RENOVATE consortium meets again in Portugal for their General Assembly and a first beta platform showcase

A partner working session to review project progress and present ongoing work to Portuguese stakeholders

The RENOVATE consortium gathered mid-June in Caldas da Rainha and Óbidos (Portugal) for a working session hosted by partner DaTerra. Partners from across the consortium spent the meeting reviewing, hands-on, all Work Packages to discuss the building blocks that sit at the heart the RENOVATE project: gamified learning modules, agricultural simulators, the RENOVATE App, the training packages and the practical farming information coming from the Advance Knowledge Transference Actions (AKTAs).

This was carried out ahead of the next round of Focus Groups planned for September.

The RENOVATE consortium during the working session in Portugal.
The RENOVATE consortium during the working session in Portugal.

The gamified learning modules turn the priority topics identified during the first round of Focus Groups: sprayer calibration, dose expression and calculation, sustainable use of plant protection products, integrated pest management, operator safety and the adoption of new technologies, into short, engaging exercises that farmers can complete in a few minutes. The simulator places the user inside a 3D agricultural scene where they can practise the key field tasks, from diagnosing a disease on a vine leaf to calibrating the sprayer, preparing the spray mix and operating in compliance with EU regulation. The RENOVATE App brings everything together into a single tool that farmers can carry on their phone or tablet, with a focus on a clear interface and intuitive navigation between modules.

Moreover, partners had the chance to showcase the first beta version of the games and simulator in front of various stakholders of Portugal, including representatives of the Municipality of Óbidos, Direção-Geral de Alimentação e Veterinária  (DGAV), Direção-Geral de Agricultura e Desenvolvimento Rural (DGADR), Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional de Região de Lisboa e Vale do Tejo, Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária (INIAV), Escola Superior Agrária de Santarém (ESAS) and the company Granfer.

RENOVATE simulator presentation in front of Portugal stakeholders
RENOVATE simulator presentation in front of Portugal stakeholders

Feedback from the stakeholders was, overall, very promising and positive. The stakeholders provided their feedback on the prototypes, the visual quality of the simulator and the structure of the gamified modules. At the same time, partners identified a series of practical refinements: clearer in-app instructions, improvement of technical contents, smoother interactions in the simulator, language adjustments and additional scenarios to reflect farm variability. The technical teams will work to integrate these features over the coming months.

With this internal review complete, the consortium will continue refining the games, the simulator and the App so the version unveiled in September is ready for its real audience: farmers, advisors, trainers and other stakeholders, who will test the tools during the next round of Focus Groups across the six participating countries.

The Portugal meeting is a milestone in a deliberately iterative process: by putting the platform into the hands of the consortium first, RENOVATE is making sure that the version of the tools farmers see in September is ready for them, practical, intuitive and grounded in real agricultural needs.

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Funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement 101134024. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the REA can be held responsible for them.