PowerPoint Presentation

[Audio] Welcome to module 5 "Policy, governance and funding in the EU".

[Audio] In the first four modules we looked at value chains, technologies, data and business models. This module steps back and asks: what policy framework shapes all of this, and how can a project or a company use it? Start with the broad strategies. The European Green Deal led to the Farm to Fork Strategy, published in May 2020 as COM(2020) 381. It sets targets for 2030: a 50 percent reduction in the overall use and risk of chemical pesticides, at least a 20 percent reduction in the use of fertilisers, and a 50 percent reduction in sales of antimicrobials for farmed animals. Other commentary on the strategy also reports a target of 25 percent of farmland under organic farming. What matters for our topic is how the strategy expects to get there. It says that the new CAP eco-schemes will be a major stream of funding for sustainable practices, naming precision agriculture alongside agro-ecology, carbon farming and agro-forestry. It also says that fast broadband will help mainstream precision farming and the use of artificial intelligence. In other words, digital technologies are a means for reaching environmental targets, which is why digital policy and agricultural policy keep meeting. The second strand is digital policy. The Digital Decade Policy Programme 2030, set up by Decision (EU) 2022/2481, entered into force in January 2023. It has four cardinal points: digital skills, digital infrastructures including connectivity, the digitalisation of businesses, and digital public services. Its targets include basic digital skills for at least 80 percent of the population, 20 million ICT specialists, and gigabit connectivity for all. For agriculture, the relevance is clear: connectivity gaps and skills gaps in rural areas are exactly what limit adoption, as we saw in Module 2. The third strand is the European Strategy for Data from 2020, which we covered in Module 3, with the common agricultural data space as one of the sector-specific data spaces. A word of caution about timing. In February 2025 the Commission presented a new Vision for Agriculture and Food. The Agriculture Commissioner said at the time that this did not mean throwing away the earlier goals, but the political emphasis has shifted toward competitiveness and simplification. So when you teach this material, remember that strategies evolve, and that targets and instruments should always be checked against the latest documents. For reflection: which of these three strands, green, digital or data, is most visible in the funding calls and national programmes in your country?.

[Audio] The Common Agricultural Policy is the largest source of public money for agriculture, and in the current period it is explicitly a digital policy as well. Regulation 2021/2115, which governs the CAP Strategic Plans for 2023 to 2027, places a cross-cutting objective on modernising agriculture and rural areas by fostering and sharing knowledge, innovation and digitalisation, and by encouraging farmers to take them up through better access to research, innovation, knowledge exchange and training. The backbone of this objective is the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System, AKIS, which we met in Module 1. The regulation defines it as the combined organisation and knowledge flows among those who use and produce knowledge for agriculture. Each Member State must explain in its CAP Strategic Plan how advisors, researchers and the national CAP network will work together, and how it will promote knowledge exchange. One of the instruments is the EIP-AGRI Operational Group. The European Innovation Partnership was launched in 2012. It funds interactive innovation projects, including CAP-funded Operational Groups, which bring together farmers, advisors, researchers, businesses and others to solve a practical problem, and Horizon multi-actor projects. For a cooperative or a technology company, an Operational Group is often the first step toward testing a digital tool with real farmers. The CAP also generates data. Since reporting year 2025, the Farm Accountancy Data Network has become the Farm Sustainability Data Network. It collects data from a sample of about 80,000 farms, representing around 90 percent of EU agricultural production, and now adds environmental and social variables, such as farming practices, fertilisers, water and energy, to the economic ones. Participation by farms is voluntary, and Member States are encouraged to develop incentives for farmers to share their data. This links directly to the data-sharing questions of Module 3. Satellites are part of CAP administration as well. Since May 2018, Member States may use Copernicus Sentinel data for checks by monitoring, continuously monitoring all aid recipients, instead of sampling them for on-the-spot inspection. The Area Monitoring System is the monitoring component of the Integrated Administration and Control System. The European Court of Auditors recommended in 2020 that the Commission encourage this approach. For farmers, it means that data from space increasingly decides whether they are compliant, so digital literacy has direct financial consequences. Finally, the future. On 16 July 2025 the Commission proposed a CAP for the period after 2027, integrated into National and Regional Partnership Plans, merging the two current pillars, with a total envelope of 865 billion euros and at least 300 billion euros ring-fenced for income support and crisis management. A June 2026 Council progress report shows that negotiations are still under way, and a political agreement is expected around the end of 2027. Anyone planning a project should follow this closely..

[Audio] Policy becomes real through funding, so let us map the main instruments. This is a simplified map for orientation, not a guide to specific calls. Horizon Europe is the EU's research and innovation programme for 2021 to 2027, with a budget of about 95 billion euros. For agriculture, the home is Cluster 6, Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment, with an overall budget of about 8.95 billion euros. The main work programme for 2026 and 2027 was adopted in December 2025 with a total of 14 billion euros across the programme, and the Cluster 6 calls for 2026 and 2027 have budgets of roughly 677 and 632 million euros respectively, according to a national contact point. Many calls are two-stage, with an early deadline for a short proposal, so planning must begin long before the final submission. The stage-one deadlines of the 2026 calls have already passed, so new applicants should look to the 2027 calls and check the Funding and Tenders Portal. Horizon Europe also supports multi-actor projects, which connect farmers, advisers, researchers and businesses, and Widening actions for countries with lower research and innovation capacity. The Digital Europe Programme, worth about 7.6 billion euros, is the main source for digital capacity: data spaces, cloud and AI infrastructure, advanced digital skills and Digital Innovation Hubs. The AgriDataSpace preparatory action we saw in Module 3, with a budget of about two million euros, was financed from it, and the deployment of the Common European Agricultural Data Space is its follow-up. The CAP, as we have seen, funds advisory services, Operational Groups and on-farm investments, and eco-schemes that can reward practices including precision agriculture. This money is managed nationally or regionally, so the rules differ by country. Erasmus+, with a budget of 26.2 billion euros for 2021 to 2027, supports education and training. Alliances for Innovation connect higher education, business and research for skills and innovation, and the European Universities initiative supports long-term alliances between universities. For digital agriculture, this is where curricula, training of advisors and micro-credentials can be financed. Interreg supports cross-border and transnational cooperation, which suits regions that share a value chain or a data platform. How should one choose? A useful rule is to match the instrument to the maturity of the idea. Early research and new methods suggest Horizon Europe. Testing with end users in a region suggests Operational Groups or Interreg. Building skills and curricula suggests Erasmus+ or national programmes. Digital infrastructure and data spaces suggest Digital Europe. And scaling a commercial service usually needs private finance as well, which brings us back to the business models of Module 4..

[Audio] Besides policies and funding, a set of regulations shape what digital agriculture companies and farms can do. We have already discussed several: the General Data Protection Regulation, the Data Governance Act and the Data Act in Module 3, and the carbon farming certification framework in Module 4. Here are three more that are relevant now. First, the AI Act, Regulation 2024/1689, which entered into force in August 2024 and phases in obligations through 2028. It classifies AI systems by risk level. The rules for general-purpose AI models have applied since August 2025. In July 2026, the Digital Omnibus on AI, Regulation 2026/1744, entered into force and postponed the high-risk obligations: for stand-alone high-risk systems to 2 December 2027, and for high-risk AI embedded in products covered by existing product-safety legislation, such as machinery, to 2 August 2028. Transparency obligations for certain AI systems, such as disclosure to users, still started on 2 August 2026, with a grace period until 2 December 2026 for watermarking of AI-generated content in systems already on the market. For agriculture, most advisory tools are likely to be lower risk, but AI that acts as a safety component in machinery may fall under the later date. Each provider should assess its own case. Second, the Cyber Resilience Act, Regulation 2024/2847. It sets cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements, which means connected hardware and software. That includes sensors, gateways, machine controllers and farm apps. It entered into force in December 2024. The manufacturers' obligation to report actively exploited vulnerabilities and severe incidents has applied since 11 September 2026, and the main requirements, including conformity assessment and CE marking, apply from 11 December 2027. For technology start-ups in our ecosystem, this is a significant new compliance task. Third, the EU Deforestation Regulation, Regulation 2023/1115, as amended in December 2025. It requires operators and traders placing certain commodities on the EU market to show that they are deforestation-free, which includes providing plot-level geolocation of production. Its application was postponed to 30 December 2026 for large and medium operators, and 30 June 2027 for micro and small ones. The Commission's May 2026 review confirmed that there would be no further delay. Simplifications mean that, for certain primary producers in low-risk countries, a postal address can replace geolocation coordinates. For agri-food chains, it is a direct driver for digital traceability, the topic of Module 2, and for data exchange between farms and buyers. What is the common message? Regulation creates costs and complexity, especially for small actors, but it also creates demand for digital services: geolocation, traceability, cybersecurity and data governance. Universities and advisors can help by explaining requirements in plain language and training the people who must apply them..

[Audio] Let me connect all this to the project behind this webinar series. TALLHEDA was funded under Horizon Europe in a call for Widening participation, HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ACCESS-03-01, with a total budget of about 3.1 million euros, according to one project profile. Its starting point is that Widening countries, such as Greece and Serbia, lag behind the European average in research and innovation investment and scientific excellence, and digital agriculture is a notable example. The project aims to build a long-term alliance between agricultural higher education institutions in these countries and leading universities and stakeholders from Belgium, where an ecosystem linking universities, competence centres, Digital Innovation Hubs and industry has been developed. Several outputs are directly relevant for what we have discussed. A Digital Tools booklet, published in 2025, informs producers, agronomists, students and researchers about modern digital tools that can improve productivity, reduce costs and enhance sustainability. A Virtual Innovation Hub gathers educational material, including content from the brainstorming visits, for educators, students and researchers. The project also plans a best practices handbook and targeted policy recommendations on training, knowledge transfer and sharing of best practices. This illustrates how a university-led project fits into the EU landscape. It uses a Horizon Europe instrument designed to strengthen research and education capacity, it feeds into AKIS by training people and sharing knowledge, and it connects with data spaces, innovation hubs and Operational Groups through its partners and stakeholders. Now a practical funding strategy, which I propose as a way of thinking and not an official method. First, start from a concrete problem and a user, not from a programme. Second, map the ecosystem: who needs to be involved and who has the data, the technology, the trust and the money? Third, match the instrument to the maturity, as we discussed. Fourth, build the consortium early, and combine complementary strengths, for example a Widening institution with an experienced partner. Fifth, and most important, plan for sustainability from the start: what is the business model or public funding that will carry the result after the project ends? We saw in Module 4 how services can fail at that point. For policy engagement, projects like TALLHEDA can contribute evidence, test solutions in real conditions, and translate policy requirements into training. Higher education institutions are particularly well placed, because they are trusted, neutral and connected with all four helices. For discussion: which policy or funding instrument could finance the next step of a digital agriculture initiative in your region, and which partners would you need?.

[Audio] Let us pull together the main messages of this module. First, the policy strategies. Farm to Fork sets environmental targets and sees precision agriculture, connectivity and AI as tools to reach them. The Digital Decade sets targets on skills, infrastructure and business digitalisation. The European Data Strategy provides the framework for data spaces. And since 2025 there is a new Vision for Agriculture and Food, with more emphasis on competitiveness and simplification. Second, the CAP. In the current period, it has a cross-cutting objective on knowledge, innovation and digitalisation, with AKIS as the backbone and tools such as Operational Groups and advisory services. It is also a data producer, through the Farm Sustainability Data Network, and a user of satellite data for monitoring. A reform for the period after 2027 has been proposed and is being negotiated. Third, funding. We reviewed Horizon Europe, Digital Europe, the CAP, Erasmus+ and Interreg, and I suggested matching the instrument to the maturity of the idea. Fourth, regulation. The AI Act, the Cyber Resilience Act and the Deforestation Regulation, together with the Data Act and carbon farming certification we saw earlier, create obligations that are demanding for small actors but also open markets for digital services and training. Fifth, the role of alliances and universities, using TALLHEDA as an example. Now an exercise. Take the digital service you analysed in Module 4. Build a two-part map. In part one, the funding map: list the stages of development of your service, from idea to scale, and for each stage write which instrument could finance it and who the partners would be. In part two, the compliance map: list which of the regulations we discussed apply to your service, from data protection and the Data Act to the AI Act, cybersecurity and traceability rules, and note what you would need to do and by when. Finally, circle the item that worries you most and discuss how a partner, such as a university, an advisory service or a hub, could help. If you are watching live, share one finding in the chat. If you are watching the recording, pause here and give yourself about ten minutes. In the next module we turn to concrete practice, with case studies from precision farming, traceability, platforms and advisory services, to see how the ideas of the previous modules play out in the field..

References. Council of the EU (2026). Progress report on the CAP Regulation (post-2027), ST 10721/26, 17 June 2026. https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-10721-2026-INIT/en/pdf Council of the EU (2023). Council adopts Farm Sustainability Data Network regulation. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2023/11/13/council-adopts-farm-sustainability-data-network-regulation/ CORDIS. TALLHEDA (GA 101136578). https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101136578 European Commission (2020). A Farm to Fork Strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system. COM(2020) 381 final. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52020DC0381 European Commission (2023). The Erasmus+ programme 2021-2027 has launched. EACEA. https://www.eacea.ec.europa.eu/news-events/news/new-erasmus-programme-2021-2027-has-launched-2021-03-25_en European Commission (2025). The next chapter for the CAP (17 July 2025). https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/media/news/next-chapter-cap-2025-07-17_en European Commission (2025). Commission adopts the main Horizon Europe Work Programme for 2026-2027. https://climate.ec.europa.eu/news-other-reads/news/commission-adopts-main-horizon-europe-work-programme-2026-2027-and-dedicates-eu49-billion-climate-2025-12-11_en European Commission (2025/26). EU Deforestation Regulation: delay until December 2026 and other developments. https://trade.ec.europa.eu/access-to-markets/en/news/delay-until-december-2026-and-other-developments-implementation-eudr-regulation European Commission. Horizon Europe programme page and Funding & Tenders Portal. https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/programmes/horizon European Commission. Digitalisation of agriculture and rural areas in the EU. https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/overview-vision-agriculture-food/digitalisation_en European Commission. Digital Decade Policy Programme. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/digital-decade-policy-programme European Commission (2024). Blueprint proposal for the Common European Agricultural Data Space. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/blueprint-proposal-common-european-agricultural-data-space European Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2746 (FSDN). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX%3A32024R2746 European Court of Auditors (2020). Special report 04/2020: Using new imaging technologies to monitor the common agricultural policy. https://op.europa.eu/webpub/eca/special-reports/new-tech-in-agri-monitoring-4-2020/en/ European Parliament & Council (2021). Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 (CAP Strategic Plans). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32021R2115 European Parliament & Council (2022). Decision (EU) 2022/2481 (Digital Decade Policy Programme 2030), summary. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=legissum%3A4646000 European Parliament & Council (2024). Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act); Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 (Digital Omnibus on AI). Overview: https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/ai-act-explorer/digital-omnibus/ European Parliament & Council (2024). Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 (Cyber Resilience Act). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/2847/oj European Parliament (Legislative Train). Farm to Fork strategy on sustainable food system. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/legislative-train/theme-a-european-green-deal/file-farm-to-fork-strategy EU CAP Network. AKIS; Operational Groups; Innovation, knowledge exchange and EIP-AGRI. https://eu-cap-network.ec.europa.eu/support/innovation-knowledge-exchange-eip-agri_en FFG (Austria). Horizon Europe budget and Cluster 6 calls 2026/27. https://www.ffg.at/sites/default/files/downloads/HorizonEuropeBudget.pdf ; https://www.ffg.at/en/europa/heu/cluster6 TALLHEDA project (2025). Booklet: Digital Tools. Zenodo. https://zenodo.org/records/17243349 ; Website: https://www.tallheda.eu.

[Audio] Thank you!. thank you!. TALLHEDA has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 101136578. Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them..