What's new 4/4
Let's welcome the latest organisation to have joined the SAH ecosystem!
In February 2021, three proposals for the Open Calls were accepted. Meet the teams and project behind these.
F2FHubConnect by Linked.Farm
F2FHUBCONNECT is an Innovation Experiment that aimed to expand and link the Farm2Fork network to serve large canteens. By doing so, the Innovation Experiment aims at improving the incomes of local producers and offering local food to large canteens in Belgium. The DIH LINKED.FARM will support the IE in product traceability, Customer Relationship Management and Enterprise Resources Planning.
Tell us a bit more about your organisation and Innovation Experiment or Hackathon?
The DIH Linked.Farm wants to make Farm2Fork (F2F) easy through a digital platform where farmers and F2F-hubs can:
- Increase their sales & marketing (online ordering, promotional features on social media, subscriptions, statistics, etc.).
- Save time & cost (Real-time inventory, fulfilment, routing system, pick & pack list assembly, invoicing, deposit management, etc.).
- Access a B2C and B2B sales and logistic network or sell directly online
- Own their platform cooperatively (profit sharing) and collaborate.
The Innovation Experiment is about paving the road for an even smoother Farm2Fork journey from the farms straight to large (public) canteens.
How did you find out about the SAH Open Calls and what motivated you to apply?
We found out through the Competence Center ILVO who first told us about the Open Calls during the COVID-19 crisis. The process was really simplified and this gave us the confidence that even smaller SME’s like us could apply easily. After a first positive experience and with real support from the network, we applied for the EXPAND call. The Competence Center ILVO and the Smartagrihubs Portal gave us very valuable input during the submission process.
What are you most excited about in the project SmartAgriHubs?
The Peer2Peer program is really exciting. We have met a company similar to ours in Spain. We will further investigate whether we can work together. The SAH network is impressive and this will definitely help us to get through to other European players that we would never have reached so fast otherwise.
The Learning Platform is also amazing. Imagine you just have tools there to make your business plan or to help you search for funding. This will be so helpful for future developments of our DIH and to support even more IE.
What is a Digital Innovation Hub from your point of view?
A DIH is a key link between the field, the farmers and (technological) innovation. Farmers want to innovate, they know they need to stay on top of things if they want to make a living out of their hard work, especially with the climate changes. A DIH can help to translate what happens in other parts of the food chain and make it useful for farmers. In our case, we want to offer farmers an alternative economic model in F2F. The digital platform helps to take the hassle of this transition away and the DIH provides valuable insights on how to accelerate this transition
Could you explain how this project will support the development/maturation of your DIH?
Farm2Fork (F2F) is by nature local and decentralised. As the demand from centralised buying platforms for canteens is increasing, the DIH Linked.Farm aims at supporting farmers and their F2F hubs at delivering to these canteens. This will be achieved through a state-of-the-art digital dedicated and integrated platform, including order management, logistics, full product traceability, WMS integration and integrating basic product transformation. This IE will help to grow the DIH network much more rapidly as this service is definitely needed throughout Europe in the new Farm to Fork strategy at the heart of the European Green Deal.
Facebook: @linkedfarm
LinkedIn: LINKED.FARM
Instagram: @linked.farm
PREPIPE By Equihub UG
PREPIPE is an Innovation Experiment with two aims: building up a European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIH) platform and establishing the Open Innovation Cycle. Established in Bremen (Germany), this EQUIHUB UG has the ambition to become a European DIH and to build a platform to connect hte Innovations Experiments and support them in their technology development.
Tell us a bit more about your organisation and Innovation Experiment or Hackathon?
Why: In Equihub, we believe that innovation needs to have a positive impact on society. There is a lot to do, and the hardest part is to get started. For this reason, we give equal opportunities to entrepreneurs independently from the location, so its value can return to most of the society in a fairway.
How: We offer a white-label digital platform for ecosystems and partners to allow state-of-the-art support for us, as well as easier management and easier use of resources. In this way, the success rate and the setting up of new companies will be strengthened.
What: We offer an Ecosystem Management Platform which helps to create a twin digital company; easily connect the innovation process with relevant stakeholders, and enable resource exchange between parties. To integrate ecosystem hosts from different regions in the world, we initially provide the state-of-the-art, white-label, coaching program: the Open Innovation Cycle – which is based on our first Concierge MVP.
How did you find out about the SAH Open Calls and what motivated you to apply?
We got to know SmartAgriHub and the Open Call from Harald Sundmaeker, the Lead of Work Package 2. We know him from the start-up ecosystem in Bremen and when we saw the Open Call on his LinkedIn, we asked him about it and its possibilities. We saw great potential in the possibility of learning and exchanging resources with other DIHs within the European network!
What are you most excited about in the project SmartAgriHubs?
We are very excited about making impactful innovation happen in overlooked but important niches. Based on our history, we are most happy when things get tried out in the field with functional prototypes!
What is a Digital Innovation Hub from your point of view?
A Digital Innovation Hub is an entity that gives and creates infrastructure for entrepreneurs, either founders or intrapreneurs. The DIH helps to reduce uncertainty in the entrepreneurial journey, as it concentrates on innovative culture. Along the journey a big variety of challenges may appear and are not easy to overcome alone: experts and a great supportive network are needed. The DIH is connecting you to those experts, is helping you to find the resources and to take the right steps at the right time.
Could you explain how this project will support the development/maturation of your DIH?
In our future vision, we execute the first MVPs and start to build the platform to host Innovation Experiments. Furthermore, we make small steps of designing a resource-based ecosystem that allows local hosts to connect the right people at the right time in a streamlined, locally self-sufficient, innovation process.
Within the project, we are going to test these assumptions in-field and develop them further so that we can co-create our DIH and/or the EDIH platform together with partners from the SAH network. We hope that we can learn with the different focus groups and their transactions which are very valuable for innovation, and especially, learn what is needed to encourage barter deals within the community.
LinkedIn: equihub
Striketwo 21 By The New Fork
StrikeTwo 21 is a hackathon and an accelerator programme from the DIH The New Fork. It will be already the 4th edition of the event StrikeTwo which takes place in Amsterdam (The Netherlands). StrikeTwo 21 will overall objective is to accelerate the resilience of the agrifood economy with technology, specifically, to enhance Europe’s AgTech competitiveness and leadership.
Tell us a bit more about your organisation and Innovation Experiment or Hackathon?
The road to StrikeTwo started in 2018 and we organised our first edition of the StrikeTwo in 2019. With the pandemic, we had to adapt! We successfully organised a digital edition in 2020 and now, we are eager more than ever to continue our story as the COVID-19 crisis demonstrated how challenges such as consumer trust, farm income and sustainable supply chain management matter for agri-food sector.
How did you find out about the SAH Open Calls and what motivated you to apply?
We’ve learned about the Open Call from our network at Wageningen University & Research, lead of the Work Package 6. Our CEO, Marieke de Ruyter de Wildt, has worked at WUR in a previous role and we regularly work with WUR on Public/Private Partnership proposals.
The call seemed like a good fit for our plans and the SmartAgriHubs has a strong network!
What are you most excited about in the project SmartAgriHubs?
For StrikeTwo 21, both the funding and the network are important. We look forward to launching the event and seeing the new ideas and innovations from the SmartAgriHubs community!
What is a Digital Innovation Hub from your point of view?
The name already implies it. A Digital Innovation Hub is a physical or digital location that brings together people to inform on and work on digital innovation.
Could you explain how this project will support the development/maturation of your DIH?
Since the first edition in 2019, StrikeTwo has connected people and grown a global network of agrifood leaders, working on industry-wide issues. StrikeTwo brings together tech expertise and agri-food expertise and facilitating active participation let participants learn from each other. This is the place to be for the agri-tech innovations front runners!
Twitter: @StrikeTwoSummit
LinkedIn: StrikeTwo