Desira H2020

What Desira H2020 does

DESIRA H2020 (Digitisation: Economic and Social Impacts on Rural Areas) is a European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation project funded under grant agreement No 818194, launched in 2019 and coordinated by the University of Pisa under Gianluca Brunori. The project is a 4-year multi-partner research initiative involving 25 consortium members from 16 EU Member States and operates through a network of 20 Living Labs distributed across European rural areas covering topics such as local markets, circular economy, wood traceability, agroecological transition, forest fire risk, livestock production, and rural attractiveness. Its objective is to assess the past, current, and future socio-economic impacts of ICT-related innovation in rural areas and to support EU, national, and regional policy makers in shaping evidence-based responses to rural digitalisation.

DESIRA's deliverables include a portfolio of six public tools and platforms: the Gnomee Knowledge Base Tool (an inventory of 635+ digital tools catalogued as potential Digital Game-Changers with full-text search and visualization), the Rural Digital Europe Dashboard (an OpenAIRE-based publication repository), the Living Lab Modeler (a visualization tool for Living Lab activities), the Socio-Economic Impact Tool (an application implementing DESIRA's impact model), the Virtual Farm Platform (a virtual reality environment for accessing educational resources), and the EU Rural Digitalisation Forum (an open community of practice). Methodologically, the project applies Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) principles and a Socio-Cyber-Physical System framework to assess digitalisation impacts. All outputs are distributed as public goods with no commercial pricing.

The project does not generate commercial revenue; its entire funding base is the Horizon 2020 grant. Governance is consortium-based rather than corporate, with the European Commission as the sole institutional funder and the University of Pisa as coordinating institution. Strategic partnerships include the Joint Research Centre, DG AGRI, FAO, ENRD, and sister Horizon 2020 projects (SHERPA, MOVING, SmartAgriHubs). The project concluded its active phase in 2023 with a Final Conference in Brussels and a final General Assembly in Ghent, with outputs designed to be sustained through partner institutions and successor EU programmes.

Name

Desira H2020

Legal name

DESIRA - Digitisation: Economic and Social Impacts on Rural Areas

Website

https://desira2020.agr.unipi.it

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

DESIRA H2020 is an EU Horizon 2020 research project (2019-2023) coordinated by the University of Pisa that assesses the socio-economic impacts of digitalisation in European rural areas through 20 Living Labs and delivers public research tools, frameworks, and policy recommendations to EU and national policy makers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Rural Digitalisation Research

NAICS

Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (54172)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Digital Development & ICT4D / GovTech Technical Assistance (BPADAEAL)

Keywords

• Rural digitalisation research
• Socio-economic impact assessment
• Living lab methodology
• Agricultural digital transformation
• EU policy research

Headquarters

HQ city

Pisa

HQ country

Italy

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. EU Horizon 2020 Research Grant: DESIRA is funded under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 818194. This is a 4-year research project (2019-2023) that does not generate commercial revenue.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

DESIRA is a four-year EU Horizon 2020 research project that assesses the socio-economic impacts of digitalisation in rural areas across Europe. Through a network of 20 Living Labs, it develops conceptual frameworks, methodologies, and digital tools (Gnomee, Rural Digital Europe Dashboard, Living Lab Modeler, Socio-Economic Impact Tool, Virtual Farm Platform) and produces policy recommendations for the digitalisation of agriculture, forestry, and rural areas.

Product overview

Desira H2020 is a 4-year EU Horizon 2020 research project (grant agreement No 818194) focused on assessing the socio-economic impacts of digitalisation in rural areas. The project is a research initiative rather than a commercial product company. It operates through a network of 20 Living Labs across European rural areas and delivers a portfolio of research tools and platforms including: Gnomee (a knowledge base with 635+ digital tools catalogued), the Rural Digital Europe Dashboard (OpenAIRE-based publication repository), the Living Lab Modeler (visualization tool), the Socio-Economic Impact Tool (assessment application), the Virtual Farm Platform (virtual reality environment), and the EU Rural Digitalisation Forum (stakeholder community platform). These tools collectively support the project's mission to improve society's capacity to respond to challenges and opportunities of digitalisation in rural areas.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Gnomee Knowledge Base Tool An online knowledge base and inventory of digital tools reshaping European rural areas, agriculture and forestry. It includes 635 digital tools that can act as potential Digital Game-Changers, with full-text search, filtering systems, and visualization tools.
• Rural Digital Europe Dashboard An OpenAIRE Dashboard that brings together publications and research outcomes related to digitalisation and its socio-economic impact in rural areas, agriculture and forestry. Part of DESIRA WP5 Knowledge Infrastructure.
• Living Lab Modeler A powerful and flexible tool that helps researchers and stakeholders visualize and add value to the activities of their Living Lab in the field of digital agriculture and rural development.
• Socio-Economic Impact Tool A stand-alone modern and user-friendly application that implements the socio-economic impact model defined in WP1 and allows audiences to apply it in scenarios.
• EU Rural Digitalisation Forum (RDF) An open EU-wide community platform bringing together stakeholders with a common interest to work, learn and share knowledge about the digitalisation of agriculture, forestry and rural areas. Features face-to-face meetings, online platforms, and periodic forum events.

Quantifiable outcome

• 20 Living Labs established across European rural areas
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core, key and supporting.

• University of Pisa (UNIPI)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerProject coordinator: Gianluca Brunori leads the consortium from the University of Pisa, Italy. UNIPI serves as the main coordinating institution for the 25-partner consortium.
• Joint Research Centre (JRC)keyStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration with the European Commission's Joint Research Centre on rural digitalisation foresight exercises and contributing to the Rural Observatory platform.
• DG AGRI (Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development)keyStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on policy analysis, rural digitalisation roadmap, and alignment with CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) strategic plans.
• European Network for Rural Development (ENRD)supportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration during Rural Vision Week and inclusion of DESIRA outputs in the ENRD's Evaluation Knowledge Bank.
• FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization)supportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerFAO contributed to DESIRA discussions on digitalisation and Agriculture Innovation Systems, presenting on synergies and risks of digitalisation for smallholders and family farms.
• SHERPA (Horizon 2020 project)supportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on joint writing week in Evora (Portugal) and foresight exercises, with researchers from both projects working on academic papers.
• MOVING (Horizon 2020 project)supportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint writing week collaboration with researchers from DESIRA and MOVING projects.
• SmartAgriHubs (Horizon 2020 project)supportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerDESIRA participated in the SmartAgriHubs Final Event and Synergy Days in Lisbon, connecting with Digital Innovation Hubs and agri-food stakeholders.
• 25 Consortium Partners from 16 EU Member StatescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe consortium includes partners from: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Scotland (UK), Spain, Switzerland. Partners include research institutes, universities, public authorities, and innovation organisations.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• European Network for Rural Development (ENRD): ENRD is an EU-wide network collaborating with DESIRA during Rural Vision Week and curating its outputs in the Evaluation Knowledge Bank. It is a broader policy and stakeholder-engagement incumbent in EU rural development.
• FAO Digital Agriculture Initiatives: FAO contributed to DESIRA discussions on digitalisation and Agriculture Innovation Systems. It is a broader global incumbent with overlapping policy and research scope on rural digitalisation, including smallholder and family-farm risks.
• EU JRC Rural Observatory: The Joint Research Centre's Rural Observatory is an EU institutional platform where DESIRA contributes. It is a broader incumbent that aggregates rural indicators across Member States and offers overlapping data and policy capabilities.

Direct peers

• SmartAgriHubs: SmartAgriHubs is a Horizon 2020 project connecting Digital Innovation Hubs in agri-food. DESIRA participated in SmartAgriHubs' Final Event and Synergy Days, indicating direct thematic overlap on digitalisation of European agriculture and rural areas.
• MOVING H2020: MOVING is a Horizon 2020 project on rural value chains that collaborated with DESIRA on a joint writing week. Both projects target EU rural resilience, share the same funder, and engage similar policy and academic stakeholder networks.
• ATLAS H2020: ATLAS is a Horizon 2020 project building an Agricultural Data Space. It is highly comparable to DESIRA's digital-infrastructure-building activity in rural areas and shares the same multi-partner, EU-funded research-consortium structure.
• DEMETER H2020: DEMETER is a Horizon 2020 project focused on interoperability of IoT and data platforms in agriculture. It overlaps with DESIRA's interest in digital tools transforming rural areas and is funded under the same EU framework programme.
• SHERPA H2020: SHERPA is a Horizon 2020 sister project explicitly partnered with DESIRA on foresight exercises and joint writing weeks. It addresses rural-urban interfaces with overlapping thematic focus on EU rural digitalisation policy and stakeholder engagement.
• Internet of Food & Farm 2020 (IoF2020): IoF2020 is a large Horizon 2020 flagship project trialling IoT in European agri-food. It shares DESIRA's rural digitisation theme, EU consortium structure, and Horizon 2020 funding model.

Emerging players

• Cultivate (Cloughjordan Living Lab partner): Cultivate is the Irish cooperative coordinating the Cloughjordan Living Lab within DESIRA. It is a smaller, emerging rural-digitisation player focused on local livelihoods and sustainable community enterprise in Ireland.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/DesiraH2020
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC1nnt8u8nCoomtGA-iNN7oA
• Facebookfacebook.com/DESIRA.H2020
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/desirah2020
• Instagraminstagram.com/desira_h2020

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles14 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Desira H2020