one solution involved the use of open source software applications based on QR code technology specifically designed for the fruit, cork and natural stone industries. By including a QR code on these products, users can gain valuable insight by tracing their products from origin to final purchase by a consumer.
To do this, technological research of businesses in this sector on both sides of the border has been carried out.. An electronic questionnaire tool and an information repository or document manager was introduced for processing the data of the analysed companies. Finally, an assessment of the situation has been carried out and a report was prepared with technological recommendations regarding ICT.