Category: News

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Roadshow event 1: Remote control demo

Welcome to the first event of the Nordic Testbed Network Startup Roadshow 2025: Remote control demo for forest forwarder – from Oulozone to SkogForsk Uppsala!

Time: 9.5.2025
Place: Ouluzone, Kuusamontie 3250, 91310 Arkala, Finland

Sign up  at the latest May 3th.

Cutting-edge technology: Come and see – and try! – the far remote controlled forest machine and other demos!

Participants can look forward to a thought-provoking demonstration, fresh inspiration, and the rare chance to try remote control of forestry machines from Finland to Sweden.

By highlighting the potential for research collaboration also for technology companies and machine manufacturers, the event also aims to strengthen and expand international partnerships within the Nordic Testbed Network.

Preliminary program
9:00 Coffee at Ouluzone
9:30 Welcome and short introduction to collaboration work between University of Oulu and Skogforsk
10:00 Demos and introductions
     • Remote Control for forwarder
     • Possible other activities
11:00 Lunch in Ouluzone
12:00 End of the event

The first Roadshow event is organised by both SkogForsk and Ouluzone+.

About the Nordic Testbed Network Startup Roadshow 2025:
This is a series of events held on various testbeds, aimed at engaging startups, end-users and others through activities such as presentations, demonstrations, and networking opportunities. The purpose is to increase the interaction among network members with startups, industry players and end-users, ultimately working towards the NTN Vision 2030: Co-creating sustainable solutions for a digital bioeconomy.
 
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OPEN CALL for NTN members

SNS and NKJ invite all testbed members to provide ideas for relevant activities which the network may fund.

Photo: Chrissy H/Pixabay

Total available funding is approximately 100.000 SEK. Co-funding is considered to strengthening the application. Project completion is expected by July 31st 2025.

Deadline for application is Oct 25th 2024.

We are looking for activities in line with the core of the network:
• Unite and strengthen testbeds aimed at supporting the digital transformation of the bioeconomy
• Vision 2030: Co-creating sustainable solutions for the digital bioeconomy
• Milestone 1: Increased knowledge sharing within the network and between members and other experts
• Milestone 2: Increased interaction among network members with startups, industry players and end-users
• Milestone 3: Placing sustainability at the centre of the Nordic Testbed Network’s activities

If you are interested, please send the following to tatiana.proisy@analysysmason.com :
• A short description of your idea
• A motivation to why this activity should receive funding
• A budget for the activity

Based on your input, the Nordic Testbed Network steering committee will decide how to allocate the funding. Decision is expected in November 2024.
We look forward to receiving your ideas!

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Physical event: Agtech Sweden and Knowledge hub for the digitization of agriculture

Nordic Testbed Network organises a physical event September 2nd, and UAS Forum Sweden September 3rd and 4th September.

 

2nd will be the occasion to meet again in person and attend to a fascinating study visit at Agtech Sweden and Knowledge hub for the digitization of agriculture. Save the date and prepare to travel to Linköping, Sweden on the 2nd of September for a full day of learning and collaborating!

How about combining NTN study visit with UAS Forum Sweden? Our member Drone Center Sweden is organizing their annual UAS Forum in Västervik on September 3rd and 4th. NTN will book a shuttle from Linköping to UAS Forum for members wishing to participate!  More information and the invitation will be sent before the summer break.

Register here

 

Agenda

10:00
Meeting up at Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
(exact address will be communicated next week)
 
12:00
Lunch
Linköping University
13:00
Transport to the testbed Klostergården
Presentation of the Autonomous Plot Seeder project, Morten Nygaard, TS-Agro (Denmark)
15:00
Transport to Vågerstad Farm, innovation and testfarm part of Agtech Sweden
Presentation of Vågerstad Farm (John Deere)
16:00
Transport back to Linköping University
Nordic Testbed Network meet up – all participants are welcome to share information about what is happening at your testbed 
17:30
Networking dinner in Linköping city centre
(exact address will be communicated next week)
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Webinar May 24th: Digital twins – use cases, challenges, opportunities

Download invitation by clicking the picture.

You are warmly invited to the Nordic Testbed Network webinar on the topic of digital twins! Join our testbed members to explore use cases, opportunities, and challenges linked to digital twins in the bioeconomy.

We’ll meet online in a Teams meeting May 24th at 9.00-11.00.

Register by sending an email to tatiana.proisy@analysysmason.com

Agenda:
• Inspiring initiatives
– Tomas Klingström, Gigacow (SLU)
– Finn Olav Bjørnson, SINTEF ACE (SINTEF)
– Erik Källman, Digital Earth Sweden (RISE)

• Panel discussion: Digital twins, applications and challenges
– Natalija Suhareva, Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology (LIAE)
– Maria Nordström, SkogForsk
– Hannu Haapala, Smart Bioeconomy Testbed

 

We hope to see you online on the 24th of May!

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Study visit and networking at physical event in Uppsala

The Nordic Testbed Network organised a full day event for the network participants November 14th. The hosts at Troëdsson Forestry Teleoperation Lab and Testbed for Digitalized Agriculture presented their work.

 

The members of the Nordic Testbed Network met in Uppsala (Sweden) on November 14th. Members were invited to participate in two study visits hosted by Troëdsson Forestry Teleoperation Lab and Testbed for Digitalized Agriculture. Hosts presented their work with automation, remote-controlled machinery and digitalisation in agriculture and forestry.

A guest presentation was provided by Sean Barrett from ITG studio. Sean presented ITG’s project Kelpwood & Bioplastic from Nordic Ocean Biomass, supported by Nordic Innovation. Parts of the project are focused on exploring and demonstrating how the construction industry and construction material can be more sustainable.

The Nordic Testbed Network members are more numerous every year, the event therefore included members’ presentations. Inspired by the study visits and Sean’s presentation, an open conversation on cross sectorial collaboration took place. Conversation held during the event and members’ feedback fed into NTN’s 2024 activity plan.

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Virtual meeting on Digital Twins: use cases, opportunities, challenges

Virtual meeting June 9 2022 at 10.00-12.00 to learn and share about digital twins.

 

The topic Digital Twins has been highlighted as interesting by several of the  network’s members, spanning areas such as data gathering, data uniformisation, testing, and more. Digital Twins are complex computer models fed with continuous flow of observations from the physical world. They allow a better understanding of past situations, monitor present situations, as well as predict future challenges.

At this virtual meeting you will get the chance to learn from others, as well as sharing your experiences on this topic.

AGENDA
▪ Welcoming our new testbed members, DIGIRAS, SINTEF ACE, AORO, Smart Bioeconomy Testbed

▪ Inspiring examples:
Thomas Geenen, Technology Partnership Lead for Destination Earth
Richard Tiffin, Chief Scientific Officer at Agrimetrics

▪ Panel discussion: Digital Twins, Data, and Modelling, Intelligent organic farming testbed
Liisa Pesonen (Luke)
Maria Nordström (Skogforsk)
Martin Holmberg (RISE)

▪ Workshop: What is needed to support testbed development? Based on the interviews with all existing network members, we will discuss what messages we want to send to policymakers. This will feed into a policy brief being sent to the Nordic Council of Ministers.

More information

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An outreach for co-creation, data sharing and demonstration

Due to minimal traveling caused by Covid-19 in 2020, we invited all testbeds members to provide ideas for relevant activities, which the network could fund. Alovivum was one of the testbeds that was granted funding. Their initiative involved an outreach of the testbed for co-creation, data sharing and demonstration.

 

We got the chance to talk to Henrik Hedlund, contact person for the testbed.

Please tell us more about your testbed – what is the aim of the testbed?

– In focus for the testbed is to further develop and demonstrate intensive horticulture production, using a range of hydroculture platforms for water gardening in farm buildings. In the testbed, we design, install, operate and demonstrate different innovative cultivation platforms for indoor water gardening, using hydroculture, (i e aeroponics, fogponics and hydroponics), efficient LED lighting, optimal climate control, etc.

The testbed is located in a farm building in Gödelöv, Genarp (outside Lund, Sweden) that earlier was used as a cow stable and has a size that is ideal for R&D work and the pilots that are used for testing of indoor, hydroculture cultivation. The testbed is supported with a digital infrastructure (Yggio) that connects different equipment, sensor configurations and cultivation platforms inside the farm building (barn), to assure efficient and flexible data collection and management. This infrastructure is provided by Sensative.

The testbed is setup in a peri-urban context, which means cultivation mainly of fresh, leafy greens in empty farm buildings close to urban areas, with local supply chains, directly linking producers and consumers.

The aim of the testbed is to develop and demonstrate intensive horticulture production, using a range of configurations for water gardening and hydroculture platforms, showing metrics to evaluate and show significant improvements in horticulture, including metrics for efficiency, productivity, sustainability and profitability. In focus has been to establish well-known and standardised measures, derived from different data sources, to be able to consistently provide metrics on the performance of different cultivation methods.

The testbed’s main data structure consists of:

  • monitoring and control of sensors, environment, equipment and plants at the testbed (Gödelöv),
  • collection, surveillance and calculated nodes in the Yggio middleware (provided by Sensative),
  • analysis, metrics and models in data application(s) (greenbeds.com: SDGtoolkit, mutec.cloud, etc),
  • sharing and presentation at web sites (barngreens.com, greenbeds.com, Nordic Testbed Network web site, etc).

The datasets that are generated to address the purpose to evaluate the performance of different cultivation methods, via derived and calculated metrics, can be divided into the following data categories:

  • Environment: outdoor/weather- and indoor conditions, etc,
  • Control: cultivation platforms (water source, root- and shoot systems, climate shell, etc,
  • Plant: fresh- and dry biomass, leaf area, allocation, content, capacity, productivity, efficiency, etc,
  • Resource: electricity, heat, light, water, nutrients, base area; consumption and efficiency, etc.

In a data application (SDGtoolkit, mutec.cloud, CN, Grafana, PowerBI, etc) several operations can be made on the original datasets and time series:

  • detection, classification and checks of errors in data,
  • normalisation of data for more aggregated and generic comparisons,
  • substituting data values and units, given accurate calibrations,
  • baselines for data,
  • statistical analysis on data,
  • mathematical operations on data (e g calculated nodes) to provide derived data and metrics,
  • modelling and simulation of data to evaluate different scenarios, e g upscaling of crop production,
  • modelling to automate collection of equivalent measures, e g leaf area growth as a measure of biomass growth,
  • preparing data to be comparable between different testbeds, scales, measures and units.

 

What benefits does your project offer in the context of digitalisation and bioeconomy?

– The main benefits that we hope to offer as an outcome of the project funded by the Nordic Testbed Network is that this kind of digitalisation and collection of standardised, comparable and sharable data will provide valuable metrics for efficiency, productivity, sustainability and profitability that can be used for baselines and benchmarking of different improvements in cultivation, both for different kind of horticulture production (greenhouse cultivation, indoor, hydroculture cultivation in farm buildings, urban farming, etc) and agriculture applications (outdoor farming of crops in soil)

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Norwegian Catapult develops a national infrastructure for innovation

The Norwegian Catapult programme is a governmental scheme designed to assist the establishment and development of catapult centres, with the purpose of accelerating the process from concept to market launch of the product. We got the chance to talk to Bjørn Arne Skogstad, program manager at Norwegian Catapult.

 

Why are the catapult centres important? What needs do they address?

– The Catapult centres assist companies in developing prototypes, offer expertise and equipment for testing, visualisation and simulation needed in order to turn innovative ideas into new products and services in an effective manner at a lower risk. By providing expertise, contacts and facilities in various technological areas, the catapult centres can assist companies in their strive to access new markets and captivate interest from other potential business partners. In total, companies from all Norway can take advantage of 800 industrial experts and equipment-technology to the value of close to two billion NOK. The Catapult centres have already given Norway a substantial new innovation capability. In the first 3 years more than 1 600 projects has taken advantage of this innovation capability.

In the context of the digital bioeconomy, what issues do you see as the most important going forward?

– Innovation is essential in all business sectors. In today’s competitive market, enterprises in all business sectors need to constantly develop new solutions and designs to be able to provide the most favourable, cutting-edge technologies and products. Standards and manufacturing methods are being increasingly challenged by global competition, rapid technological developments, and the demand for more sustainable solutions. The ability to quickly utilise new technology and methods is for this reason an inevitable measure to ensure the competitiveness of the enterprises.

A strong capability for innovation stimulates competitiveness. Access to facilities and expertise enhances this capability. Small and medium sized enterprises need an infrastructure for innovation. Norway needs a resilient manufacturing industry to safeguard today’s level of prosperity. There is a clear necessity of developing a modern infrastructure for innovation that supports the industry to produce competitive, high-quality products and services for the future. With major technological developments and greater focus on sustainability, the need for such a strategic infrastructure is explicit.

All Catapult centres offer test facilities of high relevance for the transition of industries in various sectors to a more digital and sustainable bioeconomic future. The five Catapult centres established so far are:

Ocean Innovation Norwegian Catapult centre: This catapult centre offers design, prototyping, testing and verification facilities for the maritime industry. The test facilities include i.a. state-of-the art land-based RASLab (Recirculation Aquaculture System), test facilities offering unique opportunities for the study and development of sustainable, land-based fish farming. The centre also includes AquaCloud, a big data platform for the fish farming industry involving data sharing services and a digital standard for the aquaculture industry. The platform addresses standardisation needs related to sensor data, fish health and environmental data.

DigiCat: The centre offers test facilities, expertise and networks for virtual prototyping and development of digital twins for all industries. In DigiCat’s facilities you can test and validate ideas, concepts and products in a digital world, faster, more efficiently and with less risk than in the physical world. Here you will literally have the opportunity to enter into your product. For example, Optimar – a global leader for automated fish processing systems, conducted the design review of a factory using DigiCat’s virtual prototyping facilities.

Manufacturing technology Norwegian catapult centre: The catapult centre offers help to further develop, simulate and test production lines prior to full-scale production in the companies’ own premises. The centre holds the expertise, the equipment and facilities to give companies increased competitiveness by offering facilities that can satisfy the companies demands on innovation, environmental friendliness and advanced production technology. The centre offers a line of minifactories  i.a. an Additive manufacturing minifactory, a digital manufacturing minifactory, an automated injection molding and winding facility, a metal forming and machining facility, a digital design lab and a lean lab 4.0, supporting companies’ demands on innovation, environmental friendliness and advances production technology.

Future Materials Norwegian catapult centre: This catapult centre addresses the increasing global need for advanced materials. Future materials possesses infrastructure, equipment and expertise in materials, powders and additive manufacturing, as well as the combinations of these. The centre offers expertise for the development and testing of both traditional and new, sustainable materials, offering the opportunity to do analysis of materials in a product, run tests, measurements and characterisations in the lab, including both small and large tests in existing equipment and up to full-scale pilot. The solutions cover metallic materials, composite materials and polymers/plastic materials. Separations and recycling is a strategic area.

The Sustainable Energy Catapult centre: This catapult centre helps businesses develop and test sustainable products and systems for the production, storage, distribution and management of energy. The centre have equipment, facilities and expertise in maritime and decentralised energy systems – both suited for testing of small individual components and larger system solutions. Strategic areas are Floating Offshore Wind, Multi Fuel systems for maritime sector including ammonia and hydrogen, Smart Grid solutions and Hydrogen technology.

Photo: Bjørn Arne Skogstad, program manager at Norwegian Catapult

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Organizing a testbed – join the virtual meeting

Digitalisation plays a vital role in the rapid development of the Nordic and Baltic bioeconomy. Access to cutting edge platforms for development, so-called testbeds, where new digital knowledge and technology can be developed is fundamental.

Managing a testbed is however a complex task. To facilitate the development of new and existing testbeds, the Nordic Testbed Network aims to unite and strengthen testbeds aimed at supporting the digital transformation of the bioeconomy.

On November 18 (2021) the Nordic Testbed Network arranges a virtual meeting to help dig into the following topics:

Agenda

▪ Welcoming our new testbed members, Blaize Denfeld (SITES), Anda Ikauniece (LIAE), Andrius Sutnikas (AquaVIP), Jens Petter Wold (DigiFoods), Anta Sparinska (Latvian i-Garden)

▪ Keynote lecture: An inspiring example – Nordic Proof, Siri Stabel Olsen, Advisor Norway Health Tech and coordinator of Nordic Proof

▪ Panel discussion: Organising a testbed, Thordur Reynisson, Senior Adviser and Head of Program Nordic Innovation, Jonas Engström, researcher RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and coordinator of the testbed for digitalised agriculture, Carmen Galindo Rodriguez, project manager EIT Food

▪ Interactive session: all participants are invited to discuss and mingle

Sign up

Please sign up before November 4 at the latest – it’s fre of charge!

More information

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Nordic Testbed Network provides funding for two testbed initiatives

Due to minimal traveling caused by Covid-19, the Nordic Testbed Network used less of its 2020 budget than planned. We therefore invited all of our testbeds to provide ideas for relevant activities in line with the core of the network, which the network could fund.

We are happy to announce that AgroTech and Alovivum have been granted funding for their respective initiatives.

 

Digital tests for optimised spraying with minimal overlap

The Danish Technological Institute’s initiative lies within the area of precision agriculture – a key element in the digital transformation of the bioeconomy. The use of pesticides can be optimised by using GPS systems, drones, and camera technologies. However, also the precision of the field sprayers can be optimised using digital solutions, by new add-on technologies and computer control.

The aim of this project is to demonstrate the quality of agricultural sprayers by measuring of the boom movements with/without a technology controlling the yaw movements.

– I think there are good possibilities for ensuring a more sustainable plant production, by using digital solutions both implemented on new sprayers and the farmers existing equipment. However the producers of digital solutions are often start-ups ag-tech and SME companies and the cost for proving the effect for the farmers can be relatively costly and difficult to finance. The funding from the Nordic Testbed Network gives the possibility to measure the estimated positive benefit for a more accurate spraying, says Birgitte Feld Mikkelsen, Danish Technological Institute.

 

An outreach for co-creation, data sharing and demonstration

Photo: Alovivum’s pilot site in Gödelöv, Genarp, Lund, Sweden.

Alovivum’s initiative involves an outreach of the testbed for co-creation, data sharing and demonstration to the local bioeconomy and food community, in order to interact with farmers to co-develop indoor farming applications, retrofit farm buildings and select plant species for local supply chains. The interaction may eventually be extended to consumers, retail and other stakeholders.

– We chose to apply for this project since we believe that sharing data and results from our testbed and pilot site for hydroculture cultivation and farming will help us and others to make this innovative way of indoor farming and its benefits and KPIs more visible and subject for further development, comparison and benchmarking, as well as mutual sharing of progress among the Nordic testbeds and other stakeholders, says Henrik Hedlund at Alovivum.

Contact: Henrik Hedlund, Alovivum