Sector Technology, machine, and stable construction

Entrepreneurs and employees from the technology sector, machinery manufacturers, barn builders, and other agricultural advisors and suppliers will find an answer here to the question “what can ILVO do for me?”. You’ll get a brief overview of relevant expertise, analyses, infrastructure, and the professional approach that characterizes ILVO. You can contact the Living Lab ‘Agrifood Technology’ for questions regarding partnerships.

Go to Agrifoodtechnology.be

What does ILVO do?

How does ILVO work?

Businesses in the technology, digital, barn building, and mechanical engineering sectors often lack the time to explore and develop new technologies themselves. ILVO wants to support these parties with the above broad palette of expertise and a modern research infrastructure. We use a Living Lab approach here.

Your point of contact: The Living Lab ‘Agrifood Technology’

The ILVO Agrifood Technology Living Lab focuses on the development of new technological innovations in a co-creative framework. These innovations aim to optimize processes, from field to fork.

Typical for the approach within the Living Lab is the cycle of the design phase, prototype construction, and practical trials that are carried out multiple times in order to arrive at solutions that work at the farm or company. Demonstrations are also part of that process. The end-user of the technology – e.g. a farmer or grower – is involved in the development from the start. Lastly, we work according to the minimum viable product (MVP) principle, meaning ILVO can help you find the right financing or a suitable business model.

> Some examples of innovations developed in co-creation with businesses and end-users are available on the Agrifood Technology Living Lab website.

Your ILVO guarantee

  • Scientifically-based solutions
  • Individual and/or co-creative guidance for innovation trajectories
  • Confidential treatment of your question
  • Clear and easy-to-interpret results that are applicable to day-to-day operations
  • Technological support for various farm processes

Unique infrastructure

  • State-of-the-art workshop for automation and robotization prototype development
  • The latest drone, robot, and sensor technology for precision farming, -animal husbandry, -fishing, and -food industry applications
  • AIplatform4agrifood (in development)
  • Data sharing platform DjustConnect
  • Farm with > 20,000 m² of housing for experimental dairy cattle and their calves/heifers, as well as pigs, poultry and rabbits
  • > 200 ha of trial fields
  • 50 ha of organic trial fields in an agroecology trial platform
  • > 15,000 m² trial greenhouses
  • An accredited lab for spray technology
  • Pilot plant for food processing on a semi-industrial scale: Food Pilot
  • Access to working farms, research vessels, and commercial vessels

Wide network

ILVO is part of various networks around digital innovation in the agro-food sector and hosts its own innovation hum: Smart Digital Farming. This hub started as an innovative business network but has grown into a self-supporting, mature innovation hub that focuses 100% on the valorization of digitization in agri-food.

Smart Digital Farming provides ecosystem services, develops business cases, tests new concepts and finds financing for these activities. This all happens within a quadruple helix model. The hub also provides specific trainings in the framework of precision agriculture. The unique partnership with ILVO’s living labs makes Smart Digital Farming a one-stop shop for every actor in the agri-food sector who has questions about digitization.

> More info: Smart Digital Farming

All ILVO expertises at your service

ILVO works in an interdisciplinary fashion and has a network of living labs that work closely together. A problem or question is therefore examined from many different angles by ILVO experts from different disciplines. This is guaranteed by ILVO's broad and systematic approach, together with the typical openness of the ILVO culture.

Contact an expert

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