The BISITE Group of the University of Salamanca has been selected to participate in the Programa Misiones IA, a Spanish initiative within the framework of the Digital Spain Agenda 2025 and the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (BOE 26/06/2021), aimed at large R&D projects carried out in cooperation with public and private entities. Thanks to our project “AgrarIA. Artificial Intelligence Applied to the Value Chain of Agricultural Production 2050”, we have obtained funding of 750,000 €, which will be used to investigate Artificial Intelligence as a  technology with which to lay the technical foundations for the radical transformation of the Spanish agri-food sector’s value chain.

Our project will include an interoperability module that will facilitate the extrapolation and transfer of the results obtained in every single initiative to other sectors or particular use cases. In connection with the zero carbon footprint objectives, a big part of the project will be dedicated to researching green algorithms, their metrics and means of promoting the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions caused by the electric consumption of computers.

Weather Station Prototype-WiForAgri

Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and Cybersecurity

In addition to promoting the radical transformation of the value chain of the Spanish agri-food sector, AgrarIA seeks to guarantee the security of the Internet of Things in industrial environments (IIoT).

Nowadays, cybersecurity is highly important since the greater the connectivity, the greater the risks. That is why we have decided to coordinate the C1b3rWall Academy in conjunction with the National Police. C1b3rWall is an initiative designed to train professionals in the field of cybersecurity free of charge. The course will include a hundred specialists from different areas and will run until September 2022. It is possible to enrol in the course at any time.

One of AgrarIA’s strengths is that the conducted research is applied in real use cases that are representative of the agri-food sector. These range from the development of new environmentally friendly phytosanitary products, to the use of cooperative robotics for the optimization of the transformation phase of products, including the design of quantum artificial intelligence applications or the application of digital twins in crop management.

The key to successfully obtaining funding of this sort is the implementation of innovation methodologies such as the Playbook Model, which is based on transforming any innovative idea into a successful product or service. On the e4you platform, you can do a free course on innovation that will be of great help when developing innovative projects.

This funding is no doubt a great opportunity for our research group and for the development of the agricultural sector in Spain.

The project AGRARIA: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE APPLIED TO THE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION VALUE CHAIN 2050″, with File Number: MIA.2021.M01.0004 relating to the Call for the granting of aid to finance projects of the “R&D Missions in Artificial Intelligence 2021 Program”, within the framework of the Spain Digital Agenda 2025 and the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, has been financed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, and co-financed with European funds from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (RRM).

Posted by Juan M. Corchado

Juan Manuel Corchado (15 May 1971, Salamanca, Spain) is Professor at the University of Salamanca. He has been Vice-Rector for Research from 2013 to 2017 and Director of the Science Park of the University of Salamanca. Elected as Dean of the Faculty of Science twice, he holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Salamanca and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of the West of Scotland. He leads the renowned BISITE (Bioinformatics, Intelligent Systems and Educational Technology) Research Group, created in 2000. Director of the IoT Digital Innovation Hub and President of the AIR Institute, J. M. Corchado is also Visiting Professor at the Osaka Institute of Technology since January 2015, Visiting Professor at the Universiti Malaysia Kelantan and Member of the Advisory Group on Online Terrorist Propaganda of the European Counter Terrorism Centre (EUROPOL). J. M. Corchado has been president of the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society, and academic coordinator of the University Institute for Research in Art and Animation Technology at the University of Salamanca, as well as researcher at the Universities of Paisley (UK), Vigo (Spain) and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (UK). He currently combines all his activity with the direction of Master programmes in Security, Digital Animation, Mobile Telephony, Information Systems Management, Internet of Things, Social Media, 3D Design and Printing, Blockchain, Z System, Industry 4.0, Agile Project Management, and Smart Cities & Intelligent Buildings, at the University of Salamanca and his work as editor-in-chief of the journals ADCAIJ (Advances in Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence Journal), OJCST (Oriental Journal of Computer Science and Technology) or Electronics MDPI (Computer Science & Engineering section). J. M. Corchado mainly works on projects related to Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, IoT, Fog Computing, Edge Computing, Smart Cities, Smart Grids and Sentiment Analysis. He has recently been included in the board of trustees of the AstraZeneca Foundation, along with other health professionals and researchers recognised for bringing scientific knowledge closer to society.

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