PowerPoint Presentation

[Audio] Hello everyone. Today, we are going to talk about the future. Not just the future of technology, but the future of viability. We are here to answer a critical question: How do we design our agritech projects today so that they are magnetic to the funders of tomorrow? Whether you are looking at Horizon Europe, private Venture Capital, or national innovation grants, the landscape is shifting beneath our feet. Five years ago, you could get funded just by having a 'cool' technology. If you had a drone or a sensor, you were halfway there. That era is over. Today, funders—especially the European Union—are no longer looking for gadgets. They are looking for systemic solutions. They are looking for resilience. And most importantly, they are looking for projects that survive after the grant money runs out. Over the next 25 minutes, we are going to walk through the four pillars that will define the next decade of funding: Policy Alignment, Business Models, Impact Communication, and Ecosystems. let's begin.

[Audio] "Let's start with the big picture: Designing proposals aligned with future EU priorities. If you read the latest strategic plans from Brussels, you will notice a distinct change in vocabulary. The EU is moving away from pure 'Research and Innovation' toward 'Strategic Autonomy' and 'Resilience.' If you want your proposal to be picked up, it needs to echo three specific priorities. First is Climate Resilience. Notice I didn't say 'Climate Mitigation.' While reducing carbon is important, the urgent priority now is adaptation. We are seeing extreme weather events—droughts in the South, floods in the North—threatening food security. Future funding will prioritize projects that help farmers survive these shocks. Are you working on water management? Frame it as 'drought resilience.' Are you working on soil sensors? Frame it as 'restoring soil health' to buffer against erosion. The key here is to align with the EU Soil Mission. If your project creates data that helps a farmer adapt to a changing climate, you are solving a strategic security issue for Europe. Second is Data Governance & Sovereignty. This is non-negotiable. With the introduction of the EU Data Act and the AI Act, the days of 'grab all the data and figure it out later' are over. Evaluators are specifically looking for 'Data Sovereignty.' This means the farmer—the person generating the data—must retain control over it. Does your project allow the farmer to port their data to another platform? Is your AI 'ethical' and transparent? If you can write in your proposal, 'We are fully compliant with the EU Data Act and guarantee user sovereignty,' you immediately distinguish yourself from 90% of the competition who are still ignoring this regulation. Third is the Circular Bioeconomy. The EU Green Deal is pushing hard to close the loop. We need to stop viewing agriculture as a linear process—inputs in, food out, waste out. We need Circular Bioeconomy solutions. This means valorizing waste streams. If your digital platform connects olive oil producers with biomass energy plants to turn pits into fuel, that is a funding winner. It means 'nutrient recycling'—using data to precisely apply bio-based fertilizers so nothing is wasted. The goal is 'Zero Waste Agriculture'. If your project helps close that loop, you are future-proof.".

[Audio] "Now, let's move to the hardest part: Money. We need to talk about Building data-driven business models. One of the biggest criticisms of publicly funded projects is the 'Valley of Death'—the project ends, the website goes dark, and the technology sits on a shelf. To get future funding, you must prove you have a business model that works without the grant. We are seeing three dominant models emerging. Model A is Predictive Maintenance. This is the evolution of 'Smart Farming.' Farmers are tired of buying sensors that just give them a graph. They don't want a graph; they want a solution. The value proposition here is reducing downtime. If a tractor breaks down during harvest, it costs thousands of euros per hour. If your AI can predict that failure before it happens, you aren't selling data; you are selling insurance. The revenue model here is shifting to 'Savings-share'. You tell the farmer: 'I won't charge you for the software, but I will take 10% of the money I save you on repairs.' That is a compelling pitch. Model B is Carbon Accounting & Credits. This is the 'Wild West' right now, but it's maturing fast. Food companies (the Nestlés and Danones of the world) are under immense pressure to report their Scope 3 emissions. They need data from the farm level. Your project can offer 'MRV as a Service'—Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification. Without digital tools, verifying carbon capture is too expensive (you can't send a scientist to every field). If your project automates this verification, you unlock the Carbon Market. The revenue comes from transaction fees on credits or from charging a premium for 'Climate-Certified' crops. Model C is Digital Twins. This is the high-tech frontier. A Digital Twin is a virtual replica of the farm. Why does this matter? Because farming is risky. You only get 40 or 50 harvests in a lifetime. You can't afford to experiment. A Digital Twin allows a farmer to simulate scenarios: 'What if I plant corn instead of wheat? What if it rains 20% less?' The customer here might not even be the farmer. It might be the bank or the insurance company. They will pay for the 'Scenario Planning' to understand their risk exposure. This is high-value consultancy.".

[Audio] "So, you have the policy alignment and the business model. Now, how do you explain this to someone with a checkbook? This brings us to Communicating Impact. Investors—whether public or private—are driven by metrics. But you need to give them the right metrics. First, let's look at ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance). Environmental (E): Stop using vague phrases like 'we are green.' Be quantitative. 'We reduce Nitrogen usage by 15% per hectare' or 'We lower CO2 equivalent per ton of yield'. These are numbers an investor can put in a spreadsheet. Social (S): This is often overlooked in Agritech. How does your project help the rural community? Does it increase farm income? Does it create high-tech jobs in the countryside?. This 'Rural Development' angle is crucial for EU funding. Governance (G): This goes back to data ethics. Investors see 'data privacy' as a risk. If you can prove you have transparent data ethics, you de-risk the investment. But there is one metric that matters more than anything else: Farmer Adoption. We call this the 'Holy Grail.' The problem in our industry is clear: 'Great tech, low usage'. We have all seen apps with 5,000 downloads and 5 active users. If you go to an investor, do not brag about your number of downloads. They don't care. Show them the Retention Rate. Show them Daily Active Users (DAU). Show them Hectares under Management. If you can say, 'Farmers open our app 4 times a week,' you have won the argument. That proves value better than any revenue projection. It proves you have solved the usability problem.".

[Audio] "No project is an island. If you look at Horizon Europe calls, they demand a 'Multi-Actor Approach.' They don't want a university working in a basement. They want an ecosystem. To be funding-ready, you need to show you are connected to these four pillars. 1. Living Labs: These are real-world testing environments. A Living Lab is not a research station; it is a real farm where the farmer is a co-creator. If your proposal says, 'We will test this in a lab,' it's weak. If it says, 'We will validate this in 3 Living Labs in Spain, Italy, and Greece,' it's strong. It proves user-centricity. 2. DIHs (Digital Innovation Hubs): These are the bridge. DIHs are regional organizations designed to help SMEs digitize. They are often the ones holding the 'Cascade Funding' (small grants). If you aren't talking to your local DIH, you are missing out on the easiest access to funding and local networks. 3. Competence Centers: These provide the heavy lifting—supercomputing, robotics testing facilities, genomic sequencing. You don't need to build this infrastructure; you just need to partner with a Competence Center that has it. 4. AgriDataSpaces: This is the future infrastructure. We are moving toward a Common European Agricultural Data Space. Currently, data is stuck in silos—some in the tractor, some in the cloud, some on government servers. AgriDataSpaces are the secure highways that connect these silos. Your project needs to show that it is 'Data Space Ready.' It needs to use common standards so it can plug into this European network. This shows you are building for the long term, not just for today.".

[Audio] "We have covered a lot of ground. To make this actionable, I want to leave you with a Checklist. Before you write your next grant application or pitch deck, ask these five questions. If you answer 'No' to any of them, you have work to do. Check 1: The Policy Alignment Check. Does my project explicitly solve a problem the EU wants to solve? Does it map to the Soil Mission or the Green Deal? If you are solving a problem the EU doesn't care about, you won't get public money. Check 2: The Data Check. Is my data strategy compliant with the Data Act? Do I have a plan for interoperability? If you are building a 'walled garden' where data can't get in or out, you are building a dinosaur. Check 3: The Business Model Check. Does the revenue model survive after the grant ends? Who is the customer? If the customer is 'the project partner,' you don't have a business; you have a subsidy. Check 4: The Adoption Check. Do I have farmers involved right now? Not at the end of the project, but in the design phase? The number one reason projects fail is lack of user adoption. Fix that early. Check 5: The Ecosystem Check. Am I plugged in? Am I part of a Digital Innovation Hub? Leveraging the ecosystem makes your project look bigger, safer, and more scalable. "The future of funding is not about chasing the latest buzzword. It's about alignment. It's about aligning with the planet (Climate Resilience), aligning with the law (Data Governance), and aligning with the market (Business Models). If you build your projects on these pillars, you won't just be writing proposals; you'll be building the future of agriculture. Thank you very much..

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..