Integrating innovative TECHnologies along the value Chain to improve small ruminant welfARE management’ — "TechCare"

TechCare is a multi-actor approach project aiming to develop appropriate business models using innovative technologies to
improve welfare management for all EU small ruminant (SR) systems, to enable stakeholders to choose animal welfarefriendly
products. SRs play a key socio-economic role in Europe, especially in harsh environments where innovative
technology is not much implanted. SRs are often managed as a flock/herd, allowing only average welfare states to be
considered. Innovative technologies are a unique opportunity to monitor and improve SR welfare management at the
individual or flock/herd level, along the value chain.
Based on SR welfare state-of-the-art, TechCare will undertake a multi-actor approach to encapsulate stakeholders’
expectations in terms of welfare and innovative technologies, and provide them with adapted solutions, in a co-design
approach. TechCare will cover all stages of SR production and build novel welfare approaches to develop and validate tools,
early warning systems, algorithms and indicators for efficient identification of welfare issues, including positive welfare, to
include them in welfare management models. The innovative technologies identified in TechCare will pass different stages of
validation, from prototyping to large scale studies. TechCare identified solutions will therefore be replicable and adapted to
different SR systems, production purposes, and value chains, for improvement of SR welfare management EU-wide.
Business models will be constructed and validated with stakeholders. Dissemination, communication and exploitation
materials will be produced and widely shared for easy use of TechCare solutions, ensuring their uptake and relevance to all
sectors and stakeholders.
TechCare will offer a durable improvement of SR welfare management using innovative technologies along the whole value
chain and across the EU, and will act as an example in terms of approach and solutions for other species and production
systems.