Authors: Rosa María Heredia Hortigüela (University of Almería)
How conducive are agricultural ecosystems to support digital transformation?
This question guided the development of the CODECS Report on Digital Ecosystems produced by the University of Almeria. The team analysed 19 Living Labs digital ecosystems across Europe to understand how the infrastructure, resources, collaboration mechanisms, governance models, actors and their capabilities, and knowledge flows shape the way digitalisation is adopted in farming contexts.
The report was coordinated by the University of Almería (Spain) through the UAL–COEXPHAL Chair, with contributions from Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche – CNR (Italy) on process modelling and from the University of Hohenheim (Germany) on the role of AKIS in digital ecosystems.
Living Labs are a core methodological pillar in CODECS, as they bring together farmers, researchers, technology providers, cooperatives, public actors and other stakeholders to co-design and test digital solutions in real environments. However, not all Living Labs operate under the same digital conditions and this affects how easily technologies can scale, be adopted and translated into real value.
This report provides an analysis of 19 individual digital ecosystems linked to CODECS Living Labs and located in over 17 European countries. Rather than assessing digital tools individually, it focuses on the “digital conduciveness” of each ecosystem: that is, the extent to which the environment supports the growth, success, and adoption of digital activities, such as the development of new technologies, the creation of new businesses, and the uptake of digital solutions.
The document applies three complementary analytical lenses to understand how digital ecosystems function and evolve:
- Asystemic perspective combined with a resources and capabilities approach: examining infrastructures, actors, skills and organisational conditions that enable digitalisation.
- Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS) lens: exploring how knowledge flows, advisory services and multi-actor interactions support or limit digital uptake.
- Process-model perspective: analysing what changes in the ecosystem before and after digital technologies are introduced.
The results go beyond describing which technologies are in use. Instead, they provide a deeper understanding of how and why digitalisation progresses differently depending on local conditions.. Although each Living Lab works in a different agricultural domain (e.g., greenhouse horticulture, dairy systems, precision irrigation, agroecology,), several common patterns emerged:
- Digitalisation is not only a technological process, but an organisational one. Strong coordination actors (cooperatives, universities, advisory services, tech hubs) often play a more decisive than simply increasing the number of sensors or platforms.
- Skills and capacity gaps persist, especially for farmers and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Ecosystem that integrate training and technical support tend to show higher adoption rates.
- Funding and sustainability models vary widely. Some Living Labs rely on public programmes, while others are linked to private supply chains.
- Digital maturity is uneven, but progress is visible. Most ecosystems remain in a “developing stage”, with relatively low levels of data governance, integration or collaborative environments.
The relevance of this report lies in showing that understanding digital ecosystems is essential for moving beyond pilot projects and accelerating scalable, farmer-centred, socially inclusive digitalisation.
The findings from this report will contribute to the report on Comparative assessment of Digital Ecosystems (to be published in 2026); the policy and stakeholder recommendations on digital ecosystems in rural areas; and future work on indicators of digital readiness, scaling potential and digital conduciveness at both farm and system levels.
The report is available on our website.
