Agriculture meets innovation

The Aquaponic Network is an expert platform for the development of innovative products and processes for raising fish and producing plants in closed cycles. The aim is to develop sustainable, economically efficient solutions for the agri-food sector to deal with the effects of climate change, increasing land and water scarcity and rising population growth. The core technical elements here are aquaponic processes and systems. The companies and research institutions from Germany are working together with partners from the Netherlands to implement the network's goals.

The digitalisation of production poses major challenges for SMEs. The aim of the IOT4FOOD network is to increase the digitalisation and automation of manufacturing technologies and processes along the entire value chain of the SME food production industry. Innovative and individually customised food and packaging will be developed using new sensor/measurement technology and artificial intelligence. The players in the entire value chain will be able to network with each other. This international network with partners from the Netherlands and Great Britain envisions joint research, development projects and the result application across Germany and the Netherlands.

In the meat industry, many processes are still manually solved, especially in small and medium-sized enterprises. These operations, such as monotonous tasks or the movement of heavy loads, often have negative effects on the staff's wellbeing. The aim of the AutoMeAt network is to develop innovative technologies to sustainably improve production conditions in the meat industry across the entire value chain. For this purpose, the slaughtering process, the inline transport and the packaging process of single products are to be improved and accelerated through the use of robotics, AI and automation of hygiene and sensor technology.