AGRARIAN - Open Call # 2 (IMPLEMENT)

The AGRARIAN Open Call 2 is a funding opportunity under the Horizon Europe program aimed at enhancing agricultural practices through the development of innovative AI and IoT technologies. The call is open to European SMEs, start-ups, universities, research centers, NGOs, and foundations. Eligible applicants can form a consortium of 1 to 3 partners, but no single organization can have been previously funded by AGRARIAN or its related project, OpenAgri. Each research group associated with universities and research centers can only submit one application.

The total funding available for this call is €400,000, though the exact amount awarded to each project will vary as it will be distributed among the selected proposals. The projects should focus on agricultural applications in areas such as livestock and field crops, emphasizing sustainable farming, climate resilience, and the utilization of AI/IoT solutions. The proposed solutions should be compatible with the AGRARIAN project’s testbeds and be expected to deliver a containerized application, ready for testing on one of the provided platforms.

Submissions can be made through an official online platform, with the opening date set for August 1, 2025, and the deadline for proposals is September 30, 2025. The implementation of the projects must be completed within 10 months following the signing of a sub-grant agreement. The application process involves several evaluation phases, beginning with an eligibility check followed by alignment evaluation, expert assessment, and score normalization.

Applicants will have access to three testbeds for testing their agricultural solutions, which include advanced satellite communications capabilities. The successful projects are expected to not only tackle real-world agricultural issues but also contribute to enhancing the overall sustainability and efficiency of agricultural practices through data-driven approaches.

Proposals must clearly articulate their alignment with the AGRARIAN project’s objectives and include key performance indicators to measure their impact in areas like operational efficiency and energy consumption. The overall goal of this call is to foster innovations that support a more sustainable and efficient agricultural ecosystem through the integration of cutting-edge technology.

The AGRARIAN Open Call 2 is an invitation for European SMEs, start-ups, universities, research centers, NGOs, and foundations to submit proposals that introduce new agricultural use cases and edge or hybrid AI/IoT technologies. The call aims to expand the scope and technological impact of the AGRARIAN project. Selected proposals should address real challenges in agriculture, particularly in livestock, field crops, or other related farming activities, with a focus on AI and IoT driven innovation. The goal is to develop solutions that can be tested and validated using real-world data within the AGRARIAN framework, contributing to more efficient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly farming.

The opening date for submissions is August 1, 2025, and the deadline is September 30, 2025, at 02:00 Brussels time. The expected duration of participation is implementation within 10 months after the signature of a sub-grantee agreement. The total funding available is 400,000.00 €. The project acronym is AGRARIAN, and the full name of the EU-funded project is SpAce-AIr-Ground Last Mile InfRastructure & Dynamic PrOgrAmmable DistRibuted EnvIronment For Edge FArmiNg. The grant agreement number is 101134128. The topic is HORIZON-CL6-2023-GOVERNANCE-01-13 - Open source solutions for edge, cloud and mixed model applications to strengthen production and administrative capacities in agriculture.

The submission will be done through the official online submission platform, which is directly linked to the AGRARIAN website: https://agrarian-project.eu/open-call-2/. Only applications received directly through the online submission platform will be considered eligible.

The submission process is supported by the following documents:
Open Call relate info: which includes all the information you need to know before applying.
Open Call Applicants’ Guide: which includes the project description and its objectives, information about the pilots, the testbeds, the topics to be addressed, eligibility criteria, evaluation process based on Technical Excellence, Impact and Implementation, normalization of results, validation of the legal entity, funding schedule, and other aspects.
Open Call Proposal Template: which is a guide for writing the application
Technical Annex: which describes in more details technical aspects about the testbeds and the AGRARIAN components
SME Declaration: which needs to be filled in in case the applicant has no PIC number

The evaluation process consists of four phases:
1. Eligibility check: Organizations that were funded under Open Call 1 or by the sister project "OpenAgri" are not eligible to receive funding under AGRARIAN Open Call 2. There is also a list of additional criteria (referred to in the Applicants' Guide) that all partners of the proposal must comply with to be eligible.
2. Alignment evaluation: Applicants must ensure their proposals align and are compatible with the selected testbed.
3. Experts’ remote evaluation: Applications will be assessed by expert evaluators with technical or commercial business backgrounds. Two evaluators will assess the proposals based on 3 different evaluation criteria (Technical Excellence, Impact and Implementation).
4. Score normalization: This method ensures a more balanced distribution of scores and reduces the possibility of biases and distortions.

Final Selection: All proposals are ranked based on their remote evaluation scores. In the event of a tie, a series of rules will be followed that will make it possible to reach a tiebreaker.

For more detailed information, consult the Applicants’ Guide of the call. For any questions about the process, a general email address is available at: support@agrarian-project.eu.

AGRARIAN aims to develop an open and dynamic environment by realizing an ecosystem where distributed resources and services will be programmatically aggregated on demand to support IoT / edge data-driven application workflows. AGRARIAN will develop a new programming environment and tools for the automated refactoring of existing applications and data management frameworks so they can operate in edge-based deployments as well as new edge-native programming abstractions and middleware. Based on widely accepted open-source technologies and adoption of container-based technologies and orchestrators, AGRARIAN will provide a Seamless IoT Device-Edge-Cloud layered environment able to support dynamic computing at the continuum and will utilize state-of-the-art Cloud Native Technologies that will support and extend its capabilities towards designated ML-related applications as well as edge proxies, service orchestration, and management tools. Such technologies include the use of Kubernetes, tailored to accommodate specific requirements of the constrained environments of CubeSats (e.g., KubeEdge, k3s). AGRARIAN edge AI ecosystem based on the Hybrid Network architecture will rely on an emulated network of CubeSats running portable edge-AI applications and forming a swarm of intelligent decentralized nodes.

The proposed Applications/Solutions should:
Introduce new use cases aligned with AGRARIAN’s vision and research topics
Include innovative methodologies for agricultural data collection and analysis
Leverage edge or fog computing to process data locally, closer to where it is generated
Be strictly focused on the agricultural domain
Be able to be tested and evaluated on one of the provided AGRARIAN testbeds
Bring real-field data
Store selected processed data to AGRARIAN data storage for data visualization and any further exploitation through the ADSS (see below)
Provide a finalized application ready to be stored in AGRARIAN applications repository (see below)
Address real-world agricultural problems
Have high agricultural and social impact

What AGRARIAN offers:
Three testbeds:
Testbed 1- Geosynchronous Satellite Communications with EDGE capabilities: Satellite emulation testbed with edge capabilities for GEO telecommunication satellites, based on the OpenSand platform. Edge may be on board the satellite or at the ground gateway, provided by NCSRD.
Testbed 2- Non-Geosynchronous Orbit (NGSO) Satellite Communications with EDGE capabilities: Emulation testbed for small LEO constellation with on board edge computing capabilities supporting IoT scenarios. Edge computing part is based on service modeling, while the satellite component reproduces realistic dynamics, provided by DLR.
Testbed 3- LEO-Based NB-IoT Testbed for Onboard Edge AI Data Processing: This lab-based testbed simulates the infrastructure for non-terrestrial NB-IoT communications via a LEO satellite constellation. It supports narrowband use cases with low data rates (up to 250 kbps) and enables efficient onboard edge deep learning inference capabilities. The system emulates a dual-mission payload by storing and processing both Earth Observation imagery and IoT sensor data onboard the satellite. The goal of the testbed is to validate applications that leverage IoT data for onboard inference.
Data Storage: Selected processed data generated by the applications will be stored in the AGRARIAN data infrastructure for future visualization, analysis, and exploitation. The system uses a PostgreSQL database to manage structured information, including users, sensors metadata, inference results, and other relevant information. This storage enables integration with AGRARIAN Agricultural Decision Support System (ADSS) and supports policy-level insights.
Applications Repository: All applications developed within the AGRARIAN Open Call will be stored in a dedicated container registry provided by the project. To ensure compatibility with the AGRARIAN platform, applications must be delivered in a containerized format (e.g., Docker). The container images will remain accessible to project partners and stakeholders for the duration of the AGRARIAN project. Open Call developers will retain full ownership of the intellectual property and copyrights of their submitted applications. However, each application must include an appropriate usage license (e.g., open-source, commercial, or custom license) clearly defining how it can be accessed, used, and shared within the AGRARIAN framework. Developers are responsible for embedding and maintaining this license in their application code and documentation.
Access to the AGRARIAN testbeds and datasets through VPN connections

To be eligible, the proposals on this call can be submitted by a consortium of 1 to 3 partners. Moreover, any partner of the consortium should not have been funded under an open call by AGRARIAN or OpenAgri project. Furthermore, no partner of the consortium should be directly affiliated with an AGRARIAN partner. For RTOs and Universities, one application is accepted per research group. No multiparticipation is allowed.

The eligible entities by AGRARIAN open call should be legally identified under the following categories of organizations:
Start-ups – SMEs
Universities and Research centers: One application is accepted per research group.
NGOs and foundations

Only applicants legally established/resident in any of the following countries are eligible for funding:
The Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU), including their outermost regions.
Horizon Europe associated countries: according to the updated list published by the EC on the submission date of the proposal.

Proposals should be in line with the Governance Vision and the AGRARIAN research topics. Proposals should determine the degree to which the use of the AGRARIAN platform is beneficial for their services/products. In this respect, they should include KPIs to measure the technical and economic benefits of the proposed services/solutions/technologies/IoTs in terms of optimization of operations, energy consumption, response time, accuracy, data security, etc.

Proposals falling into the following research topics (but not limited to) are expected to be funded:
Innovative Agricultural Tools
Sustainable Farming Solutions
Climate Resilience and Adaptation
Digital Solutions and Smart Farming

The proposals must fit within one of the following testbeds:
Testbed 1- Geosynchronous Satellite Communications with EDGE capabilities
Testbed 2- Non-Geosynchronous Orbit (NGSO) Satellite Communications with EDGE capabilities
Testbed 3- LEO-Based NB-IoT Testbed for Onboard Edge AI Data Processing

Proposals should anticipate that processed data generated by the applications must be stored in the AGRARIAN data infrastructure to enable integration with AGRARIAN Agricultural Decision Support System (ADSS).

Proposals should anticipate that developed applications within the AGRARIAN Open Call #2 must be delivered in a containerized format (e.g., Docker) and will be stored in a dedicated container registry and will remain accessible to project partners and stakeholders for the duration of the AGRARIAN project.

In summary, the AGRARIAN Open Call 2 is a funding opportunity for European entities to develop and implement innovative AI and IoT solutions for the agricultural sector. The call encourages the use of edge computing and real-world data to address challenges in livestock, field crops, and other farming activities. Successful applicants will gain access to AGRARIAN's testbeds, data storage, and application repository, contributing to a more sustainable and efficient agricultural future. The call seeks proposals that align with AGRARIAN's vision, research topics, and governance, and that demonstrate measurable technical and economic benefits.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are SMEs, start-ups, universities, research centers, NGOs, and foundations. For RTOs and Universities, one application is accepted per research group.

Funding Type: The funding type is a grant, specifically cascade funding.

Consortium Requirement: A consortium of 1 to 3 partners is required. No multiparticipation is allowed.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): Applicants must be legally established/resident in any of the Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU), including their outermost regions, or Horizon Europe associated countries, according to the updated list published by the EC on the submission date of the proposal.

Target Sector: The target sector is agriculture, with a focus on AI and IoT driven innovation. Specific areas include livestock, field crops, and related farming activities. The program also targets open source solutions for edge, cloud and mixed model applications to strengthen production and administrative capacities in agriculture.

Mentioned Countries: The opportunity is open to EU Member States and Horizon Europe associated countries. No specific countries are explicitly named, but the eligibility is defined by membership in these groups.

Project Stage: The project stage is implementation. The expected duration of participation is implementation within 10 months after signature of a sub-grantee agreement. The call aims to expand the scope and technological impact of the AGRARIAN project, suggesting a development or validation stage.

Funding Amount: The total funding available is €400,000. The funding amount per project is variable, as the total funding is to be distributed among multiple selected proposals.

Application Type: The application type is an open call. The submission is done through an official online submission platform.

Nature of Support: Beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a sub-grant. They will also receive non-monetary services, including access to three testbeds, data storage in the AGRARIAN data infrastructure, storage of developed applications in a dedicated container registry, and access to the AGRARIAN testbeds and datasets through VPN connections.

Application Stages: The evaluation process consists of four phases: Eligibility check, Alignment evaluation, Experts’ remote evaluation, and Score normalization. Final selection is based on the remote evaluation scores, with tiebreaker rules in place.

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly mentioned.

Co-funding Requirement: The co-funding requirement is not explicitly mentioned.

The AGRARIAN Open Call 2 is a funding opportunity within the Horizon Europe program, aimed at expanding the technological impact of the AGRARIAN project. The project seeks to develop an open and dynamic environment by realizing an ecosystem where distributed resources and services will be programmatically aggregated on demand to support IoT / edge data driven application workflows. The call invites European SMEs, start-ups, universities, research centers, NGOs, and foundations to submit proposals that introduce new agricultural use cases and edge or hybrid AI/IoT technologies. Selected proposals should address real challenges in agriculture, particularly in livestock, field crops or other related farming activities, with a focus on AI and IoT driven innovation. The goal is to develop solutions that can be tested and validated using real-world data within the AGRARIAN framework, contributing to more efficient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly farming.

The call provides access to three testbeds: Geosynchronous Satellite Communications with EDGE capabilities, Non-Geosynchronous Orbit (NGSO) Satellite Communications with EDGE capabilities, and LEO-Based NB-IoT Testbed for Onboard Edge AI Data Processing. It also offers data storage, an applications repository, and access to datasets through VPN connections. The total funding available is €400,000, and the implementation duration is expected to be within 10 months after signing the sub-grantee agreement. The application process involves submitting a proposal through the online platform, and the evaluation consists of four phases: eligibility check, alignment evaluation, expert evaluation, and score normalization. The call is open to entities legally established in EU Member States and Horizon Europe associated countries. The developed applications must be delivered in a containerized format (e.g., Docker) and will be stored in a dedicated container registry.