Last week, the CODECS project held its General Assembly (GA) in Ljubljana, hosted by the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering. The meeting gathered project partners to consolidate research progress and outline the final steps leading to the project’s conclusion.
CODECS Coordinator Gianluca Brunori (UNIPI) opened the assembly by reviewing the project’s goals and achievements. He underlined CODECS’ mission to provide a comprehensive framework for assessing the sustainability of digital technologies in agriculture, one that goes beyond economic factors to include social and environmental dimensions. He also highlighted the successful establishment of a strong network of Living Labs (LLs) across Europe, serving as key testbeds for digital innovation in agriculture.
Exploring digitalisation’s real impact
Project partners unveiled the Conceptual Framework and shared progress on the Methodological Handbook, a comprehensive guide that will bring together results from project outputs, including LLs. Partners also reported on research into the social costs, benefits, and environmental footprint of digitalisation. Discussions on environmental analysis explored how digital tools are shaping impacts and which agricultural processes contribute most significantly.
In the afternoon, the spotlight shifted to indicators and digital ecosystems. Partners reviewed findings from the digital ecosystems analysis, which explores how actor resources and AKIS (Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems) influence sustainable digitalisation. They debated criteria such as digital ecosystem conduciveness, a measure of how well environments enable adoption. LL coordinators also had the opportunity to validate key indicators on farm readiness, digital conduciveness, and scaling readiness.
From research to policy and tools
The second day focused on transforming research into policy insights and practical tools. Mar Delgado (University of Cordoba) presented results from the report on Policy Environment, stressing that agricultural digitalisation is the “final link in a long sequence of reforms and investments” built on strong foundations such as governance and connectivity. In addition, Pierre Labarthe (INRAE) highlighted the results from an analysis on AKIS models for digitalisation, which will be integrated in the UCO report on ‘policy environments in agricultural digitalisation’ to be published this month. The results of this AKIS analysis will also be presented during the upcoming CODECS Bootcamp on the role of AKIS for sustainable digitalisation on 8 October.
Finally, Blanca Casares and Raquel Pastor (AEIDL) introduced policy tools for sustainable digitalisation, namely guidelines for local digitalisation strategy and a checklist for policymakers, designed to provide structure, consistency, and detailed information to the evaluation and validation processes. To conclude the policy session, a World Café session allowed partners and LLs to refine key policy messages collaboratively.
The afternoon session included updates on demonstration farms’ upcoming work, virtual tours guidelines, and a workshop on good practices and lessons learned concerning physical and virtual demonstrations. The session concluded with updates on the CODECS platform state of progress and calculator demo.
International Cross-Visit: seeing digitalisation in action
The GA formally concluded with an international cross-visit to two demo farms. Partners travelled to Beekeeping Cesar, where they received a guided tour detailing the use of professional digital IoT scales to monitor remote beehives, supporting data-driven decisions on bee nutrition. The visit continued to Doppler Winery, an organic operation. Here, partners observed the use of smart sensors and LoRaWAN technology across the vineyard to monitor microclimate, soil moisture, and leaf wetness, with data sent every 15 minutes to inform protective decisions.
The CODECS General Assembly has clearly set the trajectory for the project’s final phase: ensuring that the future of digital farming is intelligent, equitable, and environmentally sound, with a clear focus on actionable policy and practical evaluation tools.
