GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

Proposals should cover all of the following aspects:

• Stock-taking of innovation in the use of drones as multi-purpose vehicle in agricultural production, forestry and the development of rural communities globally, the advantage and disadvantages of different approaches, and perform comparative analyses with the situation of the use of drones in the EU.
• Development of innovative approaches to use drones and other remotely piloted aircraft systems as multi-purpose vehicle in agriculture, e.g. for production assessment, cover-crop seeding, pest and disease detection, harvesting planning as well as innovative approaches to use drones as multi-purpose vehicle linking agricultural and wider environmental observation interests (including the assessment of landscape features, forests, water quality, and soil carbon) and for rural services.
• Assessment of the potential of the use of drones and other remotely piloted aircraft systems in the agricultural sector and socio-economic and environmental effects under consideration of different regulatory scenarios.
• Development of business models to the use of drones and other remotely piloted aircraft systems in agriculture, which may include agriculture / forestry / community development interlinkages.
• Development of innovative approaches to assess and reduce the risks related to the use of drones in the agricultural sector, especially in the context of spraying.

Proposals may involve financial support to third parties e.g. to academic researchers, hi-tech startups, SMEs, rural communities and other multidisciplinary actors, to, for instance, develop, test or validate developed assessment approaches or collect or prepare data sets or provide other contributions to achieve the project objectives.