Enhancing sustainability and resilience of agriculture, forestry and rural development through digital twins

Expected Outcome:In line with the European Green Deal, the long-term vision for rural areas and the common agricultural policy (CAP), the successful proposal supports rural communities to benefit from digital twins and strengthen their capacities for the effective and efficient deployment of innovative solutions.

Projects results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• rural communities, farmers, foresters and other rural actors take advantage of digital twins available to help them meet sustainability and climate adaptation objectives while enhancing rural economy and resilience;
• rural communities are supported by digital and data technologies in exploring different pathways to make villages an attractive place to live for its residents, achieved through strengthened capacities in data-driven decision-making, monitoring and foresight;
• a stronger (digital) rural innovation ecosystem is in place bringing together public and private players and improving attractiveness of rural areas;
• collaboration across different rural actors is fostered through innovative smart governance solutions enabling data and evidence-based policy making.

Scope:Considering that approximately one third of EU citizens live and work in rural areas, it is key to empower rural communities – farmers, foresters and other rural actors - in the transition towards sustainability and resilience so that no one is left behind. In this context, digital twins’ technology has gained attention in the past decade because of its potential in addressing challenges across numerous application areas and transforming the way businesses and public administrations operate. Nevertheless, research and innovation related to the use of digital twins in rural areas and relevant key economic sectors, in particular agriculture and forestry, is still limited. Digital twins require further exploration, innovation, testing and demonstration to fully exploit their potential, and reach higher level of maturity and scalability across different territorial and sectoral contexts.

Proposals should:

• design, prototype and test the use of digital twins to improve sustainability and resilience of rural areas and related key sectors (i.e. agriculture, forestry and other relevant sectors). Innovations should be co-created with rural actors to respond to their needs and tested for their feasibility for the territorial development opportunities or challenges that they bring;
• develop a detailed map of the villages in three-dimension employing digital and data technologies. The map should be freely accessible to local authorities, researchers, private companies and other relevant actors to monitor key parameters, test ideas and explore smart(er) and more competitive, sustainable and resilient forms of village development. Where relevant, focus should be given to the planning, monitoring and management of green areas as well as other natural elements in the village that can improve resilience to climate change;
• develop a public web-based platform allowing users to visit the 3D model of the village twins remotely, including through the use of immersive technologies (e.g. Virtual Reality). By integrating various technologies, the platform should allow the user to access information on selected elements of the cultural, historical and/or natural heritage of the village for promotional purposes while establishing a mechanism for residents to provide feedback on existing and proposed initiatives of village development;
• assess the potential of the investigated digital technologies in promoting forms of collaborative, open and citizen-centric governance;
• measure and assess the costs and benefits of the implementation of digital twins in the rural areas and sectors of application, including enablers and barriers to their uptake and acceptance by the target groups, adequacy and availability of existing public/private funding opportunities, incentives, and new business models supporting their development beyond project duration;
• provide research, business and policy recommendations supporting the successful deployment of the developed digital twins in rural areas and relevant key sectors;
• support training and capacity building for local administrations and rural actors in order to share best practices, develop skills, create and maintain a rural innovation ecosystem enabling them to benefit from the innovations developed for the digital transition in rural areas.

The application of the developed technologies should support the implementation of the smart villages concept oriented towards relatively underdeveloped and remotely located rural areas and communities.

Proposals must implement the 'multi-actor approach', with a consortium based on a balanced mix of relevant actors with complementary knowledge to achieve the objectives of the projects, including for instance relevant rural actors (in particular end-users of the digital twins), universities, research and technology organisations.

Proposals must integrate the gender dimension in the implementation of the activities (e.g. to address gender-specific needs affecting design and testing of the developed technologies, when investigating benefits and limitations, gathering and analysing disaggregated data, in the development of training and communication material as well as research and policy recommendations).

Moreover, proposals should build on results and ensure complementarities with other Horizon 2020/ Europe as well as other relevant EU-funded initiatives and projects (e.g. EU Missions, project that may follow from the topic “HORIZON-CL6-2024-GOVERNANCE-02-01: European Partnership of Agriculture of Data”) and demonstrate adequate planning and use of resources for this purpose.

Proposals may involve financial support to third parties, e.g. to relevant rural actors (including farmers, foresters and other rural businesses), academic researchers, hi-tech start-ups, SMEs, to develop, test or validate the developed digital twins and/or to provide other contributions to achieve the project objectives. A maximum 30% of the EU funding should be allocated to this purpose.

This topic should involve the effective contribution of social sciences and humanities (SSH) disciplines. By integrating relevant SSH expertise (e.g. gender expertise), the successful proposal aims to produce meaningful results that enhance the societal impact of related research activities, while delivering locally-based solutions, engaging residents, rural actors and leading to behavioural changes.

Proposals should cover various biogeographical regions with a balanced coverage reflecting the various pedo-climatic zones in Europe in a representative way and taking into account different types of villages (e.g., different size, remoteness, degree of digital maturity, reliance on economic sectors, exposure and vulnerability to climate change etc.) and farming systems.

The possible contribution of the JRC could involve support in monitoring and modelling activities applied to rural areas, agriculture and forestry.

Proposals should develop diverse practice-oriented dissemination materials (e.g. audiovisual materials, brochures) presenting the digital twins and other R&I solutions developed within the project and feed them into communication channels most consulted by the potential end-users.