Last 29 November the Technical Meeting of the S3P Traceability and Big Data Thematic Partnership took place in Barcelona. In the framework of the S3 Forum and the Steering Committee meeting of S3 Thematic Platforms organised by the Community of Practice (S3 CoP hereinafter), partners took the advantage to meet, update on the running works and strengthen relationships.

Andalucía, Emilia Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Pazardzhik, Britanny, South Ostrobothnia, Northern Ostrobothnia, Extremadura and the associated members Agrotransilvania Cluster and Green-Port West Holland attended whether in person or online and could know more about the current status of the Partnership activities and, specifically, about the different working groups that are currently being started, specifically 3: a horizontal one and other 2 focused on concrete thematics.

Mar Catedra, Technical Coordinator of Traceability & Big Data, presented the state of the art of the Partnership, which included a summary of the main agreements taken in Malaga last year, how they have been included in the current activities and finalised speaking about future plans on the communication activities during 2024.

Ilaria Marcolin, from FAB Friuli Venezia Giulia, presented the horizontal working group devoted to designing a road map for the Partnership for the short and medium term. Also, Terhi Korpi, from the Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences (South Ostrobothnia) as the coordinator of the Working group on Traceability and Big Data on circular economy presented the work done so far within the working group. The other thematic working group, which is focused on interoperability of platforms, is led by RI.NOVA, a cooperative established in the Emilia Romagna region also presented, by means of Federica Rossi, on their experience related to this topic.

The meeting also counted on the representative from the S3 CoP in charge of delivering the Funding service to the partnership, Jean-François Romainville, who explained briefly what the service is about and started a very interesting discussion on what the partners and the Partnership need from the service.

Along the whole meeting, a word (collaboration) and an idea (working together) were continuously on the table. Partnership and working groups, horizontal and thematic ones, are all about this. And the success of everything is subjected to this. For that, the coordinators of the Thematic Partnership encouraged all partners to get more involved in all the activities.