The stand of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development of the Regional Government of Andalusia at the Smart Agrifood Summit hosted the Side Event of the Hub Iberia Agrotech (HIBA) project during the 29 of September in Malaga. This space served as a loudspeaker for the presentation of the first advances and actions made within the framework of the project.

The General Director for Industries, Innovation and AgriFood Chain, Cristina de Toro, together with Lourdes Arce, Vice-Rector for Innovation and Transfer of the University of Cordoba, highlighted the importance of the challenges that HIBA addresses for the digitization of the agrifood sector.

Next, Ana Cabezas, from the Andalucía Agrotech DIH coordination team, emphasized the three fundamental pillars on which this interregional cooperation project rests: Innovation, Training and Entrepreneurship. In this regard, the speech stressed the importance of the start-ups in the process of digital transformation of the agri-food sector and the different actions that are being carried out by HIBA to promote entrepreneurship.

In addition, two key platforms developed within HIBA were presented:

• The Iberia Conecta open innovation program, presented by Anto Martinez (FUNDECYT-PCTEX), which is being developed within the project aiming at offering solutions to technological challenges launched by agri-food companies in Spain and Portugal. Iberia Conecta is articulated through a web platform, open to all entities in the sector and start-ups wishing to participate.
• Javier Mesa (University of Cordoba), presented the multi-regional open training platform e-Learning Data, which aggregates an integrated Virtual Assistant to improve the user experience and provides valuable content for training in agro-digitalization through MOOCs on different technological areas (remote sensing, sensors, robotics, irrigation, etc.), oriented and adapted to different technological areas (remote sensing, sensors, robotics, irrigation, etc.) for different training levels and user profiles.
• Lucía Castro (DATALIFE) introduced the free tool for self-diagnosis of the degree of digital maturity of SMEs and self-employed companies, born as an initiative of the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and used by this Galician DIH to perform a diagnosis of agrifood sector in Galicia. Castro presented the results obtained in this Spanish region.

Additionally, the first conclusions drawn resulting from the different dialogue spaces organised within the framework of HIBA were presented, highlighting the important role of young people as vectors for the transmission of digitalisation. Finally, it is worth mentioning the support that is being carried out by the different actors of the HIBA project on the evaluation of the digital maturity of agribusiness companies.

‍

‍