ANTARES Annual Workshop 2021

The ANTARES Annual Workshop that took place from December 13th to December 14th, 2021, and it was a hybrid event consisting of the physical event and the online event.

On Monday, December 13^th, Vladimir Crnojević, director of the BioSense Institute, participated in the biggest event dedicated to the education of the agricultural extension services advisors in Vrnjačka Banja. He was a part of the plenary session and moderated a round table discussion dedicated to the digital transformation of agriculture in Serbia. The event gathered around 200 participants, and among them high-ranking policy makers from Serbia, distinguished representatives from academia – the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as researchers and practitioners from the Institute for Application of Science in Agriculture and Agricultural Extension Services Advisors from all over the country. The goals were:

1. To present digital solutions developed at the Institute that are crucial for agricultural extension services
2. Discuss the degree of digital transformation in agriculture
3. Maximize the outreach to key stakeholders in the country who were attending

On the second day, the ANTARES workshop was held online. The morning session was dedicated to the detailed presentations of the progress made throughout the project, overview of tasks and objectives in each work package, the current situation, and the way forward, while the afternoon session focused on the interaction with the Scientific and the Innovation Advisory Boards, specifically discussing two hot topics: the Shared Research Facility model and the Excellence Hubs model. Barbara Mester, representative of the European Commission and the current substitute of the project officer Vanessa Campo-Ruiz was present and the fruitful discussions about the way forward were very important for the further project implementation.

The event gathered around 250 people, and it contributed greatly to the further development of the project.