The Hungarian REGIONS 4FOOD Action Plan targeted two main issues: 1.) encouraging cooperation between agri-food stakeholders and 2.) supporting the agri-food sector by encouraging digital technologies. The former issue (or action) resulted in the strengthening of the cluster movement among agrifood enterprises, whilst the latter action in the widening of the eligible activities co-financed by EU grants for agrifood farms and SMEs (for example purchase of software or of IT platforms used for own data based operation of agrifood enterprises). The third and still ongoing issue or action of the Hungarian Action Plan is the transfer of higher education Master of Science program centred on digital agriculture and food innovation from Spain to Hungary. In this third action South Transdanubian Regional Innovation Agency works together with the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences and University of Sevilla.
On the other hand, it is worth noting that, the South Transdanubian Regional Innovation Agency within the Regions 4Food project set as an objective to impact the Economic Development and Innovation Operational Programme Plus (EDIOP Plus). This impact could not have been delivered without the active participation of the Hungarian regional and national stakeholders. These stakeholders equally represented the public and the private sector, and according to their own capacities they offered their agrifood digitization experiences and provided insight into their competences and daily routines. From these inputs, several good practices were identified that reflected the level of data-based operation at agrifood enterprises. As a result of this common learning the need for enhanced cooperation among agrifood enterprises, and the extended deployment of the modern digital technology tools and solutions was identified and proposed for policy improvement.
The transfer of the agrifood digitization Master of Science program is different to this as it serves not the innovation potential of the agrifood SMEs, but the human resource / staffing capacities of these enterprises. This third development or improvement direction indirectly contributes to EDIOP Plus but is not directly targeted by that policy instrument.
