European CEADS project – Data exchange in agriculture to become easier and more secure

From October 21 to 22, Rotterdam hosted Synergy Days, the leading conference for digital innovation in the European agricultural and food sector. This was the first time that the European Common European Agricultural Data Space (CEADS) project was presented to a broad international audience.

Pressemitteilung: Europäisches Projekt CEADS – Datenaustausch in der Landwirtschaft soll einfacher und sicherer werden
© BLE
F.l.t.r.: Nobert Schlingmann (AEF), Florian Gierling (BLE), Bernd Rauch (IESE-Fraunhofer), Kristin Ohlendorf (BMLEH), Raghad Matar (IESE-Fraunhofer), Luiz Massucati (BLE) und Franziska Bucher (AEF)

The German partners are co-financed by the European Union and the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMLEH). The BLE is responsible for project management. Its office supports the German consortium, consisting of the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE), Agricultural Industry Electronics Foundation e.V. (AEF), VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH, and Landeskuratorium der Erzeugerringe für tierische Veredelung in Bayern e.V. (LKV).

Data-based innovations and new value chains

CEADS aims to increase the economic, ecological, and social added value of European agriculture. In doing so, the highest standards of data protection, security, and ethics are to be guaranteed. The sharing of data is intended to lead to more efficient processes, data-based innovations, and new value chains – including AI-supported applications that promote competitiveness and sustainability.

Over the next three years (duration: April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2027), 36 partners from more than 15 EU member states will work to enable secure, sovereign, and trustworthy data use along the entire agricultural and food value chain, including public administration. CEADS will be implemented in an interactive and application-oriented manner. Various interested companies from the agricultural and food industry will be actively involved in the project to ensure broad participation from all EU member states. Concrete use cases from practice will be considered and examined in international cooperation. 

The total cost of the European project amounts to 16 million euros. Of this, 50 percent is funded by the EU (8 million euros). The BMLEH is supporting the German consortium with 674,214.76 euros.

A secure data space for European agriculture

The launch of the European project on April 1, 2025 marks the beginning of a new phase of digitalization in the agricultural and food sector. The aim of the project is to establish a secure, interoperable, and trustworthy European data space for agriculture. 

CEADS was initiated by the European Commission and is coordinated by the Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO) in Belgium. The initiative is part of the European Data Strategy and builds on the results of the predecessor project AgriDataSpace (2022–2024), which created central technical, legal, and organizational foundations for a federated, interoperable data space model. 

Further information on the project and the partners involved can be found at: https://ceads.eu.

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