[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/6694\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EOpen data can secure our food supply \u2013 Dr Panagiotis Zervas\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhere does agricultural data come from and what can it be used for?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018There is a lot of data in the agricultural sector. It\u2019s produced by different types of connected objects such as farming equipment, sensors in the fields or even microchips in animals. There are also trials in specific farms about how different commodities are being produced or how different plants are being grown.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018All this data was initially stored on a computer for limited use, but now there is plenty and it\u2019s creating a demand to make this data available to the wider public and for researchers so they can improve their understanding (of agriculture) and decision-making.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Whether it\u2019s for writing research papers, for farmers to improve the performance of their yield, or for policymakers to see production in specific areas \u2013 all these aspects can be supported by opening up agricultural data.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat exactly does it mean to open up agricultural data?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Open data for agriculture means it is open to the world and enables researchers to share their data so it is reusable for other purposes. In the past one of the problems for researchers was that they didn\u2019t have access to data from other researchers, but thanks to data sharing, they can now perform new experiments.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EConsidering there are over 12 million farms in Europe, is it difficult for scientists to make sense of such a huge source of data?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018This is an emerging problem that is becoming even bigger. The amount of data is huge and coming at such a high velocity while also being very heterogeneous (diverse). This creates a problem of how to store it, how to manage it and how to process it in an effective way so any party, either researchers or policy makers, can extract the information they need.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EYou are also the project manager of the EU-funded AGINFRA PLUS project, which aims to process this data and share it in useful ways, how are you doing that?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The aim is to exploit core (open data) infrastructures that are already put in place (through\u0026nbsp;EU funding)\u0026nbsp;\u2013 these are\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.egi.eu\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003EEGI.eu\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/openaire.eu\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003EOpenAIRE\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/eudat.eu\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003EEUDAT\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.d4science.org\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003ED4Science\u003C\/a\u003E. We work with research communities in the agriculture food sector and try to customise and extend these existing infrastructures to provide services to conduct research in a more efficient and effective way.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The data we gather could also be used by companies, like start-ups, to develop additional applications. In the end we want to create a central hub of agricultural and food data that can be further exploited by any stakeholder.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow will your open data help agriculture and food researchers?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We are working with data from three specific research communities within the agrifood sector in terms of providing them with data management, data analytics, and data visualisation. The first is related to global agricultural modelling, which is related to short- and long-term food production within climate change conditions. It is being led by the Wageningen University (in the Netherlands), one of the biggest agricultural research centres in Europe.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The second area addresses specific problems in food security, the need to analyse data produced by plant phenotyping (information regarding growth, resistance, physiology and other traits) and its correlation to crop yield, which is being led by the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), another one of the biggest institutes in Europe that performs agricultural research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018The amount of data is huge and coming at such a high velocity while also being very heterogeneous.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EDr Panagiotis Zervas, Agroknow, Greece\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The final area is related to the design of high performance food safety workflows that extract data models from scientific literature and provides insights on generating and maintaining food safety models. This is being led by the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018(Researchers) have a lot of data from the traditional (day-to-day) work they are doing, but sharing this information put us in a good position to experiment with different data sources to develop more understanding.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat\u2019s been the biggest challenge when accessing and processing this data?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The agriculture and food sector is very fragmented and has different data sources which make it quite difficult to combine and create meaningful services.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We are using technologies that identify semantics of the data and connect these different sources using existing standards. For example, we try to interconnect terms that are being used from different data sources, ones that can easily be linked with other terms and then be organised by specific technologies. This allows data to be analysed easier and provide appropriate results for decision making mechanisms.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow can AGINFRA PLUS future-proof Europe\u2019s food supply?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We hope to address bigger challenges (by offering data services), like climate resilient agriculture and food security, as well as specific social issues that are being set by the European Commission.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018One of the impacts we want to achieve at the end is to contribute to the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/research\/openscience\/index.cfm?pg=open-science-cloud\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003EEuropean Open Science Cloud\u003C\/a\u003E. We hope to open up agriculture science, and that means all the data being gathered and collected within the project will be accessible to anyone. This means they will be able to reuse data from different sources and research communities, which will help advance understanding in specific fields.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018This will eventually impact the agricultural food sector in general and can help the researchers dealing with sustainable agriculture, food security and food safety do their jobs better.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EIf you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022moreinfoblock\u0022\u003E\n \u003Ch3\u003EFOOD 2030\u003C\/h3\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHow to future-proof our food and nutrition system will be the question on everyone\u0027s lips when researchers, policymakers and industry experts meet in Brussels, Belgium, on 16 October for the conference\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/research\/conferences\/2017\/food2030\/index.cfm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003EHarnessing Research and Innovation for FOOD 2030: a science policy dialogue\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOn the menu for debate is how research and innovation can help ensure that nutritious food and water are available, accessible and affordable for all, build climate-smart food systems, minimise food losses and waste, and boost innovation and investment.\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003EThe idea is to share ways in which research and innovation is already having an impact and identify future areas for exploration.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-nenn31v1xfbdpaxhoxsypthj0qybmqekwzvvin5xnbs\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-Nenn31v1XfBDPAxHoxsyPthj0QYBMqEKWzVviN5XNbs\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]