About

The Pilot 9 (Malta) is being implemented by AcrossLimits inside the PoliRuralPlus project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101136910.
The scope of the project for the Maltese islands is to promote digital transformation in agriculture, empowering rural areas with new technologies. This concept is supporting the level up of the agricultural and rural sector in Malta and Gozo, as it provides knowledge and capacity building opportunities to improve the digitisation aspects. In addition, is also encouraging and provide the opportunity for the development of entrepreneurial skills within the youth sector, linking the rural-urban environments.

In this regard, MALTESE, granted as Financial Support for Third Parties in the Develop Call, responds to the structural challenges of Malta’s rural areas, including fragmented small farms, limited digital skills, an ageing farming population, and weak rural–urban connections. Many rural producers operate in isolation and lack access to innovation, markets, and advisory services.

MALTESE project addresses these issues by combining targeted capacity building with an integrated digital ecosystem. It adapts and localises PoliRuralPlus tools – the JackDaw GeoAI Chatbot, the Map Whiteboard, and the E Market platform – into a single AGRO INNOVATION DIGITAL HUB tailored to Malta’s context.

MALTESE follows a participatory, multi actor approach, engaging youth, farmers, educational institutions, advisory services, SMEs, public authorities, and civil society organisations. In line with New European Bauhaus values, the project promotes sustainability, inclusion, and a user friendly, aesthetically coherent digital environment.