QLK5-2000-00111 INFORRM-IENICA - The interactive European network for industrial crops and their applications in the changing millennium/Industry network for renewable resources and materials

Contacts
Website: www.industrialcrops.eu.com
Summary Information



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Quality of Life - 5.2 Non-Food Development

Contract No:	QLK5-2000-00111
Source:	IENICA Update - September 2003
	INFORRM - Final Report July 2003

INFORRM - Final Report
July 2003

Executive Summary

INFORRM was one of two work-streams within the INFORRM-IENICA project.

INFORRM provided the opportunity for a commercial review of the sector and, importantly, to promote 'future proof' best practice in ICT (Information and Communications Technology). Its focus has been to develop a management information tool using an open data exchange technology (XML) - at a time when most other RRM activities continue to focus on gathering more highly detailed technical information, into separate databases, using disparate proprietary software packages.

Development of XML began in 1996 by a diverse group of experts and was first reccomended as a standard by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 1998. Today, XML is commonly used in diverse applications, from web sites to documentation to mobile phones - allowing easy interchange of data between disparate systems across the internet.

As part of the management of the project an INFORRM-IENICA Advisory Group was set up at the start of the project to ensure there was no overlap between the INFORRM and IENICA parts of the joint project. This consisted of representatives from the five countries participating in the project.

It was appropriate that the INFORRM project, with the stated aim to spread best practice at a European level, has been led by ERRMA part of the ongoing "RRM Group", which is itself now finalising an Information Dissemination Strategy.

As one of the first applications of XML within the RRM sector worldwide, INFORRM has taken the lead in highlighting the way forward for strengthening information use. In this vein, it is also fitting that it is accessed through a new European Portal implemented as part of the project.

A proposed interim Directory of key players has been classified according to a new INFORRM thesaurus of business competence, size, type and precise geographic location. Signposts indicating "major resources" are attached to a proportion of these key players. Supplemented by "smart tagging" and automated data mining tools, this reinforces agricultural activities within the ERA and could provide a facility for mapping of RRM clusters ('biovalleys') crucial to networking and integrated economic growth. Innovation and investment are encouraged further by the publication of some model Case Studies.

Inevitably, in a project lasting only two years and involving only 5 RRM partner organisations (5 countries), the dataset presented provides only limited opportunities for a meaningful analysis at this stage. More importantly, INFORRM has been designed specifically with future self-submission of data in mind and would lend itself particularly well to application within one or more future Networks of Excellence.

The group involved recommended that the portfolio of Case Studies be expanded significantly.

It has been shown that INFORRM interacts easily with one other database (data have been exchanged successfully with the IENICA system). A future goal could therefore be to combine information stored in many varying formats and across disparate RRM databases and components to aid in the strategic development of the sector, perhaps overseen by an "information steering group". An initial review of possible candidate databases has been undertaken.

The proposal to adopt XML is not a 'high risk' strategy for non-food crops information and, in fact, complements the wider supply chain. The chemical and petroleum industries have already (2001) agreed to develop standards for e-business transactions within and between their respective industries using XML.

At a wider level still, new visions in government are being realised, i.e. internet technologies encourage integrated solutions that cross traditional boundaries and focus on delivering services to citizens and businesses. For exmple, the UK Government has a vision of an accessible and joined-up government by 2005. XML is a key component of this vision: it is their tool of choice for enabling change and delivering value.

UK Government introduced the e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) in September 2000 to address the problems created by the diversity of systems used in government and to ensure that the government is well positioned for the future. Many overseas governments and businesses are studying this work. In order to comply with the e-GIF, XML must be the principal method of data integration.

INFORRM has pioneered the introduction of XML into the RRM arena and, as a direct consequence, could play a pivotal role in the integration of non-food crops networks during Framework Programme 6.

In conclusion, XML is being employed increasingly within government and across many industry sectors to improve the communication of information regarding matters such as finance, topography, product data, agriculture, or business transactions. Industry associations, along with various consortia, are working collaboratively to develop subject specific XML vocabularies that are relevant and meaningful to their industry sector. Using XML, descriptive tagging can be applied to information that is related to the content (e.g. or ), this was not possible with earlier metadata languages such as HTML as these exist as a set of pre-defined tags.

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IENICA - Summary report and update
September 2003

The primary aim of the project is to create synergy within the EU industrial crops industry, linking science, agriculture, industry and government within an integrated network. It is the key Gateway Facility for data on non-food crops. The project seeks to achieve enhanced technology transfer and market orientation in order to extend sustainable and economically viable non-food products from plants, through positive interaction and collaboration at all stages in the production-supply- processing-market chain. Of course "plants" includes animals!

The original IENICA project began in 1997 funded under Framework Programme 4 of the European Commission, with a member in each of the EU-IS (except Luxembourg) countries. Continued funding was secured in 2000, under Framework 5 and the project is due to finish in 2004. This second phase has extended the project to include some of the European accessing and associated states and the total number of participating countries is now 26 (see enclosure)

IENICA has a number of key objectives and deliverables. Perhaps most crucially IENICA has published market status reports for each of the EU countries (this information is now being updated and extended to include the new project countries). In many cases this is the first time the information, covering current market exploitation and potential, has been researched or published. The reports, each covering crops grown for fibre, oil, carbohydrates, proteins and speciality uses, details the areas and tonnages produced; the applications for the raw materials; the sizes and potential of these markets, plus key barriers and constraints to their development. Markets identified by IENTCA include the application of up to 300,000 tonnes of natural fibres per year within the EU automotive and airline industries and a potential biolubricants market of 370,000 tonnes of raw material in the EU annually.

Other project deliverables include:

• Workshops The organisation of major international conferences and regional seminars. 'bioplastics' and GreenTech', both held in 2002, brought together experts from all non-food crop sectors and delegates from over 20 countries. The first of the two regional seminars, held in Italy in May 2003, focused upon developments and opportunities in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean. The second, to be held in Germany in September 2003, will focus upon Central and Eastern Europe and will be combined with the international 'NanoTech' conference.
• Market Specification sheets.Aimed at farmers and processors, the specifications will be focused upon different crops and will act as a guideline when producing the raw material for industry. Specifically, the data will focus upon bast fibre plants, oil plants for biolubricants, surfactants and speciality plants for essential oils.
• An agronomy booklet, providing generic guidelines and issues to be considered when growing several industrial crops or groups of crops.
• A quarterly newsletter, detailing recent developments in industrial crops and the progress of the IENICA project (also available electronically)

All project outcomes and deliverables, including presentations and proceedings from the conferences and seminars, the market specification sheets, the agronomy booklet and the newsletters, can be found on the dedicated internet site: www.ienica.net. This website can be accessed free of charge and without need to register and is a key resource for industrial crop information.

In addition, the website includes a database of in Formation on over 100 plants with potential industrial uses. These plants include those which are fully commercialised (e.g. wheat, potatoes, maize, oilseed rape) and those which are either in development or only of potential interest. This database is updated continuously. The website also includes a Contacts database of organisations working with industrial crops. This database currently holds information on over 3000 contacts in more than 30 countries around the world. Contact details are provided as well as areas of interest (i.e. fibres, oils, carbohydrates, speciality) and market sector (industrial, commercial, R&D, agriculture). The information is provided in a fully searchable format. In addition, a new element of the website is the R&D contacts database, providing information on organisations with an R&D interest in non-food crops.

The 'Useful Data' section of the website is a collection of conference proceedings, reports, policy documents, studies, links to online resources etc. within the industrial crops field. This part of the website is constantly being updated.