STELAR Holds Insightful Webinar Exploring Funding Opportunities
Yesterday, the EU project STELAR held an internal webinar for its consortium members, focused on discussing and investigating diverse funding opportunities available from both public and private sources. Hosted by the project’s Exploitation team from Foodscale Hub – Exploitation Manager Tatjana Knežević and Junior Business Analyst Jovana Malić, the webinar aimed to equip participants from research institutions and businesses alike with the needed knowledge and strategies to secure funding from various sources on national, regional, and EU levels.
Public vs. Private Funding: Which Way to Go?
Moreover, the webinar also explored private funding avenues, such as angel funding opportunities, private equities, venture capital, and private accelerator programs. By providing insights into both public and private funding options, the Exploitation team empowered consortium members to make informed decisions aligned with their funding needs and objectives.
The STELAR consortium, consisting of nine partners from five different countries, encompasses a diverse range of organisations, including four research and innovation partners (Athena Research Center, University of Athens, University of the Bundeswehr Munich, Technical University Eindhoven), four industrial partners (RapidMiner, Agroknow, VISTA, ABACO Group), and one non-profit organisation (Foodscale Hub). This diverse representation underscores the collaborative nature of the project and the importance of facilitating knowledge exchange among partners with varied backgrounds and expertise.
Tackling Open Calls
Naturally, a part of the webinar was dedicated to Open Calls. Consider an Open Call as a friendly competition aimed at fostering innovative ideas. Open Calls usually seeks co-created solutions that undergo testing and refinement in real-life conditions, paving the way for their broader adoption and positive impact.
Some organisations such as Foodscale Hub offer platforms that streamline the Open Call process. For instance, Foodscale Hub has opencallhub.eu, an online platform designed to select the most promising, market-ready projects for funding.
STELAR’s Part in Innovating the Data Management System Through Funding
The Horizon EU project STELAR aims to turn raw data lakes into knowledge lakes. More precisely, the team around STELAR is developing a data management system fit for today’s agrifood needs. The innovative nature of this mission makes it clear that the consortium gathered around it would be interested in things such as funding opportunities.
When it comes to the planned data management system, the idea spurred due to the current agrifood data landscape which consists of data dispersed in different places and forms, data unfit for AI tasks and user needs, as well as subpar dataset search capabilities.
STELAR aims to design, develop, and evaluate a Knowledge Lake Management System (KLMS) – a platform and set of tools that aim to enable simple and intelligent data discovery, AI-ready data, and semantic interoperability in smart agriculture and food safety applications.
To wrap up the internal webinar hosted by STELAR served as a valuable platform for consortium members to gain insights into a myriad of funding opportunities. By equipping participants with the necessary knowledge and strategies, the webinar contributes to the project’s overarching objectives of fostering innovation and collaboration among stakeholders within the consortium.
To stay in the loop with our innovative mission, check in regularly with our STELAR Blog page or visit our STELAR LinkedIn page.
