Smatcow is an infrastructure project, whose objective is to create a network of the key European cattle research infrastructures (RIs) in Europe.
The project comprises 19 work-packages (WPs): 4 Networking Activities (NA) work packages (WPs), 3 JointResearch Activities (JRA) WPs, one Management WP, and 11 Trans-national access (TA) WPs. All WPs are linked to each other and results from some will be used by others. All WPs will operate from the start to the end of the project to take full advantage of the project duration.
The central point of networking activities will be the route to facilitation of transnational access through mapping (WP1-NA1) and efficient management of TNA (WP2-NA2), common guidelines for measurements, protocols and data management (WP3-NA3), and mechanisms to foster innovation from the research that is performed in the RIs, especially through transnational access (WP4-NA4). All these WPs will have close interactions with external stakeholders to make sure that the infrastructure meets end-users demands.
The central purpose of Joint Research Activities (WPs 5-7/ JRA1 – JRA3) is to improve the quality and ethics of work in SmartCow RIs, as well as more general cattle research, by refining current state of the art in vivo methods, developing alternative in vivo methods and advancing analysis of data from sensors used to monitor animal nutrition, health and behaviour. The three Joint Research Activities [WP5 (JRA1) to WP7 (JRA3)] of the project will provide tools to improve the quality of services offered by the installations through TNAs.
WP8 will encompass all management tasks relevant to the implementation of the project with a crosscutting focus on ethics. The 11 Trans-national Access WPs, WP9 (TA1) to WP19 (TA11), will provide access to the SmartCow RIs to a large number of users all around Europe. Access will be granted according to TNA management process defined in WP2.