Agriculture has been a nursery for practical solutions to global challenges for a long time. EU agriculture is the only major system in the world that reduced greenhouse gas (CHC) emissions by 20% since 1990. Nonetheless, even though the EU’s transition to sustainable food systems has started in many areas, food systems remain one of the key drivers of climate change and environmental degradation and there is an urgent need to transition to sustainable food systems. To realize this ambition, actors of the food chain must play their part in achieving sustainability within their food chains. To obtain a new quality of sustainable innovation and transform, we need another approach including a more diverse and multidisciplinary perspective, that enables barriers between science, technology, industry, and the arts to be removed, and enabling synergies along the value chain. Hungry EcoCities, takes inspiration from the 2008 book by Carolyn Steel where a core question of civilization, social, phycological and sustainability impact is put forward: how do we feed a city? To answer this question in this project, growers, and agricultural specialists’ team up with artists, designers and creative thinkers to come up with new ideas for the future food system. Hereby we start from a European approach centered on human needs and values. Hungry EcoCities puts forward a high-level alliance between science, technology, and the arts, to effectively explore how digital technologies & applications can lead in turn to reduced food waste, more sustainable value chains, eco-friendly attitudes, and a more ethical food consumption. Hungry EcoCities brings together some of the world’s most renowned art studios with leading AI and agricultural experts and a network of over 40 leading European agricultural companies to develop ways of creating a more healthy, sustainable, and affordable agri-food system for all.

Better Factory will provide methodology for Manufacturing SMEs to collaborate with Artists to develop new and personalized products. At the same time Better Factory will provide technology for SMEs to become fully connected cyber-physical-systems, transforming them into Lean-Agile production facilities capable of manufacturing new and personalized products alongside existing products. Main results: - An Advance Production Planning and Scheduling (APPS) system which can be deployed on a free and open IoT platform at 10% of the cost in 50% less time. APPS will automatically reconfigure the collaborative robots considering the individuality and gender of worker, and will also reduce 10% assets, 25% area, 30% resources, 35% logistics, 40% machines and tools and workplaces, resulting in 13% cost reduction, 15% production increase and 30% time to market. - A Marketplace, a one-stop-shop, where Manufacturing SMEs can buy services from Technology suppliers, Artists, CCs, training providers and financial brokers. - A portfolio of 16 cross-border Application Experiments by 48 SMEs selected through 2 competitive Open Calls, that will test APPS, SME+Artis collaboration and other services, and leveraging 11M€ of public and private funding becoming success stories. - Services, including Technical, Business and Art mentors, infrastructure, training and access to finance. Better Factory network consists of 28 members. 18 DIHs (10 CCs, 8 industry associations), 6 Technology suppliers and 4 service providers for marketing, access to finance, FSTP management and legal framework. Partners are currently engaged in I4MS-Go, DIH², HORSE, L4MS, MIDIH, AMABLE, BOWI, SHOP4CF. Better Factory covers 16 EU countries, 17 regions with 10 of them from EU-13. Better Factory will demonstrate that public funded research can help manufacturing SMEs & Mid-Caps achieve digital excellence and global competitiveness through Lean-Agile production for the manufacturing of new and personalized products.