The Foundation Science Park of the Universitat de València (FPCUV) organizes a new Innotransfer conference on April 16 at 10.30am. The open innovation program promoted by the five science parks of public universities in the Valencian Community with the support of the Conselleria de Innovación, Industria, Comercio y Turismo de la Generalitat Valenciana, under the title: “Agricultura y competitividad en el nuevo marco europeo. Regulación, mercado e innovación en la producción primaria” ("Agriculture and competitiveness in the new European framework. Regulation, market and innovation in primary production.")

Before the conference, we would like to know your areas of interest. Please fill out the following survey.

The meeting will analyze how the recent change in the regulatory European market - from the reform of the Politica Agraria Común (CAP) 2023-2027 to the strategies of the European Green Deal and "Farm to Fork¨- have transformed the conditions of the production and competitiveness of the agricultural sector. According to the European Commision, the agri-food system accounts for about 10% of employment in the EU, while in Spain the agri-food sector contributes around 9.2% of GDP and more than 2.3 million jobs, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. In this context, the adaptation to the new environmental requirements, pressure from international markets and the impact of trade agreements such as EU-Mercosur put primary production in front of important structural challenges.

The conference will focus on how scientific innovation, technological transfer and cooperation between research, companies and the agricultural sector can become key levers to strengthen the resilience and competitiveness of the Valencian countryside. Throughout the meeting, issues such as digitalization and precision agriculture, development of bioinputs, genetic improvement of crops or new models of organization and cooperation in the sector will be addressed, connecting researchers, public administrations, cooperatives, farm organizations and companies around innovative solutions for the future of agricultural production.

Various international reports agree that the European agri-food system faces a transition scenario marked by the need to produce more efficiently and sustainably without losing competitiveness in global markets. According to FAO, the global demand for food could increase up to 50% till 2050, caused by the population growth and changes in consumption patterns, which necessitate increasing agricultural productivity while reducing environmental impacts. In this context, the agricultural innovation, from the pressured agriculture and the digitalization to bioinputs or genetic improvement of crops, is emerging as a key tool to improve the efficiency in the use of resources like water, energy or fertilisers.

At the same time, the European institutions highlight the importance of reinforcing the knowledge transparency between the research, companies and the production sector. Program like Horizon Europe or the European Innovation Partnership for agricultural productivity and sustainability (EIP-AGRI) seek precisely to accelerate the adoption of innovative solutions in agriculture. According to the European Commision data, more than 3000 agriculture innovation projects were promoted in recent years within the framework of these initiatives, with the aim of improving the productivity, sustainability and resilience of the European agri-food system.

To analyse how these transformations can be translated into concrete opportunities for the Valencian agricultural sector, the new Innotransfer conference will take place in the Marie Curie Auditorium at the Scientific Park of the Universitat de València (PCUV), so it is necessary to pre-register in order to attend the event.

If You will not be able to attend the event in person, it is possible to watch the conference live via the Scientific Park of the Univesitat de València. YouTube channel.

PROGRAM

 

Thursday, April 16

10.30 - 10.45 | Institutional Opening

Pedro Carrasco Sorlí, director of the Scientific Park of Universitat de Valéncia (PCUV)

Francisco Javier Sogorb Guerra, general vice director of the Avance de la Sociedad Digital y de las Tecnologías Habilitadoras Digitales, Generalitat Valenciana

10.45 - 10.55 | Presentation 

The European Union’s new regulatory and trade framework

Ernest Reig Martínez, professor emeritus of the Economic Analysis and researcher at the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (Ivie)

10.55 - 11:05 | Round table 

Structural challenges to primary sector competitiveness

Enrique Bellés Llopis, general director of the Federación de Cooperatives Agro-alimentàries de la Comunitat Valenciana

José María García Álvarez-Coque, professor of the Applied Economics and Agricultural Economics and Policy at the Polytechnic University of Valencia

María Carmen Morales,director of the Quality and Sustainability Department of the Anecoop S.Coop.

Pilar Alguacil, Chair of Agri-food Cooperatives at the Universitat de València

Josè Castro, innovation Agent in the Unió Llauradora i Ramadera

Benjamín Saldaña, professor at the Department of Mercantile Law ¨Mauel Broseta Pont¨ 

12.05 - 12-20 | Coffee Break 

12.20 - 13.10 | Round table 

Solutions, collaborations and inversions to reinforce the resilience of the sector

María José Fabra Rovira, titular scientist of CSIC at the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA-CSIC)

María Ángeles Forner Giner, deputy director and coordinator of Centro de Citricultura y Mejora Vegetal del Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA)

Manuel Laínez Andrés, independent consultant in food research and innovation and market analyst at Plataforma Tierra

María del Carmen Marqués Romero, investigator at the Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio, CSIC-Universitat de València).

Diego Orzáez Calatayud, scientific researcher at the CSIC and leader of the Synthetic Plant Biology group at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of Plants (IBMCP, CSIC-Polytechnic University of Valencia) 

Vicente Tejedo Tormo, regional secretary of Agricultura, Agua, Ganadería y Pesca and director of the Agencia Valenciana de Fomento y Garantía Agraria (AVFGA), Generalitat Valenciana

13.10 - 13.40 | Round Table

Emerging innovation: startups and spin-offs in the transformation of the agricultural sector

Pablo Romero, startup Leafgenes Solutions

Italo Moletto, startup SmartYield

Miguel García Pineda, spin-off AgriDronIA

Josemaría Delgado, startup Modoru Biotech

13.40 - 13.45 | Closing and conclusions

Vicente Tejedo Tormo, regional secretary of Agricultura, Agua,Ganadería y Pesca and director of the Agencia Valenciana de Fomento y Garantía Agraria (AVFGA), Generalitat Valenciana