Project > Macqu-D > Results

The methodology to be applied for this demonstration project  condensed in these factors: technology transfer, production assurance, industry commitment and finally well focused promotion. Each component is outlined in the following paragraphs.

·       Technology transfer implies the application of previous research results into field work. To this end selected research partners from the earlier MACQU project have been included in this partnership (P3, P4, P6)  in order to help implement their results in practice.

·       Production assurance refers to the involvement of a manufacturing firm (P2) in the partnership in order to provide product quality in both hardware and workmanship for the purposes of the demonstration project. A second objective is to create a binding commitment from the manufacturing firm in order to ensure the continuation of hardware production beyond the end of the demonstration project.

·       Industry commitment will be ensured by the inclusion in the partnership of selected small-medium enterprises (SMEs) active in the greenhouse business (partners P5, P7). SMEs have the necessary contacts (at national level) to ensure the dissemination of project information to focused interest groups (growers, cooperatives, consultants, extension specialists etc.). In this project’s framework these partners will develop dissemination means, do the commercialization effort, support the demo sites, and finally provide the distribution and support network for product marketing. The last factor is especially important, because earlier applications of similar technology usually failed due to non existent support at the national level.

·       Focused promotion is guaranteed by strategically selected demo sites at different EU countries. The demonstration sites have been selected with the following criteria:

¨    Areas where the technology is less developed, i.e. in the EU south (demo sites  S1, S3, S4). These will help demonstrate the technology to interested local growers. Demo site S4 in particular represents an expansion of the application to endive production which is a non-greenhouse crop.

¨   Strategic sites in the EU north (sites S2, S5) selected from the partnership in the previous MACQU research project. These partners will demonstrate viability at north European climate conditions and also to places of high technological status

                 (refer to Partners for description of the demo sites)