Capacity-building event on assessing digitalisation under CAP Strategic Plans

Digitalisation is reshaping agriculture and rural areas, offering new ways to tackle today’s most pressing challenges. A new thematic report from the European Evaluation Helpdesk for the CAP,  ''Assessing digitalisation under the CAP Strategic Plans'', shows how data-driven tools can support Member States in evaluating digitalisation, helping ensure smarter decision-making and more sustainable practices under the 2023–2027 CAP.

Building on this work, a dedicated online capacity-building event was organised on 11 December 2025 with the support of the European Evaluation Helpdesk for the CAP. It brought together 47 participants from 16 different Member States, including Managing Authorities, National Networks, researchers and evaluators, creating a space to reflect on how digitalisation is addressed within CAP Strategic Plans (CSPs) and how its contribution can be effectively tracked and assessed. Designed as an interactive learning exercise, the event combined presentations with open discussion and exchange.

Participants were introduced to a specific framework that denotes CAP digitalisation as a continuous cycle linking data collection, analysis and everyday decision-making across the agri-food value chain. To further strengthen this understanding, the framework was illustrated through a cyber-physical management cycle comprising four main phases: smart sensing and monitoring, smart analysis and planning, smart control, and the use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and blockchain as key enablers.

Importantly, digitalisation was framed as extending beyond farm-level technologies to include advisory services, supply chains and rural infrastructure. Furthermore, digital infrastructure, skills, business and governance were highlighted as essential foundations for ensuring that digital solutions work effectively for agriculture and deliver wider benefits to rural communities, but also as the basis for structuring assessments of the effectiveness of CAP support to foster digitalisation.

Drawing on this conceptual basis, the focus then turned to how digitalisation is supported through CAP Strategic Plans and how this support can be better understood from an evaluation perspective. Discussions showed that while digital solutions are embedded across many interventions — from investments and eco-schemes to LEADER and knowledge exchange — existing result indicators do not always capture the full picture.

The event also highlighted that CAP support operates alongside a wider policy ecosystem, including non-CAP EU and national funding instruments, meaning that CAP is not always the primary driver of digitalisation. This emerged as an important consideration when defining the scope and proportionality of evaluation. Attention subsequently shifted to evaluation practice and how digitalisation can be assessed in a proportionate and meaningful way. In this context, the concept of digitalisation intensity was explored, going beyond simple adoption to consider how extensively and effectively digital tools are integrated into farming and rural activities. Discussions underlined the importance of starting with a relevance analysis — both internal to the CAP Strategic Plan and external in relation to the wider policy environment — to determine whether and how digitalisation should be examined within a given evaluation.

Overall, a clear message emerged from the event: digitalisation under the CAP is not a standalone objective, but a cross-cutting driver of modernisation and sustainable growth in the agri-food sector and rural areas.

Through the exchange and learning fostered during the event, participants reached a shared understanding that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to assessing digitalisation under the CAP.

Taken together, the event equipped Managing Authorities and evaluators with clearer pathways to track, assess and learn from digitalisation under CAP Strategic Plans, both now and in future programming cycles.

For more information on other events, refer to the Evaluation capacity building activities page.