This October, the EFRA project participated in Synergy Days 2025 in Rotterdam, the flagship European event bringing together innovators, researchers, and policymakers working at the intersection of digital transformation and the agri-food sector.
Represented by Rainno, EFRA joined the two-day event to showcase how AI, federated learning, and green data technologies can transform food safety from a reactive model into a proactive system of risk prevention.
Throughout the event, EFRA’s booth served as a meeting point for discussions around the project’s real-world use cases, from predicting poultry pathogens and optimising pesticide use to supporting regulatory decision-making. Visitors expressed strong interest in how EFRA’s predictive and privacy-preserving AI models can contribute to a more resilient and data-driven food system.
On the first day, EFRA co-organised a workshop with the ARGONAUT project, titled “Business Models for AI-Powered Platforms in Bioeconomy and Food Chains.” The session brought participants into a live, interactive discussion about data-driven innovation and sustainable business strategies for digital platforms.
Through real-time polls, attendees shared feedback on two key questions:
1️⃣ Which services should enable the EFRA Platform?
2️⃣ Which is the value proposition for those enabling services?
The session inspired vibrant exchanges on the exploitation of data spaces, the use of the correct business model canvas and the importance of it being agile, user-driven, secure and trustworthy. Furthermore, it was an opportunity to explore how AI, blockchain, and open data spaces can generate trust and create value across Europe’s bioeconomy.
On the second day, Grigoris Matenoglou, project manager at RAINNO took the stage to deliver a concise, three-minute pitch introducing the EFRA project. The presentation highlighted how EFRA is developing the world’s first analytics-enabled, secure-by-design, green data space dedicated to AI-powered food risk prevention.
By combining intelligent data crawling, privacy-preserving AI, and sustainable computing, EFRA aims to help Europe move from food recalls to food readiness, ensuring safer, more transparent, and energy-efficient food systems. The pitch was well received, sparking interest in EFRA’s potential to deliver real-world impact across the entire food value chain.
EFRA’s participation in Synergy Days 2025 underscored the project’s role as a bridge between AI innovation, data governance, and food safety. The team returns from Rotterdam inspired by the feedback and collaborations that emerged, ready to continue building a safer, greener, and smarter European food system.
