About DIGIFABS

Facing rapid digitalisation in an increasingly dynamic world, we are asked to adapt on an individual, organisational, and societal level. It is not enough for businesses to have immediate changes but also to develop structural changes to respond to digitalisation on a long-term basis and create sustainable digital transformations.

Small and medium businesses (SMEs) experience specific barriers hindering the adoption of new technologies. Among these are skill gaps in the local labour market, the inability to attract specialised talent, skill gaps in leadership, and an insufficient understanding of opportunities (World Economic Forum, 2020). Others point out that the digitalisation process is too expensive for many small businesses which lack necessary resources and skills as well as suffer from a weakness of market power (Savastano et al., 2018).

This leads to low digitalisation levels in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which lag behind the potential offered by emerging technology by more than 20% on average (European Commission, 2020).

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) highlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine and energy uncertainty have placed unprecedented and challenging stresses on food supply chains, with bottlenecks in labour, processing, transport and logistics, as well as momentous shifts in demand, all highlighting the need for integration of more digital technology – especially into the agrifood sector.

The DIGIFABS project was established to address these challenges. A multi-disciplinary consortium of transnational partners will work together over three years to develop strategic solutions for the key stakeholders - STUDENTS, EDUCATORS, and SMEs.

The main objective of the project is to develop a DIGIFABS course programme for students, educators, and F&B SMEs to train them in the skills needed as Responsible Dynamic Digital Change Agents (RDDCAs) to:

The project will research, conceptualise, develop, pilot, and optimise a holistic multidisciplinary RDDCA programme for the main stakeholders - STUDENTS, EDUCATORS, and SMEs.

An action learning SUMMER SCHOOL and CHALLENGE will be built for STUDENTS to acquire the skills of an RDDCA on a theoretical and practical level.

Following the student programme, two BOOTCAMPS will be piloted – one for EDUCATORS and one for F&B SMEs.

The project will address the following GENERAL OBJECTIVES:

We want to raise awareness for the key skillset that is needed for a successful and sustainable digital change process in students as well as academia and businesses.

We want to foster research on and contribute to the relevance and improved understanding of digital skills, and green skills, supporting the innovativeness, resilience, and sustainability of the regional and European economy.

We would like to develop a new, innovative, and multidisciplinary teaching and learning method which introduces a unique, effective, and efficient training system based on entrepreneurial and engaged universities, problem-based learning with real problems, and action learning.

We want to establish a sense of initiative and entrepreneurial mindset not only in students as future RDDCAs and through connecting educators to facilitate and educate RDDCAs, but also build a sectoral European hub which brings together academia and business to network, collaborate, co-create, and share knowledge and guarantees sustainability beyond the project’s lifetime.