CEADS aims to increase the economic, environmental and social added value of European agriculture while ensuring the highest standards of data protection, security and ethics. Through secure and trustworthy data exchange, CEADS aims to promote smart and sustainable agriculture, enable innovation based on artificial intelligence, strengthen the competitiveness of the agricultural sector and improve climate resilience and ecological balance. The initiative responds directly to the European Data Strategy and leverages the results of the AgriDataSpace project (2022-2024), which has developed key technical, legal and organizational foundations for a federated and decentralized data space model.

“Just as every successful harvest begins with data, we are sowing the future of Europe's agricultural and food data with CEADS,” emphasized Jürgen Vangeyte, Director at ILVO.

As part of the kick-off, the consortium partners formulated the strategic framework for achieving the following key project objectives:

• Provision of high-quality agricultural and food data, 
• development of added value through real data exchange, 
• establishment of functional and trustworthy data governance, 
• development of sustainable business models for data exchange, 
• application of ethical and legal data standards, 
• development of a secure and interoperable technical infrastructure and 
• networking of existing initiatives to create an EU-wide agricultural data space.

The project will be implemented iteratively, with the active involvement of relevant stakeholders and via open calls for tenders to ensure broad participation from all EU Member States.

Fraunhofer IESE coordinates the technical implementation and contributes its data room expertise

As the lead partner in the work package for the realization of the technical infrastructure, the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE is assuming key tasks in the project at the interface between technological development and practical applications. IESE is coordinating the technical implementation at the European level, supporting the integration of the eight real use cases from various agricultural areas, and actively shaping the adaptation of the technical solutions to the requirements of governance and the CEADS business model. The Institute's broad methodological and technical expertise as well as its experience in the design and integration of digital data spaces and ecosystems will be incorporated. The Kaiserslautern-based institute can draw on its extensive know-how from projects such as COGNAC, X-Kit and the feasibility study on state agricultural data platforms, particularly when it comes to setting up and operating digital agricultural data spaces and the business models based on them.

A special focus within the work of Fraunhofer IESE is on the topic of data sovereignty - a central building block for trust in data-driven applications that has often been missing so far. In CEADS, a consent & transparency dashboard is to be implemented that will enable farmers, companies and authorities to manage consents for data release transparently, comprehensibly and easily in the future. This should significantly increase the acceptance and participation of data providers.

With its participation in the EU project CEADS, Fraunhofer IESE is continuing its strategy of actively shaping the digital transformation in agriculture and combining European innovative strength with practical solutions. “CEADS is a strategic lever for the digital transformation of the European agricultural sector”, emphasizes Prof. Dr. Jörg Dörr, member of the extended institute management of Fraunhofer IESE. "We now have the opportunity to bring together the previously highly fragmented digital ecosystem in the agrifood domain and create real consistency - in terms of technology, organization and content. In doing so, we are also creating the conditions for the responsible and effective use of artificial intelligence in agriculture." Bernd Rauch, project manager at Fraunhofer IESE, adds: "CEADS is not only creating a European data space - it is also creating practical added value for all stakeholders along the agricultural value chain. Our aim is to reduce complexity, increase efficiency and make it easier to share data."

Fraunhofer IESE's participation in the project is supported by co-financing from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Home Affairs (BMLEH).

Further information: https://ceads.eu or by e-mail to bernd.rauch@iese.fraunhofer.de.