European Commission - Enterprise Europe Network

Mushrooms mean big business in Europe, with an annual output of about 1.2  million tonnes. With more than €1 million in EU research funding, the ‘Champi-ON’ initiative will develop a fully automatic system for picking mushrooms to be sold fresh.

Thanks to the Enterprise Europe Network, a small Cyprus-based firm will play a key role in the project. It is being funded by the EU’s FP7 ‘Capacities’ programme, which promotes research to benefit SMEs.

Based in Nicosia, GeoImaging provides a wide range of services and consulting in cartography, satellite navigation and related fields as well as medical informatics.

In its quest for research funding GeoImaging turned to the Enterprise Europe Network, based in the Cypriot capital at the Research Promotion Foundation. With close to 600 partner organisations in 50 countries, the Network helps entrepreneurs tap into EU funding and connects them with the right partners for successful projects.

“Since the Network was founded, we have been helping GeoImaging with research applications for national and EU programmes,” says Christakis Theocharous, Network scientific officer in Cyprus. “Whenever they need anything, they just call us.”

Through the Network, GeoImaging got word of a Spanish-led research project to develop a new high-tech mushroom-picking device. One of eight partners in Champi-ON, GeoImaging will supply imaging technology for mushrooms to be sold fresh rather than canned.

Whereas these mushrooms are currently harvested by hand, the automatic picker will use computer imaging to choose the ones deemed suitable for the fresh market – and then pick them with a robotic arm.

Stratos Styliandis, who founded GeoImaging in 2002, says the new research collaboration will allow his firm to expand its partnership network and eventually bring a new product to market.

“It is important for local companies to operate in an international cooperative environment,” he says, adding; “The Enterprise Europe Network is a vital source of new ideas and leads.”