Last Wednesday, the AGROSMARTcoop project, an international consortium consisting of eight beneficiary organizations from six regions of Spain, Portugal and France and nine associates, was presented. The project has a budget of 1,295,000 million Euro.
On 7 September, representatives of cooperatives, research centres, universities and other partners of Extremadura - the Basque Country, Castile-La Mancha, northern Portugal and the French region of New Aquitaine - met in in Santiago de Compostela to take part in the presentation of the European project AGROSMARTcoop, whose inauguration was conducted by the Regional Minister for Rural Affairs, Ángeles Vázquez, together with Covadonga Toca, Galician secretary of employment, and the president of AGACA, José Severino Montes.
AGROSMARTcoop
AGROESMARTcoop is based on three pillars: sustainable innovation (or eco-innovation), intelligent marketing and strategic alliances. All are subject to the study of the economic and social reality of each geographic area and their ability to adapt to the needs and demands of consumers, making it possible to design a joint Strategic Plan in which technology and innovation will be the foundation for the development of the right tools.
The Centre for Technological and Scientific Research of Extremadura (CICYTEX), together with the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, UTAD, Portugal, and the Association des Régions Européennes des Produits d 'Origine, AREPO (France) (three of the eight beneficiary institutions of the project) will have a leading role in the first two stages of the initiative: to understand the potential of cooperatives and to develop a virtual platform to foster collaborative practices in support of clever marketing.
The third stage, linked to the dissemination of scientific and technological knowledge, will serve to promote educational and training activities, the creation of Transnational Operating Groups or the provision of technical advice, among other measures.
Source: AGACA