Following COMMECT’s April mission to Rio Grande do Sul, a joint webinar brought together all five COMMECT Living Labs and Brazilian partners from SENAI-RS/Embrapii, TEC4B and Embrapa. The full recording is now available.

On 25–26 June 2025, COMMECT researcher Rick Gilsing took the stage at the 10th New Business Models (NBM) conference in Reykjavík, hosted by the School of Business Administration at the University of Iceland.

The Olive Research Institute of the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has published coverage of the COMMECT General Assembly Meeting and Final Stakeholder Event under the headline “COMMECT projesi Genel Kurul Toplantısı ve Etkinliği düzenlendi.”

Hosted by Living Lab Türkiye, the COMMECT Final General Assembly and Stakeholder Event brought together project partners, farmers and policymakers to review outcomes, assess impact and celebrate the consortium’s achievements.

COMMECT was represented at the 31st IEEE ICE/ITMC Conference in Valencia, Spain, by Per Jonny Nesse (Telenor Research & NTNU), who presented the paper “Digital innovations for rural industry create socio-economic and environmental impacts,” co-authored with Gabriel Linton and Anne Jørgensen Nordli.

COMMECT is pleased to announce its Final Stakeholder Event, which will take place on 10 July 2025 at the Olive Research Institute in Bornova, İzmir, Türkiye (Üniversite Caddesi No. 43). This concluding gathering offers an opportunity for project partners, regional farmers, service providers and other sector stakeholders to come together for a day of demonstrations, discussions and hands-on workshops.

COMMECT was present at the 21st IEEE International Conference on Factory Communication Systems (WFCS), where Alejandro Ramírez Arroyo (Aalborg University) and David Pradas (Viveris Technologies) led the special session "Communication Technologies for Rural Areas and Sustainable Agriculture

COMMECT has launched a strategic collaboration with two leading initiatives in Brazil. To foster a two-way exchange of expertise, COMMECT’s coordinator, Maria Rita Palattella, traveled to Rio Grande do Sul to work alongside local stakeholders, explore existing Living Labs and co-design solutions that blend terrestrial networks, satellite links and IoT platforms.

How can digital and connected solutions improve forestry? NTNU master’s students are exploring this question as part of the course "Expert in Teams – IoT: Smart Digitalization of Forestry and Rural Areas." Their work is inspired by COMMECT’s Norway Living Lab, which focuses on developing connectivity solutions for rural industries. 

Today is International Day of Forests. Therefore we want to highlight the work done in COMMECT’s Norway Living Lab. The lab explores how rural connectivity and digital tools can help improve forest monitoring, sustainability, and planning.

It’s also a good day to remember that forests are important to us. They help the environment, and support biodiversity, but also an important resource for rural communities. All in all, very important for the future of our planet.