The Agricultural University of Athens – Establishment and Operation of the Competence, Specialization and Innovation Center, in Smart Agriculture and New Technologies - Smart Agro Hub

The Agricultural University of Athens, after the pertinent decision (9/7/2021) of the General Secretariat for Research and Innovation (GSRI), in the framework of the Call for Proposal: “Competence Centres”, has announced the establishment and functioning of the Competence, Specialization and Innovation Center, in Smart Agriculture and New Technologies, in the agrifood sector - Smart Agro Hub.

The Competence Centre Smart Agro – Hub, will be founded as a Spin-Off Company of the Agricultural University of Athens, in partnership with fourteen (14) enterprises, engaged in the section of agrifood, information and automation technologies, digital and energy systems, with the purpose to contribute to the development, evaluation, integration and application in the production chain, of novel digital technologies, as far as the agrifood domain of Greece is concerned.

Although the Greek Agricultural Section, has a great dynamics and importance for the Country, it has been coping with the reduction in demand and the restriction of the available sources for its support and development, in addition to having been affected not only, by the consequences, as a result of the markets instability, but also by the impact from climate change, which involves intensifying the frequency and harshness of adverse weather conditions, leading to the limitation of the crop yields. Based on the above statements that Sector has to regularly, handle crucial matters, connected with the food security, as well as their sufficiency.

The Competence Centre Smart Agro – Hub will create a research- knowledge and entrepreneurship ecosystem, which will conduce to the setting of a healthier and environmentally friendly system of rural production, which is based upon  digital technologies and takes the new policy of the European Union into account, in the context of the Green Deal, as it is being reflected in the strategy, from Farm to Fork, regarding the agrifood area.

Furthermore, the Smart Agro - Hub has been designed, with the following objectives:

• Acting as a testing, evaluation and improvement setting of competent technologies  by companies of the aforementioned Sector  (Living Lab),
•  Provision of services, products and relevant digital technologies development, in the agrifood section,
• Development and maintenance of a highly specialised workforce, through suitable training and experience,
• Offering Counselling, Coordination, guidance and training services in other companies and organizations, bridging the gap between research and application,
• Holding the role of the partners’ contact point and representation, concerning meetings, amongst private and public bodies, on a national and international level,
• Having a leading part in the field of Innovation in Smart Agriculture and New Technologies in the agrifood sector.

At first, The Competence Centre Smart Agrο - Hub, will focus on six (6) basic disciplines, which will function in the form of Live Labs:

• Technologies and  και Smart Agriculture Systems,
• Systems and energy saving technologies, as well as renewable energy sources,
• Food production under controlled conditions (greenhouses - livestock farm buildings),
• Biosensors and use of traceability,
• Systems, technologies and reduction techniques over the environmental footprint, in all stages of the  agrifood chain,
• Entrepreneurship and marketing

In charge of the Project Coordination is Thomas Bartzanas, Associate Professor, of the Agricultural University of Athens. The participant enterprises at the Competence Centre Smart Agrο - Hub, are the following: ScientAct S.A., Centaur Technologies ΙΚΕ, GeoSense, Agenso, Industry Disruptors - Game Changers (ID-GC), ΜES Energy S.A., TCB AVGIDIS AUTOMATION S.A., INASO-PASEGES, Specisoft S.A., MAGMA Agricultural Inputs S.A., ΚΑΛΛΙΟΝ ΓΗ, ALAGRO, KARVELAS S.A., The organization: "New Agriculture, New Generation", a Civil Non-Profit Company.

For more information, anyone interested in that pioneering project, may very well be addressed to Thomas Bartzanas, Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Smart Agro-Hub | Tel. No.: (+30) 210 5294045 | e-mail: t.bartzanas@aua.gr

The Action “Competence Centres” is funded by the Operational Program, entitled: “Competitiveness - Entrepreneurship – Innovation 2014-2020”.