90% of what a business knows is written down nowhere

A farmer who recognises soil quality by touch. A miller who adjusts pressing temperature by ear. A winemaker who anticipates the right harvest moment by watching the sky. This is tacit knowledge: experience-based understanding impossible to find in any manual. In agricultural organisations, it accounts for roughly 90% of the knowledge base. 🧠

The problem? When that person retires or moves on, the knowledge leaves with them. The Open Management Style course, developed by OpenCom within ACE-EX, addresses this in its first module: how to identify, document and transform tacit knowledge into explicit organisational knowledge accessible to all. 📋

The tools range from structured expert interviews to field observation, process documentation to quality protocol coding. The reference model is Nonaka’s knowledge creation framework: socialisation, externalisation, combination, internalisation. A continuous cycle through which the organisation learns. 🔄

For agricultural businesses transitioning to a circular economy, this capability is strategic: new sustainable practices must integrate with traditional know-how, not replace it.

🔗 Link in bio

#ACEEX #KnowledgeManagement #OpenManagement #CircularEconomy #Agriculture #ErasmusPlus #TacitKnowledge #Euproject

🇪🇺 Co-funded by the European Union

Interdisciplinary research: when the agronomist talks to the data scientist

A circular economy project in agriculture cannot be solved by a single area of expertise. It needs the agronomist who knows the soil, the engineer who designs the plants, the economist who analyses costs, the chemist who studies by-product valorisation, the data scientist who manages real-time information. 🧬

But making different disciplines work together is not straightforward. Different languages, different priorities, different methodologies. The interdisciplinary research module, within the ACE-EX Innovation Management course, addresses precisely this: how to build effective multidisciplinary teams, overcome communication barriers, align objectives and manage conflicts productively. 🤝

The tools proposed range from concept mapping to the Delphi method, agile project management to stakeholder mapping. The module also explores the role of data as a common language across disciplines and the ethical questions surrounding its use — from ownership to transparency, informed consent to bias mitigation. 📊

An important section concerns research scalability: how to move from a pilot project to large-scale application, through replication studies, adaptable models and open access to results. 🔬

Skills needed not only in academia, but wherever work happens at the intersection of different sectors.

🔗 Link in bio

#ACEEX #InterdisciplinaryResearch #Innovation #CircularEconomy #Agriculture #ErasmusPlus #Collaboration #Euproject

🇪🇺 Co-funded by the European Union

ITS Academy Giulio Natta
CEP- Center for European Projects
OpenCom Italy
Sostenibilidad Cámara Valencia
AINIA Consumer
Softcare Studios
Střední průmyslová škola chemická a gymnázium Brno
Patrimonio Natural
Fagskolen Innlandet
Klaster Gospodarki Cyrkularnej i Recyklingu
Ies Federico García Lorca De la Puebla de Cazalla
Επιμελητήριο Φθιώτιδας
Confagricoltura

Telling a product’s story in a way no algorithm can

An organic fertiliser made from grape harvest residues. An extra virgin olive oil produced in a mill powered by its own waste. A rice grown in a zero-kilometre system where every by-product re-enters the cycle. These are products with a story. And that story is their first competitive advantage. 📖

Brand storytelling in agribusiness is not decoration. It is strategy. The ACE-EX Marketing & Communication course dedicates an entire module to building authentic narratives that connect values, practices and products. The aim is not to invent a story, but to communicate the real one effectively. 🎬

Techniques range from the “hero’s journey” structure, where the protagonist is the customer, not the brand, to user-generated content, agricultural influencer partnerships and content marketing built on real case studies. 🌾

The key point is consistency: if a business promotes circularity on its product packaging, that message must also be reflected on social media, at trade fairs, in emails and in relationships with distributors. A fragmented message is a weak message. A consistent one builds trust. ✅

The module is designed for rural entrepreneurs, producers and local developers who want to bring the value of their products to a wider audience.

🔗 Link in bio

#ACEEX #BrandStorytelling #ContentMarketing #Agriculture #CircularEconomy #ErasmusPlus #AgriMarketing #Euproject

🇪🇺 Co-funded by the European Union

ITS Academy Giulio Natta
CEP- Center for European Projects
OpenCom Italy
Sostenibilidad Cámara Valencia
AINIA Consumer
Softcare Studios
Střední průmyslová škola chemická a gymnázium Brno
Patrimonio Natural
Fagskolen Innlandet
Klaster Gospodarki Cyrkularnej i Recyklingu
Ies Federico García Lorca De la Puebla de Cazalla
Επιμελητήριο Φθιώτιδας
Confagricoltura

When one company’s waste becomes another’s resource

It is called industrial symbiosis and it is one of the most powerful concepts in the circular economy: one business’s by-products become raw material for another. Not in theory in the daily practice of real agricultural supply chains. 🔄

In Fiji, brewery residues feed mushroom cultivation, which in turn produces pig feed, whose waste enters anaerobic digesters generating nutrient-rich water for aquaculture. In Brazil, sugarcane bagasse is burned in cogeneration plants that supply electricity to the grid. In Italy, a cooperative of small dairy producers uses cheese whey as feed for local pig farms. 🌍

In Spain, within the olive oil sector, cooperatives have begun converting mill wastewater into biogas, generating new income streams whilst reducing environmental impact. In Greece, Kyklopas SA olive mill works with a biogas plant to manage its milling residues. 🫒

These are not exceptions. They are replicable models that the ACE-EX Business Model Adaptation course analyses in detail, providing tools to identify symbiosis opportunities within one’s own supply chain and build the necessary partnerships. 🤝

🔗 Link in bio

#ACEEX #IndustrialSymbiosis #CircularEconomy #Agriculture #WasteToResource #ErasmusPlus #Bioeconomy #Euproject

🇪🇺 Co-funded by the European Union
ITS Academy Giulio Natta
CEP- Center for European Projects
OpenCom Italy
Sostenibilidad Cámara Valencia
AINIA Consumer
Softcare Studios
Střední průmyslová škola chemická a gymnázium Brno
Patrimonio Natural
Fagskolen Innlandet
Klaster Gospodarki Cyrkularnej i Recyklingu
Ies Federico García Lorca De la Puebla de Cazalla
Επιμελητήριο Φθιώτιδας
Confagricoltura