TRACK aims to create an interregional ecosystem to stimulate new innovative solutions fitting specific requirements of agrifood chain, and joint investments towards an advanced agrifood industry 4.0.
The agrifood sector is subject to different external pressures, such as rising demand for food, competition for land, globalisation, threats from animal/plant diseases, environmental changes and public health considerations. As a consequence, agrifood industry has to become more efficient and sustainable and take advantage of new technological developments.
TRACK focusses on different types of data, like Upstream (Agronomic Data, Machine Data, Farm Management Data etc.), Transformation and delivery (Transformation process data for traceability, Logistics data etc.) and Downstream (Nutritional data, Traceability).
Interlinkage and operability between all these data require cooperation and the development of investment for modernisation of the agrifood value chain.
TRACK is at the crossroad of two Smart Specialisation Platforms: platform for Industrial Modernisation and AgriFood platform.
Projects
As further step of the previous “Cosmetics4Wellbeing” (COSME-Cluster Go International strand 1), Global Cosmetics Cluster -Europe (GCC.eu) is a 24 months project that intends to confirm a leading role in the representation of the cosmetics sector at the European stage.
The general objective of Global Cosmetics Cluster Europe is to implement and test a Joint Internationalization Strategy (JIS) for the European Strategic Cluster Partnership–Going International (ESCP-4i), maximizing the potential of its cross-sectoral nature, developing new value chains and exploiting international opportunities for European SMEs, specially in 5 promising countries : Mexico, South Korea, USA, India, United Arab Emirates.
To fulfill this objective, a set of Specific Objectives has been agreed among Project Partners :
•To encourage business, international and R&D cooperation across sectorial boundaries
•To focus on supporting SMEs in international accessing markets, in particular through an Acceleration Programme tackling these 5 targeted countries
•To foster cooperation among cluster organisations and its members in the ESCP-4i
•To support the establishment of value chains (in particular in health, digital, agroindustry, circular economy) along with the cosmetics cross-sectorial industry
•To develop a governance system and a common branding for the ESCP-4i to ensure active and sustainable collaboration among the different stakeholders;
•To promote and increase the visibility of GCC.eu as a cluster representing the whole value chain on cosmetics: Aiming at beneficiating, directly and indirectly more than 1.500 SMEs, the GCC.eu is made of 6 Cosmetics and wellbeing Clusters from 5 EU countries and Turkey.
As cities continue to grow, so is the number of challenges they are facing. Environmental, economic or social emerging issues call for new and unproven urban solutions. The increasing need for urban innovation will result in the development of a significant number of smart cities initiatives, creating new business opportunities for Mediterranean SMEs. If we want our cities to be efficiently managed and more livable for communities, public authorities and SMEs have to work together to come up with the best technological solutions. SME4SMARTCITIES will make this collaboration possible by reinforcing the capacities of Mediterranean cities and SMEs. On the one the hand, the project will help cities to be the front-runners of innovation, in particular through the use of Public Procurement of Innovative solutions. On the other hand, the project will support Mediterranean SMEs in order to guarantee that their products and services meet the expectations and needs of smart cities.
The project aims at fighting social exclusion and poverty through improving the governance process for local development by promoting social and intercultural dialogue in the urban and peri-urban areas in the involved cities; Al-Balqa (Jordan), Rome (Italy), Mahdia (Tunisia), Barcellona (Spain).The project will implement a governance system to create a dialogue through formal organizational structures set-up between the public, 67 NGO /Associations, and private citizens in the realm of UPA. Social exclusion will find an answer in social and intercultural dialogue as an avenue towards the resolution of poverty's consequences. Groups at risk of exclusion will be provided with opportunities to render them self sufficient through urban and peri-urban agricultural (UPA) activities. The products from the agricultural process will be brought to the local organic Farmer's Market in all territories.
The agglomerations of the southern and eastern Mediterranean are facing a rapid increase in their population and a sprawl of their urbanization. The increase in the number and distances of trips may ultimately have negative consequences on the environment, especially as local authorities do not always have the technical means to plan the development of cities in a sustainable manner. It is therefore essential that local authorities equip themselves with the necessary expertise to face the current challenges in terms of urban mobility. In this context, the RAMUD project intends to promote the exchange of good practices in the field of transport policies, thus helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The countries of the Mediterranean area face the same specific energy reality: the increase in the energy price and the weakness of the electrical grid (impossibility of having increase in the power supply, interruptions, etc.), which reduces the security of supply in critical facilities such as hospital and schools as well as the proper development of the small and medium size industries. These problems are common to the target countries of MED-Solar project (Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine) where all the population is actually connected to the grid, but with scarce quality and regular interruptions and cuts-off. Instead of using exclusively polluting and expensive fuel generators against electricity interruption, the project proposes to provide the generators with a solar photovoltaic system for energy backup. With the achievement of MED-Solar the energy situation in the three target countries will improve by reducing energy costs, decreasing the dependence on imported fuel and improving the security of supply through the use of clean energy resources.
The RELS project seeks to improve energy performance in social dwellings. A model for energy renovation - which includes a common methodology for audit, measure selection, implementation and performance validation - was developed by the partners and tested in 7 pilot buildings located in Tunisia, Italy and Spain. Works carried out on selected buildings concern thermal insulation (replacement of windows and better external walls insulation for instance), installation of photovoltaic panels or use of LED/CFL light bulbs. Overall, efficiency measures are expected to cut emissions of greenhouse gases and energy consumption in pilot buildings by 20%. By encouraging better efficiency in the housing stock of the Mediterranean area, partners of the RELS project hopes that energy savings will begin at home.
SHAAMS will facilitate the take up of solar technologies by raising public awareness on energy efficiency through the transferability and implementation of good practices in legal, regulatory, economic, organizational issues and new financing mechanisms. Therefore, SHAAMS will define and implement a series of actions, by identifying and highlighting the opportunities and potentialities of solar energy solutions for the social and economic development of the region covered by the ENPI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme. The project will rely on a collaborative approach between partners while facilitating the exchange of data (indicators) between public administration bodies, research centers, universities, firms and agents of the civil society and allowing the consortium to analyze the needs, expectations and requirements of all the actors and to provide solutions coherent with all the agents’ needs.
In order to achieve these objectives the SHAAMS project will be conceived as a threefold action project divided in terms of activity:
- SHAAMS Policy Accelerator: Policy support actions will be implemented in order to identify innovative solutions, solar energy strategies and to generate a unified approach towards a long term policy perspective for solar energy development.
- SHAAMS Enterprise and Research Accelerator: Fostering market support structures and new procedures for the development of a reliable market for solar energy
- SHAAMS Social Accelerator: The activities conceived in the section will address societal agents and intend to promote a cultural and behavioral change towards solar energy among society.
The main objective of the GMI project is to develop an integrated and environmentally sound waste management system, ensuring treatment and recycling, through exploitation of innovative technologies and sustainable methods for waste treatment and recycling with the support of an awareness campaign and communication program.The target group - mainly schools and university students - will benefit from an incentive based recycling activity. They will recycle their empty containers using the RVM in return for points generated by the machine itself and will then redeem their points for rewards based on a redemption scheme that will be implemented throughout the project.An estimated amount of 20 tons of used bottles and cans will be collected through RVMs that are placed in schools and universities across the 6 participating countries of the Mediterranean Area. These machines will be centrally connected via GPRS to an online reporting system.
The aim of SCOW, funded by the ENPI CBCMED Programme, is to develop low cost, technically simple and high quality biowaste collection and recycling models in territories with touristic areas and agricultural activity. SCOW wants to build up a sustainable, innovative and local treatment of the biowaste in decentralized small-scale composting plants, developed essentially in agricultural holdings situated near the biowaste production areas in the partners’ territories.
It will contribute to improve general waste management, closing the cycle of the organic matter in countries with an important lack of organic carbon at soil. It will also help to improve land structure and fertility, reducing desertification (applying compost to soils), global warming (avoiding the entrance of biodegradable materials to landfills and capturing carbon in soil) and landfilling capacity needs (reducing waste entrance). In addition, it will create new economic activity, even at waste collection and treatment sectors and compost selling. The experience would be able to be reproduced in other Mediterranean zones, reducing impacts at source, through a simple management of the biowaste collection and treatment with the idea of self-sufficiency.