EU-Wide Advantages and Opportunities of the GUARDIANS Co-Creation Open Call

1. Single Market Access

• Direct pathway to 450+ million consumers and 10 million farms through a unified market without customs or technical barriers.

• CE-mark or EU conformity assessment valid EU-wide, reducing certification costs for digital hardware (sensors, robotics, drones) developed in the project.

• Common VAT and e-commerce rules make it easier for SMEs to commercialise software-as-a-service dashboards, decision-support tools or farm management platforms across 27 Member States.

• Access to EU-wide public procurement (e.g. Horizon pre-commercial procurement, CAP eco-schemes) once solutions are validated.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration and Knowledge Exchange

• The call explicitly requires multi-actor consortia (tech providers + farms) and invites partners from any EU/associated country, promoting transnational teams that share agronomic data, climatic know-how and language-specific UX insights.

• Participation in GUARDIANS pilots located in different pedo-climatic zones (Mediterranean, Continental, Atlantic, Alpine) offers real-world validation and the chance to tailor technologies to diverse European contexts.

• Networking with the project’s existing 18 partners (universities, cooperatives, DIHs) opens doors to joint publications, standardisation working groups and future Horizon Europe Cluster 6 proposals.

3. Alignment with Flagship EU Policies

• European Green Deal and Farm to Fork Strategy: core objective is to boost agro-ecological and regenerative practices, directly contributing to Green Deal targets on pesticide (-50 %) and fertiliser (-20 %) use by 2030.

• Digital Decade 2030: helps reach the EU goal that 75 % of EU businesses use cloud/AI/Big Data by delivering low-cost digital tools to SMEs that are currently underserved.

• Common Agricultural Policy 2023-27: outputs can be embedded in national eco-schemes and Farm Advisory Services, giving beneficiaries a ready deployment channel and additional income streams.

• EU Pollinators Initiative, Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and Soil Mission: smart grazing, pollinator support and carbon-sequestration monitoring position solutions for future mission calls and LIFE funding.

4. Regulatory Harmonisation Benefits

• GDPR and forthcoming Data Act provide a trusted framework for cross-border farm data sharing, easing legal concerns and accelerating data-driven service development.

• Common EU environmental regulations (Nitrate Directive, CAP conditionality) create a homogeneous compliance environment so a single algorithmic compliance module can serve all Member States.

• Mutual recognition of professional qualifications facilitates agronomists and technicians travelling across borders for installation, training and replication phases.

5. Access to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem

• Plug-in to Horizon Europe Cluster 6 networks (SmartAgriHubs, DEMETER, IOF2020 legacy) to reuse open APIs, ontologies and data spaces.

• Contact points with EIT Food, EIP-AGRI Operational Groups and Digital Innovation Hubs provide acceleration services, mentoring and soft-landing support in new markets.

• Possibility to showcase results at AGRITECHNICA, Green Week, or EU AgriResearch Conference with the backing of an EU-funded project logo, boosting visibility and credibility.

6. Funding Synergies and Leverage Potential

• Cascade funding mechanism allows fast, lump-sum payments with minimal financial reporting, ideal as a bridge before larger instruments.

• Follow-on options:

- European Innovation Council Transition/Accelerator to scale deep-tech hardware.

- LIFE or Horizon Europe Innovation Actions for large-scale demonstrators.

- InvestEU AgriTech window or EIB agriculture loans for commercial roll-out.

- Regional ERDF/CAP Strategic Plan funds to co-finance on-farm deployment after the 15-month programme.

• Combination with the parallel GUARDIANS Test-Before-Invest Open Call gives an extra €10 000 per project and a second pilot site, multiplying impact at no extra fund-raising effort.

7. Scale and Impact Potential

• The four-phase structure (Design, Development, Validation, Replication) guarantees at least two real farms per solution, creating a living EU reference and powerful user testimonials.

• Results are expected to be open, interoperable and standards-based, easing pan-EU adoption and future export to Horizon-associated countries.

• Contribution to EU-level KPIs: increased digital maturity of 200+ farms, reduction of GHG emissions per hectare, and improved biodiversity indicators, all measurable and reportable to EU scoreboards.

• Early alignment with EU-wide data spaces (Common European Agricultural Data Space) positions beneficiaries to monetise anonymised data streams legally and ethically.

8. Strategic Value of Operating at EU Level (vs. National Only)

• Larger addressable market lowers pay-back period for R&D investments and attracts venture capital that looks for continental scalability.

• Cross-border datasets improve AI model robustness (different soils, climates, breeds), giving EU players a competitive edge over single-country solutions.

• EU branding enhances trust and adoption among farmers who are increasingly conscious of digital sovereignty and vendor lock-in.

• Harmonised IPR, state-aid and public procurement rules cut transaction costs, letting SMEs focus on innovation instead of legal adaptation.

9. Actionable Next Steps for Applicants

1. Build consortia that mix at least two Member States to maximise evaluation scores on impact and dissemination.

2. Map your solution to specific Green Deal and CAP indicators; use them as measurable KPIs in the proposal.

3. Engage local EIP-AGRI Operational Groups to secure post-project replication funding before Phase 3 ends.

4. Reference existing EU data standards (AgroVoc, CEF building blocks) to signal regulatory readiness.

5. Plan IP strategy with EUIPO SME Fund vouchers for low-cost trademark and patent protection across the Single Market.

Bottom Line

The GUARDIANS Co-Creation Open Call offers far more than €81 000 in lump-sum finance. It provides a springboard into the entire European agritech value chain, leveraging the Single Market, EU policy momentum and a mature innovation ecosystem to achieve rapid, EU-wide scale that would be difficult or impossible to replicate through purely national programmes.