With the Baltic Sea on its doorstep, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is one of Germany's most popular vacation destinations. But the north has more to offer than just the sea: Extensive fields and meadows hold enormous bioeconomic potential. In order to exploit the regional innovation potential and thus drive change in structurally weak regions, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research launched the "WIR! – Wandel durch Innovation in der Region" (Change through Innovation in the Region) funding program in 2017.

Digital solutions for agriculture in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

In the first round of funding in 2019, a broad alliance in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was already able to attract millions in funding to transform the state into a "model region for the bioeconomy." In August 2021, 23 regional alliances were again selected for WIR funding by the BMBF, including the "ArtIFARM Alliance" from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In the coming years, the alliance wants to use artificial intelligence to develop digital solutions for transparent agricultural processes in order to increase resource efficiency in agriculture. These include data-driven soil management, innovative machine and storage capacity sharing, and novel procurement and distribution communities.

8 million euros for innovation-based structural change

As part of the WIR funding program, the BMBF is providing 8 million euros to the alliance. "ArtIFARM offers agriculture technical, AI and IT solutions for the major current challenges such as climate change and resource protection, thus contributing to sustainable value chains and innovation-based structural change in the Eastern Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania region," says Alliance spokesman Mark Vehse of Stralsund University of Applied Sciences. Stefan Seiberling from the Center for Research Promotion and Transfer at the University of Greifswald adds: "ArtIFARM offers a great opportunity to advance agriculture together with all relevant stakeholders through artificial intelligence. This allows us to address the major challenges such as consumption of non-renewable resources, overfertilization, biodiversity loss and CO2 neutrality in a scientifically sound way and to transform our region in a sustainable way."

Innovations for four research fields

The alliance wants to work out exactly which innovations are needed for four research fields: autonomous processes on the farm, digital agricultural management, technologies for greater resource efficiency and digital solutions for transparent agricultural processes. The ArtIFARM alliance brings together more than 60 partners from the districts of Vorpommern-Rügen, Vorpommern-Greifswald and Mecklenburgische Seenplatte. These include research institutions, farms, associations, societies, companies and start-ups.

bb