INESC TEC and Sogrape sign a collaboration agreement

INESC TEC and Sogrape sign a collaboration agreement

 INESC TEC and Sogrape, a family company leading the national production and marketing of wines, signed a collaboration agreement for the development of joint Research and Innovation (R&I) projects within the scope of Smart Precision Viticulture, as well as for testing, demonstrating and exploring robotic systems and Internet of Things (IoT) prototypes, in an operational environment.

26th April 2021

This agreement, promoted by INESC TEC's initiative TEC4AGRO-FOOD (Initiative for Agro-Food and Forestry), formalises Quinta do Seixo (Valença do Douro), owned by Sogrape, as the place where the aforementioned activities will take place - mainly due to the agro-environmental conditions, as well as the options in terms of coverage by communications networks and data transmission.

“We believe that this agreement with Sogrape, a strategic partner in the wine sector, is a way to mitigate two critical aspects in the process of developing technologies, namely digital ones: the transfer and adoption of technologies”, said André Sá, TEC4AGRO-FOOD Business Developer.

As to Sogrape, partner in the NOVATERRA project, this agreement is quite important, since “science allows combining ancestral wisdom about vineyard-related tasks with confidence in daring solutions to address the challenges associated with great wines. This collaboration with INESC TEC enables unique opportunities to a smart and sustainable production process by a family business; this way, today's innovation will become the tradition that will delight future generations”, said António Graça, Head of Research and Development at the Portuguese company.

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

The researcher mentioned in this news piece is associated with INESC TEC.