On July 14–18, representatives from Agrifood Lithuania’s Forest 4.0 and GFarm for Life projects joined colleagues from the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists for the EDIH4IAE networking mission, which focused strongly on international collaboration and digitalisation.
This mission had a twofold purpose: on one hand, Lithuanian SMEs had the chance to present their activities, gain valuable contacts, and discuss shared challenges with innovation stakeholders across Europe. On the other hand, ecosystem support organisations explored cooperation opportunities and exchanged good practices in supporting digital transformation.
“Our visit focused on exploring two distinct yet complementary innovation ecosystems: the Czech Republic and Italy. The Czech EDIHs are strongly rooted in industrial sectors, with technological strengths in high-performance computing, cybersecurity, and applications tailored to manufacturing and engineering. In contrast, Italian EDIHs emphasize AI-driven solutions for public administration, sustainable agriculture, tourism, and broader digital transformation. While their sectoral priorities differ, both ecosystems share a commitment to collaborative EU projects, technology transfer, and strengthening SME competitiveness through digital innovation,” – says Artūras Jakubavičius, Innovation Development Expert at the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists.
Beyond the opportunity to spotlight the potential of Lithuanian industrial SMEs, the mission also enabled the Agrifood Lithuania team to introduce two of its flagship initiatives: Forest 4.0 and GFarm for Life.
“Throughout our mission, we had the opportunity to present the Forest4.0 Centre of Excellence – a forward-looking initiative highlighting digital innovation in the forestry sector. By showcasing our solutions and cross-sectoral collaboration models, we emphasized Lithuania’s strengths in sustainable digital transformation and our readiness to contribute to the European innovation ecosystem. We also had an opportunity to exchange ideas on developing such centres of excellence with our Italian counterparts,” – says Inga Vyšniauskienė, Head of Communications at Agrifood Lithuania.
The week-long mission underlined the importance of cross-border collaboration in accelerating digital uptake across Europe. By connecting with leading innovation hubs and sharing best practices, Lithuanian stakeholders strengthened their role in the European digital landscape – opening new doors for cooperation, technology transfer, and future project development.