GATES Final Event was held at the Agricultural University of Athens last 25th June 2019. It gathered around 50 students and stakeholders interested on the outcomes of the project.
GATES, Applying GAming TEchnologies for training professionals in Smart Farming in Europe, is a project supported by EUROPEAN UNION’S HORIZON 2020 RESEARCH AND INNOVATION PROGRAMME. GATES project aims to develop a game-based training platform and serious-game to train professionals across the agricultural value chain on the use of Smart Farming Technologies.
The final event was officially opened by Dr. Spyros Fountas, coordinator of GATES project, from the Agricultural University of Athens, who presented the Consortium partners, Work Packages and main results.
Zisis Tsiropoulos, from Agricultural University of Athens, presented main features of GATES game final version and explained assistants how to play the game: create new scenarios, perform different farming operations (tillage, sowing, irrigation, fertilization, spraying and harvest), and use Smart Farming Technologies to increase yield. The GATES game library was also presented, which aim to support users of the GATES game on understanding better the benefits of precision agriculture. Likewise, Nemanja Nicin, from Inosens, presented the results from 3 validated learning cycles (VLC) that have been carried out during the whole project. These VLCs aimed to gather feedback from stakeholders in order to improve GATES game. Figures showed that 253 farmers, 287 students, 63 SFT specialist and 141 company representatives have taken part in the process.
Finally, GATES communication and dissemination tools used throughout the project where presented by Maite Zarranz from Iniciativas Innovadoras, while her co-worker, Camino Fabregas, presented the Business strategy of GATES game to help partners get the game into the market. The currently game platform is at TRL7_level (i.e. prototyping and market validation phase). For the time being, the gaming platform is open and has been designed as a white-label app, with the possibility of being customized according to the needs of paying customers.
The event was closed by Ignacio Ruiz, Secretary-General of ANSEMAT, the Association of Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers and their legal representatives in Spain, who lead an open discussion regarding the importance of GATES game to foster the use of Smart Farming Technologies in order to improve the current status of the European agriculture.