Representatives from the 7 participant regions in the Interreg Europe project, Regions 4Food, met in Malaga on 29th of November. The main objective of the event was to take stock of results and achievements of the project regarding the contribution to the digitisation of the agrifood value chain through the impulse of policy strategies.

More than 50 people, including project partners and stakeholders from participant regions attended the event which was facilitated by Cecilia Gañán de Molina, European Commission Expert on regional and urban policies.

After the official welcome of the Andalusian authorities, three key-note speeches were done about: regional S3 ecosystems in the current European policy framework, done by Cecilia Gañán de Molina; clusters supporting agrifood innovation by Kristina Sermuksnyte-Alesiuniene (CEO of Agrifood Lithuania Cluster and awarded as European Cluster Manager of the year 2022); and the Interreg Europe state of play by Kristaps Ročāns (Project Manager for the Interreg Europe Program Joint Secretariat).

Esperanza Perea Acosta, project coordinator of Regions 4Food, was in charge of sharing the main outcomes of the project and presenting a video with the project partners’ view on learnings and the impact in the 7 regions.

During the event, 3 interesting panels covered the different best practices identified during the project:

• The first one was focused on the advancement from agrifood ecosystems to agrifood digital innovation hubs, with the participation of Andalusia Agrotech DIH, Technocampus, Agroliving Lab, Green Techlab and Clust-ER Agrifood.
• The second panel analysed the need for new academic agritech profiles. Based on the experience of the Andalusian Universities of Cordoba and Sevilla and their specific master degrees “Digital transformation in the Agrifood sector” and “Master’s degree in Digital agriculture and agrifood innovation” respectively, representatives from South Transdanubian, Pays de la Loire, Emilia-Romagna, South Ostrobothnia and Limburg Province shared how these good practices inspired new programmes in their regional knowledge institutions.
• Finally, the third panel discussed how to embed cooperation between agrifood stakeholders in regional action. Maria Grazia Zucchini from the Emilia-Romagna region presented the best practice of the S3 called “Engaging all actors of the quadruple helix in designing and shaping innovation policies”. This time, stakeholders coming from Andalusia, Pays de la Loire, Pazardzhik, South Ostrobothnia and Limburg Province shared how this best practice inspired their work in their own regions.

Additionally to the 3 panels of best practices, another one was done regarding the policy recommendations extended by the project. The regional representatives spoke about the expected implementation through the regional action plans.

The event finished with the closing remarks which included new project proposals and new collaborations and the final wrap up done by the lead region.

The day after, 30th of November, the final Steering Committee of Regions 4Food was also celebrated.

‍

‍