STELAR in Focus: Results So Far and Plans Moving Forward
Discover the latest from the STELAR project, featuring recent Pilot activities, publications, knowledge-sharing events, and expert interviews — all demonstrating how data solutions and AI are driving smarter farming practices.
Take a moment to explore these developments and see how our work is shaping the future of agriculture.
STELAR Pilots: Key Moments from the Recent Open Days
The latest STELAR Open Days provided an excellent opportunity to explore how agricultural data can support more reliable planning and decision-making. Attendees from a wide range of fields – including agricultural sciences, digital farming, remote sensing, and academic research – joined the sessions to learn from the project’s Pilot teams.
- Pilot A Open Day: Pilot A, led by Agroknow, hosted an Open Day focused on risk prevention in food supply lines. Held within the Joint Workshop on “AI for Food Risk Prevention”, co-organised by ATECluster and Rainno – with support from the HORIZON EFRA and HOLiFOOD projects – the session explored how AI-driven approaches can support early detection and mitigation of food safety hazards. The demonstration featured tools developed within the STELAR project, highlighting predictive methods aimed at improving food risk management across supply chains. Participants had the opportunity to test the tools and engage in valuable discussions with the project team.
- Pilot B Open Days: During its first Open Day, Pilot B leader VISTA presented its approach to addressing the complex challenge of early crop growth forecasting. By aligning and labelling spatio-temporal data, the team is working towards enabling yield predictions even earlier in the season, supporting more timely and informed agronomic decisions. The second Open Day brought together insights from across the STELAR consortium, focusing on field delineation, time-series processing, and crop type classification. Particular attention was given to the processing of satellite data to generate consistent and reliable field-level time series.
- Pilot C Open Days: On the first Open Day, Pilot C leader Abaco showcased how one of their clients is embracing smart agriculture to refine its winemaking process, support agronomic decisions, and assist oenological evaluations. A predictive model was presented, demonstrating how climate factors – such as temperature, rainfall, and water stress – can be analysed to estimate vintage quality. During the second Open Day, the focus shifted to apple production. The session explored how climate conditions influence orchard suitability and emphasised the importance of tracking critical temperature events, such as late frosts and summer heatwaves, when assessing land suitability for apple growing.
STELAR’s Final Plenary Meeting: Tools, Pilots, and the Road Ahead
As STELAR approaches its conclusion on 31 August, the consortium gathered in June in Munich for the final plenary meeting, hosted by our partner Bundeswehr University Munich at the Forschungsinstitut Cyber Defence (CODE).
- On Day 1, we revisited the project’s key outcomes, starting with the presentation of the Knowledge Lake Management System (KLMS) platform and the Knowledge Graph that STELAR is developing. We also explored the integration of STELAR’s tools within the KLMS.
- On Day 2, discussions centred on STELAR’s three Pilots and how the tools developed within the project are supporting risk prevention in food supply chains, improving early crop growth predictions, and enabling timely precision farming interventions.
We also addressed the roadmap for the long-term sustainability of the project and preparations for the final event, which will showcase the KLMS platform and its capabilities.
STELAR at the EDBT 2025 Conference
Results from the STELAR project were presented at the EDBT 2025 conference, highlighting significant progress from the project.
Wieger Punter from Eindhoven University of Technology, a member of the STELAR consortium, presented the paper on SpatialSketch during the Spatial and Temporal Data Management session. This work, developed within STELAR to support exploratory data analysis, is implemented in the Synopsis Data Engine. The conference also offered opportunities for networking and discussions with international researchers in data management, increasing the project’s visibility.
In addition, the University of Athens presented a paper on entity matching with Large Language Models at the DOLAP Workshop, co-located with the EDBT conference. The study explores the use of 7-billion-parameter Large Language Models with 4-bit quantisation to address the core data management challenge of entity matching.
ACM SIGMOD Research Highlight Award for OmniSketch
This spring has been particularly fruitful for the STELAR project. Alongside impactful paper presentations at EDBT and DOLAP 2025, STELAR’s work also received international recognition.
The publication OmniSketch, authored by Wieger Punter and Odysseas Papapetrou from Eindhoven University of Technology, and Minos Garofalakis from Athena Research Center, was awarded the ACM SIGMOD Research Highlight Award on April 29, 2025.
The awarded work introduces a sketch that enables streaming data analytics with arbitrary predicates and was featured in SIGMOD Record, accompanied by a technical perspective from a senior expert in the field. The award was granted by the ACM Special Interest Group on Management of Data (SIGMOD), further underscoring the significance of the contribution within the data management community.
STELAR Tech Briefs: New Insights from Our Latest Research
We have been sharing a series of STELAR tech briefs packed with practical solutions for challenges in smart agriculture and data management. Now, here is one more to add to the collection!
When working with large sensor networks, cloud systems, or extensive web telemetry, common problems like storage overhead and slow analytics can arise. In this edition, Wieger Punter introduces approximation techniques and explains how data synopses can help tackle these issues.
Curious if synopses are right for you? Want to know how to get started?
Wrapping Up the STELAR Podcast Journey
After a journey through smart agriculture, data management, and AI, we have concluded the Data Stories 360° podcast series. The final three episodes bring various perspectives from experts working across Europe to advance digital farming.
- Episode 8: Drawing on his extensive experience in precision agriculture, Professor Spyros Fountas from the Agricultural University of Athens and the CrackSense project shares how technology adoption, farm management strategies, and information systems are improving the management of high-value crops.
- Episode 9: Ioannis Chrysakis, Research & Innovation Project Manager at Netcompany-Intrasoft and part of GREEN.DAT.AI discusses the AI and data-driven approaches in agriculture. The conversation also covers how European projects are helping shape the digital future of farming.
- Episode 10: With a strong technical background, Tomaz Bokan, Senior Project Manager at Innovation Technology Cluster, shares practical insights into how AI, IoT, and Earth Observation are being applied in agriculture.
New Expert Interviews Now Available!
The conversation continues! We have published five new interviews with experts who are actively working to make smart agriculture more accessible, reliable, and sustainable.
- Matteo Palmonari – Smarter Data for Smarter Decisions
Discover how Matteo is working with knowledge graphs and semantic annotations to make complex agricultural data more accessible and connected. - Jan Bauwens – Precision Pest Control in Action
Jan shares how IoT and AI are driving smarter, more sustainable pest management – minimising resource use while protecting crops. - Arturo Medela Ceballos – Building Bridges with Data Spaces
What happens when energy, agriculture, and AI come together? Arturo explains how federated data spaces can connect sectors and enable real-world impact. - Konstantinos Andrikos – Digital Solutions for Better Food Choices
From healthy eating to sustainable food systems – Konstantinos talks about creating digital platforms that empower consumers and support greener decisions. - George Papadopoulos – Tackling Agricultural Inefficiencies
For George, precision agriculture is not just about technology – it is about addressing the long-standing inefficiencies and environmental pressures of traditional farming.
Agricultural Fair 2025: Smarter Agriculture on Display
STELAR was presented at the 92nd International Agricultural Fair in Novi Sad, a major meeting point for the agri-food sector in the region. The fair gathered individuals, business leaders, scientific and political delegations, and innovators. The 2025 edition attracted over 1,200 exhibitors from Serbia and 40 other countries, alongside more than 130,000 visitors.
STELAR and the CrackSense project appeared side by side, reflecting their collaboration that commits both projects to advancing precision agriculture and predictive analytics.
STELAR at the Expert Workshop on AI in Agriculture
In March, STELAR project coordinator Dimitris Skoutas from Athena Research Center took part in the European Commission’s expert workshop “AI in Agriculture”, which brought together stakeholders from the farming, tech, research, and policy sector.
The event focused on real-world applications of AI in agriculture, sector-specific barriers, and future needs. Through presentations and open discussions, participants shared insights on data access, infrastructure, and challenges to adoption.
STELAR Sustainability Workshop: Exploring the Future of KLMS
On May 23, the STELAR Sustainability Workshop, led by Tatjana Knežević, Head of Exploitation at Foodscale Hub, brought consortium partners together to explore the market potential of the STELAR Knowledge Lake Management System (KLMS) – a platform for transforming raw data lakes into semantically aligned, AI-ready knowledge lakes.
- We thoroughly explored:
- The KLMS value proposition
- Potential business models
- Pricing strategies for different user segments
- A sustainable governance structure beyond the project
What’s next?
The consortium is now exploring the formation of a strategic partnership to bring KLMS to market and ensure its long-term impact on smart agriculture and data interoperability.
STELAR Featured Across Multiple Platforms
We are proud to share that STELAR’s work and insights have been featured in several respected publications and platforms.
Conclusion
We are not done yet! In the coming months, we will be sharing more interviews, stories, and hands-on examples from our work. We also plan to organise webinars, Open Days, and a final event where we can meet, exchange ideas, and reflect on what we have learned. Stay with us — and in the meantime, read our Blog and follow us on LinkedIn to keep up with the journey!
