PATT Conference on business models and circular economy in the agri-food sector
The aim of the conference was to provide tools to stakeholders interested in future aid for the creation of operational groups
The BETA Technology Centre of the UVic-UCC has organized this Thursday a new PATT Day (Annual Technology Transfer Plan), which took place in the Gothic Hall of the Casa Convalecència Building in Vic. The organisation of this conference, which was attended by fifty people, is part of the activity of the FertiCAP and BioCircularCAP projects, two demonstrative activities financed thanks to the Rural Development Programme of Catalonia.
The aim of the conference was to provide tools to stakeholders interested in future aid for the creation of operational groups, another of the relevant calls of the Rural Development Programme of Catalonia that focuses on promoting joint technological innovation processes between companies in the agricultural, livestock or forestry sector, and research centres.
After a review of the current status and challenges of the funding programmes for operational groups and demonstration activities by Sefa de Ribot, head of the Agri-Food Innovation Service of the DACC, the director of CT BETA, Sergio Ponsá, and the director of the Catalan Water Partnership, Xavier Amores, reviewed the new business models for this sector, based on the circular economy that can be drawn from the experience gained in this type of collaboration between research and business.
His intervention has also served to put on the table the experience accumulated in the CT BETA thanks to the implementation of this type of projects, and to propose ideas for improvement in order to have a greater impact in the immediate future. To complement this part, entities such as the Cooperativa Plana de Vic, the Institut Català del Suro and the Montbrú Cheese Factory presented some success stories.
During the day there was also a participatory activity to generate ideas, debate and consensus on the subject. Finally, it also served to present the proposal to create a Catalan thematic community of nutrients, a future space in which to address key challenges related to the management of livestock waste and the circular bioeconomy.
