The second SmartGreenEcos co-design workshop in Tunisia brought dairy-sector SMEs and technical partners together to test ideas, share operational needs and help shape the project’s four digital platforms.
How can digital tools respond to the real needs of Mediterranean dairy SMEs? In Tunisia, SmartGreenEcos is putting businesses directly at the centre of the design process.
On 29 July 2026, the University of Carthage (UCAR) organised a SmartGreenEcos co-design workshop at the Royal ASBU Hotel in Centre Urbain Nord, Tunisia, bringing together 23 participants, including cheesemakers and representatives from UCAR, BIWARE, SIRAT, ISSTE/UCAR and ESIAT/UCAR.
The workshop moved beyond general project presentation and focused on a practical question: what do dairy SMEs actually need from the SmartGreenEcos digital services?
Participants explored the project’s four connected platforms and provided direct feedback on their functionality, usability and relevance to everyday business challenges.
Discussions highlighted several priorities for dairy businesses.
For the AI-based Benchmarking and Optimisation Platform, SMEs stressed the importance of practical forecasting capabilities and appropriate support for collecting and interpreting business data.
The Capacity Building Platform generated strong interest in practical training topics relevant to the sector, including cheese ageing, circular economy approaches and environmentally responsible packaging.
For the Digital Procurement Platform, discussions focused on collaborative purchasing and export opportunities, while highlighting the need to take account of the different purchasing capacities of smaller and larger companies.
Participants also discussed issues linked to milk quality, innovation and the circular use of dairy by-products such as whey, providing valuable input for the project’s collaborative product-development activities.
The co-design discussions identified five areas requiring particular attention as SmartGreenEcos moves from requirements gathering towards platform development:
These findings reinforce one of the core principles of SmartGreenEcos: digital solutions should not be designed for SMEs without SMEs.
By involving companies directly in the design and validation process, the project can better ensure that its services respond to real operational conditions, capabilities and priorities across the Mediterranean dairy sector.
The feedback collected in Tunisia will contribute to the wider transnational co-design process taking place across Cyprus, Greece, Tunisia and Jordan, supporting the development of four connected services that are practical, accessible and relevant to participating businesses.
Last Update
18/09/2026
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