At the final event, I represented both Flagship Innovation Experiment One and Flagship Innovation Experiment Two. Flagship Innovation Experiment One involved developing and implementing a sustainability audit system in Ireland. As part of the project 20 pasture-based dairy farms in Ireland were recruited. Key sustainability metrics were identified and data was captured. The web-tool allows farmers to view their sustainability metric, including water usage, electricity usage, animal welfare, carbon footprint and nitrogen use efficiency metrics. The tool enables farmers to make more informed decisions and improve their farms sustainability. Flagship Innovation Experiment Two created a sustainability tool for remote assessment and management of farmland habitats. The technology aims to reduce the logistical effort and cost to produce farmland habitat reports. It is expected that this can contribute to development of biodiversity indicators within the EU Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN).

One of my favorite parts of the exhibition was getting to meet colleagues from my regional cluster who I had only met online due to Covid-19. It was great to build on these existing relationships through participating in the expedition and even getting a photo at the SmartAgriHubs photo booth!

It was great to have such good interest in the Flagship Innovation Experiments and to be able to further discuss the projects and answer any questions. I enjoyed interacting with partners from all around Europe and learning about all the different technologies that are out there to help improve the sustainability and resilience of the farming industry. I also thought the cinema room was a brilliant way to watch and learn about all the different projects.

The final event was a fantastic event for allowing networking and building connections with partners not only from within SmartAgriHubs but also with those that are part of other EU projects. Flagship Innovation Experiment One produced a prototype tool for a dairy sustainability assessment. The final event helped create conversion on how the knowledge and tools developed through the project could be carried forward to further help farmers improve sustainability on their farms. Flagship Innovation Experiment Two got lots of interaction from partners that were creating similar tools within their own country. This may lead to potential collaborations in the future.

In FIE5, we used technology to identify the potential value of grain already in the field and to realize the value in the markets based on traceability and data-based product information.

The aim was to increase the profitability of cereal production in northern farms.

We collaborated with technology providers and farmers to develop a data-driven grain value chain The used technologies created a network with data connections, and assisted farmers in the planning and recording of field operations and identification and tracking of different grain quality lots. The most interesting achievement was the creation of a federated software infrastructure by integrating IT systems from different vendors using an intermediating service, which enabled simple and agile data connections between the data sources and data users. We experienced how so-called data spaces can assist farmers to create value from data.

It was great to meet the people behind the FIEs face-to-face and hear details about their accomplished work - escorted by a nice cup of coffee and delicacies. The shared experiences enriched the FIE descriptions provided in the SAH portal with the true-stories – some good, some funny, some testifying hard times along the experiments. The video stories shown in SAH Cinema complemented the understanding of new features, functionalities and even new products developed and tested in these flagship experiments. The marketplace made the efforts and achievements concrete and visible – almost in one sight. It was thrilling to realize how much we had accomplished within the past four years.

The several workshops that were organized under dedicated topics during the synergy days provided nice opportunities to gather with people sharing the same interests and working under similar topics. Some were familiar from previous collaborations but many of them were fascinating new acquaintances. It was very fruitful to envision the future research and development needs related to our common topic and development interests. Networking face-to-face with this interest group gave good ground for innovating next steps together. The marketplace gave visibility to our project and provided a natural meeting point for extended common discussions after the workshops. Our project topic has now several follow-up plans and branches to continue work with.

The origin of AFL was a clear analysis, in the Pays de la Loire region, that too many innovations in the agricultural sector are disconnected from farmers' expectations and generally end in failure. AgriFarmLAB had the ambition to upscale the existing initiatives and accelerate the propagation of innovative solutions to farms by interfacing between, innovators (SMEs and start-ups), and the whole innovation ecosystem. It allowed:

- Solution providers to co-create and test their ideas at farm level

- Farmers to express their needs, to discuss with their counterparts in other European countries and take benefit from their experience

The balance sheet of Agri Farmlab is positive at the end of the European support as the adventure continues for four of the original partners. We realized that Agri Farmlab, through its formula and its services, meets the expectations of the field, of the solution providers and of course of the partners.

The exhibition gave us the opportunity to present the AgriFarmLAB project to the other participants and exchange about the projects that were carried out by other FIES.

We would like to retain two favourite experiences :

• The ability to integrate AgriFarmLAB project, experience and results in a broader picture of all the actions carried out by SmartAgriHubs partners, countries, FIEs, DIHs… This allowed us to have a better knowledge of the ecosystem working on the digitalization of the agrifood sector and to share the progress and limits of our respective projects
• Meet the other actors who took part in the project, discuss their actions within and outside the project, find out their vision for the continuation of the work to be carried out and develop partnerships.

To attend to the SAH final event was a real chance for the AgriFarmLAB project. It will help the project and its sustainability in the future in many ways:

• The SAH Final Event was the occasion to meet people involved in other networks that have objectives similar to our project and to discuss our respective feedback: what have they done differently? What results did they get?
• The exchanges on the marketplace and the conferences have reinforced our idea that it is necessary to link the providers of solutions and the farmers to succeed in developing innovations adapted to the needs.

ILVO was present on the marketplace of the SAH final event to represent different FIEs:

FIE9: Aims to reduce and to optimize spraying applications on crops by combining Artificial Intelligence with High resolution RGB imaging, thus creating a supportive decision model to channel the High resolution RGB data into task maps for the end-users.

FIE10: FarmCube builds a repository to store, retrieve and analyze combined data and focuses on integrating data from remote sensing (satellites and drones), machines, sensors and other sources.

FIE12: To contribute to the improvement of the monogastric health and welfare in animal livestock production, the search for specific alternatives to antibiotics, and the change in attitudes and human habits, by applying data collection in innovative precision livestock farming (PLF).

FIE13: To implement an ammonia emissions and climate monitoring tool in animal shelters to improve animal welfare and overall sustainability.

Our favorite experience was to get to see people in real life again. Over the 4 years of SAH, we had monthly online meetings within our cluster NWE. But by meeting everyone in person and talk to each other, also cross-border and even sector-specific, we could share experiences, challenges and new developments. That was truly such a positive and enlightening way the end the project.

We got to talk with a lot of different people and different organizations and could present what we have accomplished within all our cases in RC NWE. New contacts were made and we could address synergies and future collaborations.

FIE11 “Smart Pig Health” implements a holistic interdisciplinary approach to improve pig health while reducing antimicrobial resistance by introducing digitalization in precision livestock farming.

Sensors are adapted to situations in stables and data transformation is optimized (e.g. MQTT). Based on clinical assessments of pigs and stable climate data as well as edge device, machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI), prediction models are developed to predict diseases among pigs early on.

The sensor data reveals information, farmers and veterinarians were unaware of. The information enables increasing house building and creating a healthier pig environment. Upcoming respiratory problems are indicated by a stable climate.

To optimize the air condition in the stable for the pigs at any one time, we need to know the actual climate situation for adjusting the ventilation. To provide the information, a self-sufficient measuring unit (plug and play,) was developed. contains all the technology to measure NH3, C02, humidity and temperature and to provide the data of your choice.

With the final event in Lisbon, a framework was created to discuss the topic of digitization in depth and from different perspectives. In addition to the core topics DIHs, CCs, ecosystem, gender, ATN and experiences in the IEs, the challenges and needs
"Type and scope of digitization?”,
"Who is driving digitization?",
"What is the benefit of digitization for farmers",
“Who has which interests in digitization in the value chain”,
“Criteria to evaluate the benefit of digitalization”, and
“Who should release the innovation potential for the digital transformation”
were discussed by representatives of different disciplines.

Partners in the IEs only really became aware of the importance of SAH and the ecosystem for digitization when they experienced all the activities and the scope of SAH at the final event. They were “flashed”. Contacts were made in the talks in the aisles and corridors. People informed themselves about the projects. Follow-up activities have been agreed. It was a pleasure to note the exchange of findings. The participants wanted to continue working together or at least keep in touch.

FIE20 developed a modular solution for farmers, agronomists, and agriculture advisors that integrates data from different sources with services provided by various external suppliers. Data include earth observation data, in-situ sensors, thematic map layers, and weather forecasts; analyses include generic analytical functions along with the weather and climate risk analyses. The solution is based on standard components and makes it easy to configure and deploy an instance of the application according to the needs of an organisation. The solution is innovative in its level of integration of many types of data from different sources together with analytical functionalities and tools provided by 3^rd-party platforms and DIHs. The FIE20 solution can support sustainable farm operations, for example, the application of pesticides and fertilisers targeted to a different crop, soil, and weather conditions.

The solution has been deployed in five pilot projects in Latvia and the Czech Republic, for example in farm Vilcini-1 (LV), https://groundwater.smartagro.lv.

The Synergy Days. Experiencing the number and variety of exhibits were great. During the FIE20 project, video conferences replaced personal meetings due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In the exhibition, the project partners could interact in person to share results and find future opportunities. The personal contact and networking around the exhibition were definitely a highlight, especially after the long “drought” of such events. This format is much more effective for sharing results and new ideas than sharing via reports and websites. 

Union “Farmers Parliament” together with the partners – meteoblue and BOSC have a great opportunity at the SAH Final Event to promote the developed FIE20 solution to the wider audience via very good visual tools – practical demonstration and interpersonal presence consultations. The SAH Final Event was a good opportunity to disseminate results from other EU countries and the possibility to make new contacts.

From the meteoblue SME perspective, the SAH kick-off event facilitated intensive networking and successful follow-up projects such as using standard meteoblue services in a new commercial product. These services were subsequently expanded with a "virtual weather station" and jointly introduced to farmers. In the context of SmartAgriHubs, the FIE20 solution provided a platform for testing and deploying innovative technologies.

meteoblue has disseminated information on the SAH final event and the FIE20 project via LinkedIn posts and News articles on the meteoblue website. In addition, meteoblue will reach out to the network of Digital Innovation Hubs.

BOSC promoted the uptake of technologies empowering FIE20 during the SAH final event. They include sensor data gathering and visualization tools as well as data management systems connected to the Hub4Everybody tool stack. It resulted in new partnerships and project proposals which were further facilitated through all the excellent workshops about the circular economy, data upscaling and state of the art for decision support systems in agriculture.

This experiment aimed at monitoring and optimization of the production of organic open-field vegetables. It took take place in the ancient place of Marathon, which is the main vegetable production for Athens in Greece. FIE26 developed a yield prediction model for organic broccoli based on multispectral UAV imagery, with an accuracy of over 84%. Moreover, it optimized irrigation, fertilization, and organic pest control models for organic broccoli, achieving over 25%, 38% and 61% reduction in inputs (water, nitrogen and organic pesticides) respectively. FIE26 partners achieved an accuracy of over 90% in weed detection through UAV images in the early broccoli development stages. Additionally, the integration and assessment of an automated, real-time alert system for broccoli crop cultivation were performed. 

The whole event was very interesting, fruitful and a high-level experience. However, as exhibition participants and FIE26 representatives, our favourite item of the event were the coffee breaks in the marketplace where we were able to interact with all conference participants, showcase our FIE, discuss on different innovations and share our experiences in the project and beyond. 

The final SAH event was the perfect opportunity to share our FIE results with hundreds of experts from all around Europe. We discussed with other experts about possible follow-ups in our research and established new contacts.