The Digital Innovation Hub for the Galician Agrifood Sector launched by Gradiant and Campus Terra sets up its working structure and initial agenda

The Digital Innovation Hub for the Galician Agrifood Sector launched by Gradiant and University of Santiago de Compostela’s Campus Terra held a working session on 15 December to set up a basic governance and a basic working structure to start delivering in the short term

Initial Working Groups agreed will cover topics such as Intelligence and Trends, Bridging Supply and Demand, Research and Innovation, Plant production, Cattle & Dairy production, and Agrifood Industry. Gradiant and Campus Terra highlighted that this structure should be dynamic in order to evolve and adapt according to the needs and priorities identified along the implementation of the Hub.

The basis for the agreed structure has been the result of an initial poll circulated among over 50 entities and professionals that declared early interest in taking part of the activities of the Hub. Respondents included producers, cooperatives, professional associations, ICT companies, industrial clusters, technology centers and universities.

The working session held at the CiTIUS building in Santiago de Compostela, was chaired by Andrés Barreiro, Vice-rector of scientific and technology development at USC’s Lugo Campus as well as Gradiant’s Executive Director, Luis Pérez-Freire. Mr. Enrique Rohrer, representing the Galician Innovation Agency (GAIN) participated as invited speaker. The session was closed by USC’s Vice-rector, Javier Bueno Lema.

The Digital Innovation Hub gathers, on the demand side, stakeholders from the private agrifood sector with open and genuine interests in taking up innovative technologies and services that are adapted to their production activities. On the supply side, the Hub gathers a wide pool of technology and service providers, as well as knowledge centers where technology innovation is bred. The Hub has received the backing from the Galician regional administration, including the Regional Ministry for Rural Affairs as well as the Galician Innovation Agency, among others. The Hub will establish a fruitful and dynamic arena for open exchange and agile cooperation that will result in multiple benefits for the different stakeholders: more competitiveness for the agrifood sector, more business opportunities and export potential for technology and service providers, as well as opportunities of turning knowledge into economic and social value for Galician research and innovation centers.