WALABI

Wageningen Lab for Agri-Food Business Informatics

Driving innovation through business informatics in the agriculture and food industry

About WALABI

WALABI is the research laboratory of Wageningen University in the field of business informatics in the agri-food industry. We believe that digital innovations in the agri-food domain are not goals in themselves, but means to improve sustainability and deliver value to end users.

WALABI strives to achieve this through impactful, collaborative, and rigorous research in business informatics. As an interdisciplinary technical discipline, business informatics systematically analyzes, designs, and applies information systems in business contexts - from a deep organizational understanding and using insights from business sciences such as logistics, business economics, marketing, and management studies.

WALABI serves as a bridge between domain-specific and technical disciplines, and equips our clients with the knowledge and competencies to make an impact with data and digital technologies. We translate key concepts from various business disciplines into new information designs that enable innovative practical applications from farm to fork. Through this holistic, business-oriented technical approach, we stimulate innovations that anchor sustainability in the lifeblood of agri-food organizations by leveraging data and digital technologies.

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Our Themes

Digital Transformation

We guide organizations through their digital transformation by developing strategic visions, implementing new technologies, and facilitating organizational change. Our approach combines technical expertise with deep understanding of the agri-food sector.

Digital Trends Exploration

We make emerging digital technologies understandable and actionable for the agri-food sector. We scout and analyze digital trends from both technology-push and sector-pull perspectives, test innovations through pilots and prototypes, and provide strategic guidance through action agendas and roadmaps.

Business Architecture

We design future-proof digital infrastructures that align technology with business goals. We translate architectural visions into actionable transformation roadmaps, ensure scalability, security, and interoperability in IT landscapes, and help organizations navigate complexity and uncertainty with confidence.

Smart Business Information Systems

We develop intelligent systems that empower data-driven decision-making across the agri-food value chain. Our systems collect, process, and distribute data to enhance coordination and efficiency, apply descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics, and support sustainability, profitability, and resilience.

Interoperability and Data Sharing Infrastructures

We build the foundations for fair, secure, and transparent data collaboration. We address interoperability from semantic, organizational, technical, and legal perspectives, promote the use of standards and clear agreements for data sharing, and advocate for explainability and trust in digital ecosystems.

Our Services

Ontology as-a-Service

Design and implementation of ontologies that match your information needs, processes, and data landscape, including tooling support and hosting advice (e.g. GraphDB on our Kubernetes cluster).

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For whom: Organisations, sector initiatives, and research projects that need a practical, maintainable knowledge model for data and AI applications.
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Contact person: Robbert Robbemond (WUR) – robbert.robbemond@wur.nl

Digital Maturity Assessment

Assessment of the digital maturity of your organisation or clients across key organisational and technological dimensions.

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For whom: Organisations and projects that want a clear picture of where they stand digitally and what next steps to take.
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Contact person: Joep Tummers (WUR) – joep.tummers@wur.nl

Interoperability Testing

Assessment of how well systems work together in agri‑food chains, based on relevant interoperability standards.

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For whom: Organisations that want to improve data sharing or connect to dataspaces and sector platforms.
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Contact person: Joep Tummers (WUR) – joep.tummers@wur.nl

Value Chain Mapping

Visualisation of your value chain based on the SCOR model, combining actor networks with key business processes.

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For whom: Organisations that want to analyse or design traceability and chain information systems.
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Contact person: Cor Verdouw (WUR) – cor.verdouw@wur.nl

User Acceptance Testing

Questionnaires and/or interviews to map user acceptance, concerns, and adoption readiness of digital solutions.

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For whom: Use cases that want to align technology with end‑users’ expectations and concerns.
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Contact person: Joep Tummers (WUR) – joep.tummers@wur.nl

Digital Innovation Roadmap

Tailored roadmaps that help prioritise and plan digital innovations, combining desk research, interviews and workshops.

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For whom: Managers, innovation experts and policy makers who want to strengthen digital transformation in agri‑food.
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Contact person: Cor Verdouw (WUR) – cor.verdouw@wur.nl

Easy Questionnaire Tooling (EQT)

Internally developed tooling to build questionnaires from a library of standardised questions, with export to Qualtrics and direct links to our data management platform.

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For whom: Research projects and partners that want to link survey research to a robust data management and analytics environment.
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Contact person: Robbert Robbemond (WUR) – robbert.robbemond@wur.nl

RAG Experimentation & Advisory Service

Support for applying Retrieval‑Augmented Generation through proof‑of‑concepts, model and tooling advice, and experimental RAG environments on our infrastructure.

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For whom: Organisations that want to experiment with modern AI and develop a RAG solution tailored to their own data and use cases.
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Contact person: Robbert Robbemond (WUR) – robbert.robbemond@wur.nl

Track Record

At WALABI, we combine academic excellence with practical impact through our scientific publications and participation in national and European projects. Our research findings are published in leading journals, while our project work directly contributes to the digital transformation of the agri-food sector.

  • Successful implementation of digital transformation strategies for agricultural cooperatives
  • Development of data sharing platforms that enhance supply chain visibility
  • Design of business information systems that improve operational efficiency
  • Consultation on digital trends and emerging technologies in the agri-food sector

Key Scientific Publications

Business Architecture

Architecture framework of IoT-based food and farm systems

Cor Verdouw, Harald Sundmaeker, Bedir Tekinerdogan, et al.

2019

View Publication

Smart Business Information Systems

A framework for modelling and designing transparency systems

A Kassahun, C Verdouw, J Roomer

2023

View Publication

Digital Trends Exploration

Digital twins in smart farming

C Verdouw, B Tekinerdogan, A Beulens, S Wolfert

2021

View Publication

Key Projects

AI for Future Food Systems

Exploring the potential of artificial intelligence in transforming food systems

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AgrifoodTEF logo

AgrifoodTEF

Building the foundation for fair and transparent data collaboration

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FoodSafety4Africa logo

Food Safety for Africa

Knowledge platform and digital solutions for food safety

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CEADS logo

CEADS Use Case 1 – Authorisation & Consent Framework

Within CEADS UC1 we develop the central authorisation and consent framework for the Common European Agricultural Data Space, enabling organisations to share agricultural data securely and iSHARE‑compliant across platforms, already being tested with real data flows between Adagio, KPI‑K and the Agro Data Cube.

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Roadmap Data‑Driven Fisheries

This project identifies key innovation and knowledge challenges and develops a roadmap for a sustainable, data‑driven fisheries sector, with a focus on technical and socio‑organisational foundations, standardisation and effective data sharing.

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ReGeNL logo

ReGeNL

The ReGeNL growth fund programme supports the transition to profitable, biodiversity‑enhancing regenerative agriculture through co‑creation, data‑driven monitoring and innovative financing and revenue models.

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Agricycling logo

Agricycling

Agricycling develops a digital strategy and data cooperative that gives farmers control over soil data and residual streams to improve circular nutrient flows and soil quality at regional level.

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Other Projects

Key Courses

Business Information Analytics

Theme: Business Information Systems

Wageningen University course on business information systems and data analytics, including business intelligence and AI.

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Management and Engineering of Information Systems

Theme: Digital Architecture

Wageningen University course on business management and information systems in the agri‑food domain, covering business process modelling, requirements engineering, domain modelling and high‑level architecture design.

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