Book of abstracts

The Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) Community Exchange (ICE) conference is an annual in-person-only event that serves as technical forum for the IACS community, connecting paying agencies, policy, science and innovation for the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The third edition of the conference took place in Sofia, Bulgaria, from 8 to 10 September 2026, organised by the Joint Research Centre (DG JRC) in cooperation with DG AGRI and the Bulgarian State Fund Agriculture (SFA). Filling all 400 available places, the event brought together representatives from all EU Member States, five EU candidate countries, three non-EU countries, Commission services (JRC, DG AGRI, DG DEFIS, DG CLIMA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Environment Agency (EEA), alongside 60 private-sector firms and research institutions. The programme brought together 40 oral presentations across 10 sessions, 17 posters and 18 industry stands, reflecting both the scale of engagement and the growing diversity of contributions. A notable feature of this edition was the strong interaction between public administrations and private-sector actors, particularly in relation to Earth observation, artificial intelligence and other space-based technologies for agriculture, helping service providers to better understand requirements of paying agencies in terms of accuracy, timeliness and cost. The conference showed that many administrations are now prioritising operationalisation, stability and workable solutions over entirely new developments. At the same time, technology remains central to the future of IACS, with concrete examples of AI already in use and continued interest in geotagged photos, satellite monitoring and integrated data approaches. Open discussions also stressed the importance of designing policy interventions from the outset in ways that make them monitorable in practice. The conference also highlighted future integrated monitoring approaches, including the expansion towards a broader European Land Monitoring System, to offer farmers more services and improve the coherence and efficiency of the CAP. The event further underlined the value of peer learning, support to candidate countries, stronger coordination on interoperability and data sharing, and closer links with research where results are near operational uptake. This report presents the conference agenda, the abstracts of all presentations and posters and the main questions submitted by the audience during the conference. The main outcomes of the open discussions are briefly summarised in the conclusions. The oral and poster presentations are available as additional material on the JRC Publication repository webpage of this report.

URBANO Ferdinando; 

2026-10-02

Publications Office of the European Union

JRC148408

978-92-68-43992-0 (online),   

OP KJ-01-26-423-EN-N (online),   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC148408,   

10.2760/9891791 (online),