The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences recognizes Swegreen's AIFOOD Project

Swegreen, an innovator in sustainable food production, recently announced that its AIFOOD project has been included on the prestigious IVA 100 list by the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. The IVA 100 list, unveiled in May, highlights research projects with significant impact and social implications conducted by Swedish universities. This year's list focuses on the theme of 'Technology in the service of humanity', specifically addressing climate change, energy supply, welfare technology, cyber security, and crisis readiness and resilience.

Swegreen played a central role in the AIFOOD project’s cluster, which was led by Mälardalen University and financed by Vinnova. AIFOOD, an acronym for AI for sustainable food production from farm to fork, centered around the application of artificial intelligence in vertical farming, covering the entire production chain from production units to the end consumer. Over the course of two years, Mälardalen University, Research Institutes of Sweden, Sweco, Areim, Bjerking, ICA Focus, Paul Taylor Lanthandel, and Swegreen collaborated to develop AI-based solutions aimed at promoting sustainability and climate impact of hyper-local food production.

Marianne Dicander Alexandersson, IVA Board Member and Chairwoman of the steering committee, expressed her admiration for the exceptional research in Sweden, stating, "IVA's nomination committee has selected the most promising research projects of the year that have significant potential for business and societal impact".

Dr Baran Çürüklü, AI researcher at Mälardalen University and Project Manager of AIFOOD, emphasizes the importance of vertical farming's symbiotic relationship with host buildings in achieving energy and resource efficiency. Çürüklü highlighted AI's role as an enabling factor for scaling and developing innovations and expressed excitement about AIFOOD's recognition on the IVA 100 list.

"AIFOOD project helped us in introducing new critical AI functionalities to our innovative vertical farming operations," said Sepehr Mousavi, Swegreen's Chief Innovation Officer. "We had a leap and breakthroughs achieved in our nutrient management system that is now AI-driven but also data visualization, monitoring and control of the symbiosis and energy exchange with host buildings. I’d like to extend my gratitude to the MDU team for their professional efforts, all our project partners, and the Swedish Innovation Agency, Vinnova, for their support in enabling groundbreaking innovations and fostering global competitiveness for Swedish SMEs and startups through call such as ‘AI in the service of climate’.