Objectives

To fulfill the mission of METROFOOD-EPI, four specific objectives have been identified.

The consortium will work in close cooperation with the IMG for consolidating the membership and securing funding needed for METROFOOD ERIC, as well as in the follow up of the Step 1 application. It will finalise all the necessary improvements for completing the process to set up the legal entity, complete the cost book, refine the policies, and prepare the Terms of Reference (ToR) and Rules of Procedures (RoP). Particular attention will be paid to the finalization of the governance structure and management procedures of METROFOOD ERIC, with the RoP of the relevant bodies, as well as to human resources (staff) and procurement. The distributed architecture of the RI in its hub & nodes model will be finalised, addressing the interactions and communication lines between the CH and NNs, as well as the integration among the physical and the electronic component.

ICT and data management solutions will be created for the core architecture components of the electronic infrastructure and the concept for the implementation of the e-needs mapped during the Preparatory Phase. Particular attention will be paid to open access to data, and data FAIRness, security, and trustworthiness. Furthermore, the service offer will be consolidated with the purpose to build a sustainable offer to a portfolio of services that will deliver a wide, customised, and integrated access to state-of-the art facilities, agrifood data and ICT solutions through a common portal. Access procedures will be finalised consistently with the access policy.

Actions will be undertaken to consolidate the positioning of METROFOOD-RI in the agrifood sector across EU and provide its contribution to the European Research Area - ERA (Priority Areas 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16) via the implementation of its research agenda. Furthermore, it will consolidate service availability (offer) and pooling resources, while creating a single, borderless market for research, innovation, and technology across the EU in this field. The already defined alignment with European policy objectives and strategies, specifically the European Green Deal and the EU Farm2Fork strategy, as well as with the Food2030 framework and the UN SDGs will be further elaborated, as well as possibilities of integration with the EU missions and partnerships, Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs – such as JPI HDHL, FACCE JPI), and entities such as the Technology Platforms. Initiatives to liaise and interact with other RIs, Horizon Europe (HEu) consortia, and networks active in the Health and Food domain, as well as in cross-sectoral areas, for integration with the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and to consolidate the international dimension will be pursued.

A set of activities will be dedicated to the development of tools, methodologies, and strategies for long-term sustainability of the RI ensuring financial sustainability, the continuity of services offered, as well as the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of the RI. This will include strategy definition, design of indicators and targets and their validation, with the final goal to make METROFOOD-RI the reference in Europe for advancing knowledge on metrology and open access data in support of the agrifood, strengthening its visibility and increasing the potential of attracting users. Actions will be dedicated to financial sustainability, refinement, and testing of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and methodologies for impact analysis, finalisation of the risk management framework including the risk register, associated mitigation strategies and contingency plans. Further actions will be dedicated to community building and user strategies, with the purpose to actively engage users and strengthen and extend the (potential) user community of the RI. This will allow to capitalise on research activities and service provision to guarantee the long-term operation.