INESC TEC and INIAV/ENFVN sign a collaboration protocol

INESC TEC and INIAV/ENFVN sign a collaboration protocol

INESC TEC signed a collaboration protocol with the National Institute for Agrarian and Veterinary Research (INIAV), namely with the Alcobaça hub, called Vieira Natividade National Fruit Growing Station (ENFVN).

26th November 2021

This cooperation platform between the two entities follows on from a previous protocol, signed in 2016, which established the joint promotion of activities for collaboration in Master’s/PhD theses, advanced consultancy, research and innovation projects and precision agriculture.

In this sense, the new agreement aims to promote the following activities:

– testing, demonstration and experimentation of robotic and IoT systems prototypes;

– research and innovation projects in the field of smart precision fruit growing;

– organisation of dissemination actions;

– development of new products and/or services of interest to the national and international fruit-growing sectors.

This protocol, promoted by INESC TEC’s Laboratory of Robotics and IoT for Smart Precision Agriculture and Forestry and by TEC4AGRO-FOOD (INESC TEC’s Initiative for Agro-Food and Forestry), will favour synergies between INESC TEC’s technological area of expertise and INIAV’s agronomic area of competence, with ENFNV as the innovation hub where the entities will carry out testing, development, validation, demonstration and experimentation activities with emerging technologies to support the national agriculture sector.

“This protocol formalises a set of initiatives for the dissemination and validation of technologies, planned for the upcoming years. The connection between ENFVN and the Laboratory of Robotics and IoT for Smart Precision Agriculture and Forestry, will speed up innovation and the adoption of automation, robotics, and IoT technology by Portuguese fruit-growers, while testing disruptive technologies and approaches”, stated Filipe Santos, head of the aforementioned laboratory.

“With this protocol, we’ll purse the goal of keep creating ‘experimental farms’ with partners, for TEC4AGRO-FOOD main verticals in terms of robotics and IoT, thus seeking to mitigate two critical aspects in the technology development process, namely digital-related: the transfer and the adoption of technologies”, explained André Sá, business developer at TEC4AGRO-FOOD.

According to INIAV, this protocol “is a decisive milestone for national fruit growing, signalling the beginning of a strong collaboration aimed at accelerating the production of tools to support precision fruit-growing and the introduction of robotic and IoT systems, duly adapted and validated according to the conditions and models of national production – with great expectation, taking into account the perfect complementarity of the teams and the privileged hub at the National Fruit Growing Station, where technology providers and end users join efforts regularly”, said Miguel Leão, representative of this entity.

The agreement is valid for the next three years, and renewable for another three-year period.

The INESC TEC researcher and collaborator mentioned in this news piece are associated with INESC TEC.