Global Open Data for Agriculture & Nutrition’s (GODAN) chief executive André Laperrière will be joining the board of the EURAKNOS thematic network which is establishing and developing the compilation of knowledge relating to agri-food and forestry data
The Strategic Innovation Board (SIB) of the Horizon 2020 EU Project in Brussels, Belgium aims to create a European Agricultural Knowledge Innovation Open Source System so that knowledge coming from these networks is sustained in order to maximise the potential for its users.
GODAN, which is a UN, UK and US government supported initiative that supports the proactive sharing of Open Data to make information about agriculture and nutrition available, accessible and usable to deal with the urgent challenge of ensuring world food security, has a long and established history as one of Europe’s leading organisations in the field.
Laperrière has been continuously promoting Open Data collaborations to harness the growing volume of data generated by new technologies to solve long-standing problems and to benefit farmers and the health of consumers. This has seen him deliver key addresses and presentations in many countries across the world including Belgium.
Horizon 2020 is currently the largest EU Research and Innovation programme to date with about US$91.06bn of funding available over seven years (2014 to 2020) – in addition to the private investment that this money will attract.
The project, in coordination with the University of Ghent, is expected to be completed in December 2020, with the support of Europe’s leaders and the Members of the European Parliament.
“We are currently in the midst of a rural revolution and as the industry continues to modernise it is an honour to be offered the opportunity of a board member for the Horizon 2020 EU Project. By coupling research and innovation, Horizon 2020 is helping to achieve this with its emphasis on excellent science, industrial leadership and tackling societal challenges,” added Laperrière.
With millions of people going hungry all over the world, there are many ways in which this can be resolved and this project is a great platform as it can get off the ground early and gather momentum which will ultimately lead to its success.
Laperrière added, “The project focuses on widening existing thematic network outputs in an interactive way and the likes of cross-fertilisation will be organised among countries, regions and production systems allowing for the agricultural industry to be more efficient and effective.”
With more than 860 partners across the globe, GODAN has established a number of relationships in the country, including web platform Landfriend, EUROSIS - the European multidisciplinary society for modelling and simulation technology and Photosynthetica Ltd, a Hi-Techstart-up in agronomy.
