Horizon Europe Sixfold Project: Stimulating innovation experiments in food processing with live demonstrators

SIXFOLD unites the partners of the "Smart Sensors 4 Agri-food" partnership and its network of Living Labs with a clear objective: to stimulate innovation experiments in food processing. Live demonstrators. The dual transition is at the heart of the Green Deal and the Farm to Fork strategy. The agri-food sector plays a pivotal role in realizing these ambitions. The nature of deep technological innovation also highlights the need for a transition through responsible regulatory frameworks.

Living Labs seek greater experimentation by engaging societal stakeholders and addressing the barriers to innovation faced by agri-food businesses. SIXFOLD aims to facilitate the implementation of deep tech within the agri-food sector by building a robust network of Living Labs across the EU. This network will support a dynamic, regionally integrated ecosystem that thrives on deep tech innovations relevant to the agri-food industry, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, robots and co-bots, biotechnology, and more, across the food system. This is a critical time for agri-food businesses to experiment with innovative technologies and collaborate with deep tech innovators.

SIXFOLD is based on an existing framework. However, a careful assessment of the current situation is conducted through interviews and study visits, after which the assessed barriers to innovation are addressed through a tailor-made co-creation process. This ensures maximum involvement of external experts, regulators, and broader stakeholders at the regional and European levels and, in turn, generates a more comprehensive and validated Action Plan tailored to real-world needs.

In this way, the Living Labs network will facilitate collaborative knowledge exchange by actively engaging stakeholders from various regions and ensuring inclusion and diversity in participation. Among other objectives, the updated Living Labs Network Operational Manual will form the basis for a successful transition to sustainable food systems across Europe.