The Precision Farming Knowledge Transfer Ecosystem is designed to support farmers across Central Europe in embracing digitalisation. It also enables SMEs and research centres to accelerate innovation, laying the groundwork for a more productive and prosperous agricultural sector in the region.
The partners of the Agri-Digital Growth project aim to establish a network for precision farming knowledge transfer throughout Central Europe. This involves identifying and mapping stakeholders actively engaged in advancing digitalisation, promoting sustainable practices, and manufacturing machinery for the primary sector and its associated value chains within the regions covered by the Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE programme.
At its core, the Ecosystem pursues two key objectives. First, to accelerate the transfer of digital innovation and facilitate co-innovation through real-world demonstrations, peer-to-peer learning, and Living Labs focused on practical field applications. Second, to foster long-term capacity building among all stakeholders. To this end, the Ecosystem will develop a suite of e-learning modules, webinars, and training sessions to equip farmers, advisors, and technical staff with the skills required to master data-driven agriculture.
This initiative promotes collaboration among agricultural machinery and systems manufacturers, farmers, consultants, research institutions, agricultural chambers, and business support organisations.
The Agri-Digital Growth project brings together eleven partner institutions from across Central Europe to stimulate the adoption of precision farming technologies and to establish a cross-border Precision Farming Knowledge Transfer Ecosystem. This empowers farmers, SMEs, and research centres to co-develop, test, and scale digital solutions for smarter, more resilient agriculture.
Structurally, the Ecosystem adopts a hub-and-spoke model. Eleven “hub” organisations will provide strategic coordination. These hubs include universities, research institutes, and digital innovation centres located in Italy, Austria, Czechia, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, and Poland. Surrounding each hub are the “spoke” partners—farmers’ associations, agri-tech start-ups, machinery OEMs, and consultancy firms—who will implement pilot trials, offer on-site expertise, and contribute real-world insights.
This architecture is designed to deliver tangible benefits for all participants. Hubs gain access to diverse testbeds and end-user feedback, enhancing the impact of their research. Spokes benefit from a ready-made network of innovation partners, reducing the time and cost of technology adoption while accessing tailored capacity-building resources. Shared governance mechanisms and regular coordination meetings ensure transparency and rapid iteration, enabling solutions developed on one farm to be quickly disseminated across the entire network.
Throughout the project’s duration, the Ecosystem will launch a series of interconnected initiatives. Five Living Labs across Central Europe will host multi-actor field trials, allowing farmers to test and compare technologies under local conditions and co-design best-practice workflows. Seminars held every four months will address emerging topics such as climate-smart irrigation, remote sensing, and interoperable data infrastructures. A dedicated support service will assist consortia in navigating EU and national funding calls, from crafting impact narratives to identifying complementary partners.
The Precision Farming Knowledge Transfer Ecosystem has been specifically designed to overcome the fragmentation of expertise—one of the sector’s most significant challenges. Often, small-scale innovations remain confined to demonstration sites or specific regions, while others lack the technical support or funding needed for broader implementation. By mapping and interconnecting existing actors, the Ecosystem developed within Agri-Digital Growth project aims to create a dynamic network of stakeholders who can share their expertise. Farmers will no longer be isolated from research: whether they wish to deploy variable-rate seeding, integrate drone-based crop scouting, or adopt remote-sensing moisture monitoring, they will be able to connect directly with potential research partners and pilot sites.
Participation in the Ecosystem is open, free of charge, and does not entail any direct financial obligations for partners.
