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The kick-off meeting of the Horizon 2020 ENVISION project took place on the 14 and 15 September 2020. Due to the ongoing worldwide Covid-19 pandemic the launch of the project was organised by the Project Coordinator DRAXIS, Greece, as an online event. The aim of the meeting was to present the project overview both on the technical and administrative level and to plan the work for the first months of the project.

Yesterday – in the farmer's garden, today – already on the family table. For many buyers who value freshness and quality, it is already common to buy vegetables, fruits and berries, cheese, sausages and other farm-grown or farm-produced products directly from farmers. 

The project "Innovation-driven agri-food sectors for a European industrial renaissance" (AgriRenaissance) is financed by the INTERREG Europe programme and is implemented by the consortium comprising five EU member states: Spain (lead partner), Lithuania (National Paying Agency – NPA), Poland, Portugal and Italy. In the framework of the above project, in March 2020, a study visit of the project partners and stakeholders took place in Portugal. The aim of the meeting was to familiarise first-hand with the agri-food sector development in Portugal, to share experience in the area of related innovations among the project partners and stakeholders. Currently the NPA, among other AgriRenaissance-related issues, focuses on planning the implementation of the Lithuanian Action Plan, targeted at the activities that will promote innovations in agri-food sector in Lithuania.

After an unprecedented crisis that Europe incurred due to coronavirus outbreak, the European Commission (EC) announced about a package of nęw measures to help agri-food sector. The Coronavirus Investment Initiative Plus (CRII +) proposed by the EC will facilitate the use of European Structural Investment Funds, including the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). The initiative, which increases the flexibility of using EAFRD funds, will support farmers, rural areas and the European Union member states.

“DIONE will provide important socio-economic benefits, such as significant reduction of operational costs, improved delivery reliability towards on time full delivery, reductions of on-site inspections, while in parallel will improve resolution accuracy level of Sentinel data and enrich the portfolio of monitoring/evaluating services, differentiated in efficiency and reliability.”, highlighted Dr. Amditis, the project’s coordinator.

A delegation from the European Commission Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (EC DG AGRI) has recently visited Vilnius and met the representatives of the National Paying Agency (NPA) and the Ministry of Agriculture. 

The first meeting with all project partners of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme project DIONE took place the last week of January in Athens, Greece. It was hosted by ICCS – Institute of Communication and Computer Systems, the Project Coordinator at the Divani Acropolis Palace, Athens. The Horizon 2020 project will last until June 2022. Among the partners of the project consortium – the National Paying Agency, Lithuania.