NADiRA aims to incorporate Copernicus, other Earth Observation products and in-situ IoT devices into mAgriTM, an existing value chain orchestration platform connecting, in smallholder contract farming, producers with banks, insurers, input providers and agro-industries to control risks and improve the productivity, security, and welfare of tens of thousands of African farmers. By industrializing EO products , NADiRA reduces mAgriTM’s operating costs, while increasing the timeliness, granularity and reach of its following services: (1) Agricultural investment risk mapping, to reduce finance institutions cash-out and increase availability of input credit to smallholders, (2) More robust, affordable agricultural insurance contracts, to reduce persistent climate risk, (3) Improved smallholder tactical management of crop nutrient deficiencies and post-harvest losses to increase productivity, harvest quality and income. NADiRA demonstrates, on a large market scale, the economic and commercial viability of the combination of EO, IoT and mobile technology and its leverage on the new business model implemented by MANOBI, Swiss Re, credit and insurance institutions and agro-industries to improve smallholder productivity. Four pilots run in parallel in Senegal and Nigeria targets (i) different crop types and production systems (irrigated rice, rainfed peanuts, maize and sorghum) in (ii) 10 crop campaigns (4 irrigated, 3 rainfed) and (iii) various production environments and management practices. This demonstration sustains the development of a business plan with financial objectives and an associated roadmap to capture 30% of the addressable market in Africa. The outreach actions benefits from the communications channels of the NADiRA partners, active in Africa (MANOBI, Swiss Re, ICRISAT, local banks and farmers associations), in Europe (SPACEBEL, University of Liège, Viveris and EUGENIUS association) and Asia (ICRISAT). A Copernicus Relay will be established in West Africa.

Modern critical infrastructures are becoming increasingly “smarter” (e.g. cities). Making the infrastructures “smarter” usually means making them smarter in normal operation and use: more adaptive, more intelligent… But will these smart critical infrastructures (SCIs) behave equally “smartly” and be “smartly resilient” also when exposed to extreme threats, such as extreme weather disasters or terrorist attacks? If making existing infrastructure “smarter” is achieved by making it more complex, would it also make it more vulnerable? Would this affect resilience of an SCI as its ability to anticipate, prepare for, adapt and withstand, respond to, and recover? These are the main questions tackled by this proposal. The proposal envisages answering the above questions in several steps. (#1) By identifying existing indicators suitable for assessing resilience of SCIs. (#2) By identifying new “smart” resilience indicators (RIs) – including those from Big Data. (#3) By developing a new advanced resilience assessment methodology (TRL4) based on smart RIs (“resilience indicators cube”, including the resilience matrix). (#4) By developing the interactive “SCI Dashboard” tool. (#5) By applying the methodology/tools in 8 case studies, integrated under one virtual, smart-city-like, European case study. The SCIs considered (in 8 European countries!) deal with energy, transportation, health, water… Results #2, #3, #4 and #5 are a breakthrough innovation. This approach will allow benchmarking the best-practice solutions and identifying the early warnings, improving resilience of SCIs against new threats and cascading and ripple effects. The benefits/savings to be achieved by the project will be assessed by the reinsurance company participant. The consortium involves 7 leading end-users/industries in the area, 7 leading research organizations, supported by academia and lead by a dedicated European organization. External world leading resilience experts will be included in the CIRAB.

The overall objective of the L3Pilot project is to test the viability of automated driving (AD) as a safe and efficient means of transportation, exploring and promoting new service concepts to provide inclusive mobility. This high-level objective is detailed as four major technical objectives: (i) create a standardised Europe-wide piloting environment for automated driving (ii) coordinate activities across the piloting community to acquire the required data (iii) pilot, test, and evaluate automated driving functions and connected automation (iv) innovate and promote AD for wider awareness and market introduction. The European automotive sector must remain competitive in vehicle automation in the face of increasing competition from the US and Asia. Only by joining forces in pilot testing and evaluation of AD systems with real users will European industry meet the challenge coming from overseas. The project will focus on large-scale piloting of SAE Level 3 functions, with additional assessment of some Level 4 functions. The functionality of the systems used is exposed to variable conditions in 11 European countries, 100 vehicles and 1000 test drivers. The approach will be to adapt the FESTA methodology for testing automated driving needs. The tested functions cover a wide range from parking to overtaking, and urban intersection driving. Due to its large coverage of driving situations, L3Pilot is unique, and the first project which will demonstrate and test such a comprehensive menu of automated driving functions. The data collected will also be made available for third parties outside the consortium, for further use. The evaluation of the data will focus on technical, user acceptance, driving and travel behaviour, impact on traffic and society. The project promotion will include user outreach campaigns with four showcases, and the creation of a comprehensive guideline - a Code of Practice - with best practices for the development of automated driving functions.