TechCare is a multi-actor approach project aiming to develop appropriate business models using innovative technologies to improve welfare management for all EU small ruminant (SR) systems, to enable stakeholders to choose animal welfare-friendly products. SRs play a key socio-economic role in Europe, especially in harsh environments where innovative technology is not much implanted. SRs are often managed as a flock/herd, allowing only average welfare states to be considered. Innovative technologies are a unique opportunity to monitor and improve SR welfare management at the individual or flock/herd level, along the value chain. Based on SR welfare state-of-the-art, TechCare will undertake a multi-actor approach to encapsulate stakeholders’ expectations in terms of welfare and innovative technologies, and provide them with adapted solutions, in a co-design approach. TechCare will cover all stages of SR production and build novel welfare approaches to develop and validate tools, early warning systems, algorithms and indicators for efficient identification of welfare issues, including positive welfare, to include them in welfare management models. The innovative technologies identified in TechCare will pass different stages of validation, from prototyping to large scale studies. TechCare identified solutions will therefore be replicable and adapted to different SR systems, production purposes, and value chains, for improvement of SR welfare management EU-wide. Business models will be constructed and validated with stakeholders. Dissemination, communication and exploitation materials will be produced and widely shared for easy use of TechCare solutions, ensuring their uptake and relevance to all sectors and stakeholders. TechCare will offer a durable improvement of SR welfare management using innovative technologies along the whole value chain and across the EU, and will act as an example in terms of approach and solutions for other species and production systems.

Current seafood traceability tools and services have the potential to take advantage of novel blockchain technologies to obtain a wide range of data making sustainable seafood practices more visible to consumers. Sea2See project will fill in existing seafood traceability gaps through development of an innovative end-to-end blockchain model and professional and consumer applications to increase trust and social acceptance of sustainably fished and farmed seafood. The project will provide technological solutions to answer the need of a valuable source of data collected throughout the whole seafood value chain, verified and covering inputs from diverse stakeholders. For that purpose, a specific focus will be put on active commitment of stakeholders and real empowerment of consumers through the implementation of societal and sectoral strategies for co-creation, communication and awareness raising.