European UnionDeadline PassedNon-profit, Private Business, Research Institution, Public Institution, Other
Multi-Country project in Agri-Food
Digital Europe Programme Grants for Financial Support (DIGITAL-JU-GFS)
Funding Amount
€15.0M - €15.0M
Deadline
02/10/2025
Eligible Organization Types
Non-profit, Private Business, Research Institution, Public Institution, Other
Trusted by
What is the Multi-Country project in Agri-Food Call?
Grant Description
The call supports capacity building and coordination to establish a multi-country digital infrastructure for agri-food data exchange across Europe. It addresses gaps in data infrastructures, fosters access, sharing and reuse of data, reduces administrative burdens, and enables innovative solutions through development of platforms, use case deployment and policy recommendations.
Required Results for Successful Funding
Expected Outcomes
The project is expected to deliver the following outcomes and key deliverables:
1. Capacity building: A proactive, multi-stakeholder collaboration framework to steer the MCP in agri-food.
2. Information exchange platform: A secure platform for participants to share insights, data, tools, standards and agreements, complementing related EU initiatives.
3. Coordination roadmap: A comprehensive plan aligning sectoral and national initiatives, stakeholder roles and timelines for MCP implementation across Member States.
4. Recommendations for development, operation and maintenance: Foundational guidelines to extend the MCP to non-participating countries and additional agri-food segments.
5. Assessment of ongoing initiatives: A stock-taking report on relevant national and EU initiatives, including documented lessons learnt to inform deployment.
6. Concept, technical specification and set-up of digital infrastructure: Detailed architectural and implementation blueprints for the agri-food data ecosystem.
7. Use cases portfolio: A curated collection of cross-border, real-world agri-food data-sharing use cases implemented by third parties, with guidelines and standards for replication and scaling.
8. Use case evaluation reports: Independent assessments of each use case, detailing performance results, lessons learnt and future recommendations.
9. Deployment action: Full implementation of the envisaged multi-country/EU-level digital infrastructure project, with sustainable governance and maintenance structures.
10. Policy recommendations: Evidence-based proposals for creating favourable regulatory, organisational and financial conditions to achieve MCP objectives, advance digital transformation, reduce administrative burden (B2B and B2G) and simplify cross-border data sharing.
These outcomes will support the overarching objective to leverage digital (data) infrastructure to enhance efficiency, sustainability and competitiveness of Europe’s agri-food sector, in line with the European Data Strategy, Political Guidelines and the development of the Common European Agricultural Data Space (CEADS).
1. Capacity building: A proactive, multi-stakeholder collaboration framework to steer the MCP in agri-food.
2. Information exchange platform: A secure platform for participants to share insights, data, tools, standards and agreements, complementing related EU initiatives.
3. Coordination roadmap: A comprehensive plan aligning sectoral and national initiatives, stakeholder roles and timelines for MCP implementation across Member States.
4. Recommendations for development, operation and maintenance: Foundational guidelines to extend the MCP to non-participating countries and additional agri-food segments.
5. Assessment of ongoing initiatives: A stock-taking report on relevant national and EU initiatives, including documented lessons learnt to inform deployment.
6. Concept, technical specification and set-up of digital infrastructure: Detailed architectural and implementation blueprints for the agri-food data ecosystem.
7. Use cases portfolio: A curated collection of cross-border, real-world agri-food data-sharing use cases implemented by third parties, with guidelines and standards for replication and scaling.
8. Use case evaluation reports: Independent assessments of each use case, detailing performance results, lessons learnt and future recommendations.
9. Deployment action: Full implementation of the envisaged multi-country/EU-level digital infrastructure project, with sustainable governance and maintenance structures.
10. Policy recommendations: Evidence-based proposals for creating favourable regulatory, organisational and financial conditions to achieve MCP objectives, advance digital transformation, reduce administrative burden (B2B and B2G) and simplify cross-border data sharing.
These outcomes will support the overarching objective to leverage digital (data) infrastructure to enhance efficiency, sustainability and competitiveness of Europe’s agri-food sector, in line with the European Data Strategy, Political Guidelines and the development of the Common European Agricultural Data Space (CEADS).
Funded areas
Scope Requirements
The proposal must address the following core requirements:
• Establish operational support for a long-term, multi-country collaboration framework among Member States, industry, research and other stakeholders.
• Support systematic information exchange and stock-taking of existing agri-food data infrastructures, tools, agreements and standards, and coordinate across initiatives at national and EU levels.
• Conduct a comprehensive gap analysis of current data infrastructures and services, delivering actionable recommendations for deployment, operation and maintenance.
• Develop, specify and set up the digital infrastructure layers (technical, semantic, legal) required for secure, interoperable agri-food data exchange, access and analysis Europe-wide.
• Provide financial support to third parties to implement cross-border, real-world use cases in multiple Member States that leverage advanced technologies (e.g. AI), follow a coherent interoperable approach, and deliver best-practice guidelines.
• Prepare detailed evaluation reports for each use case, including performance metrics, lessons learnt and recommendations for scaling.
• Roll out and deploy a sustainable, large-scale data infrastructure at multi-country/EU level, with mechanisms for maintenance and further development in both public and private domains.
• Deliver policy recommendations to create favourable framing conditions (regulatory, organisational, financial) to advance the MCP’s digital transformation objectives and simplify B2B and B2G data sharing across borders.
• Align with and complement the Common European Agricultural Data Space (CEADS) and other key EU initiatives, avoiding duplication.
• Ensure full compliance with GDPR and the Directive on open data and reuse of public sector information.
• Demonstrate a credible plan for financial sustainability post-grant, with outcomes owned or managed by a lasting structure.
• Encourage broad stakeholder engagement via financial support to third parties, ensuring inclusiveness and sector-wide uptake.
• Establish operational support for a long-term, multi-country collaboration framework among Member States, industry, research and other stakeholders.
• Support systematic information exchange and stock-taking of existing agri-food data infrastructures, tools, agreements and standards, and coordinate across initiatives at national and EU levels.
• Conduct a comprehensive gap analysis of current data infrastructures and services, delivering actionable recommendations for deployment, operation and maintenance.
• Develop, specify and set up the digital infrastructure layers (technical, semantic, legal) required for secure, interoperable agri-food data exchange, access and analysis Europe-wide.
• Provide financial support to third parties to implement cross-border, real-world use cases in multiple Member States that leverage advanced technologies (e.g. AI), follow a coherent interoperable approach, and deliver best-practice guidelines.
• Prepare detailed evaluation reports for each use case, including performance metrics, lessons learnt and recommendations for scaling.
• Roll out and deploy a sustainable, large-scale data infrastructure at multi-country/EU level, with mechanisms for maintenance and further development in both public and private domains.
• Deliver policy recommendations to create favourable framing conditions (regulatory, organisational, financial) to advance the MCP’s digital transformation objectives and simplify B2B and B2G data sharing across borders.
• Align with and complement the Common European Agricultural Data Space (CEADS) and other key EU initiatives, avoiding duplication.
• Ensure full compliance with GDPR and the Directive on open data and reuse of public sector information.
• Demonstrate a credible plan for financial sustainability post-grant, with outcomes owned or managed by a lasting structure.
• Encourage broad stakeholder engagement via financial support to third parties, ensuring inclusiveness and sector-wide uptake.
Additional Conditions for Applicants
Special Conditions
• Type of Action: DIGITAL-JU-GFS (Digital JU Grants for Financial Support), DIGITAL Action Grant Budget-Based [DIGITAL-AG], single-stage procedure.
• Budget: €15 000 000 for 1 grant. Opening: 15 April 2025; Deadline: 02 October 2025, 17:00 Brussels time. Proposals must respect page limits and layout (Part B of the Application Form).
• Eligibility: Only entities from eligible countries (see section 6 call document) may participate. Financial and operational capacity requirements apply (section 7). Exclusion rules apply.
• Evaluation: Submission and evaluation follow sections 8–9 of call document; award criteria, scoring and thresholds as specified; indicative timeline in section 4.
• Legal/financial set-up: As per section 10 and the Digital Europe Programme General MGA v1. Funding rates and rules for financial support to third parties as per Appendix 2 and Annex 5 of the model grant agreement.
• Compliance: Proposals must avoid duplicating existing initiatives and comply with EU legislation (GDPR; PSI Directive). Close alignment with CEADS, TEFs for AI, Horizon Europe Partnership on Agriculture of Data, EDIHs/EDICs, EU Digital Identity Wallet is mandatory.
• Sustainability: Proposals must demonstrate financial sustainability and lasting governance structures post-project. Active involvement of data providers and users is highly recommended.
• Ethics/Societal: Applicants must complete an Ethics Self-Assessment (if applicable) and adhere to the European Data Strategy and Political Guidelines objectives.
• Budget: €15 000 000 for 1 grant. Opening: 15 April 2025; Deadline: 02 October 2025, 17:00 Brussels time. Proposals must respect page limits and layout (Part B of the Application Form).
• Eligibility: Only entities from eligible countries (see section 6 call document) may participate. Financial and operational capacity requirements apply (section 7). Exclusion rules apply.
• Evaluation: Submission and evaluation follow sections 8–9 of call document; award criteria, scoring and thresholds as specified; indicative timeline in section 4.
• Legal/financial set-up: As per section 10 and the Digital Europe Programme General MGA v1. Funding rates and rules for financial support to third parties as per Appendix 2 and Annex 5 of the model grant agreement.
• Compliance: Proposals must avoid duplicating existing initiatives and comply with EU legislation (GDPR; PSI Directive). Close alignment with CEADS, TEFs for AI, Horizon Europe Partnership on Agriculture of Data, EDIHs/EDICs, EU Digital Identity Wallet is mandatory.
• Sustainability: Proposals must demonstrate financial sustainability and lasting governance structures post-project. Active involvement of data providers and users is highly recommended.
• Ethics/Societal: Applicants must complete an Ethics Self-Assessment (if applicable) and adhere to the European Data Strategy and Political Guidelines objectives.
Important dates
Open from: 15/04/2025
Deadline:02/10/2025
Application period has ended
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