CUSTOMICS project officially kicked-off in Rome

The project officially launched in Rome on 17 September 2026, bringing together a multidisciplinary consortium from across Europe to address a growing challenge for European agriculture: the detection of illegally traded vegetable seed varieties and microbiological hazards at EU borders. The consortium brings together 12 organisations from five European countries, combining expertise in research, plant science, genomics, customs, law enforcement, cybersecurity and business. CUSTOMICS will develop a scalable inspection approach combining next-generation sequencing, portable technologies and secure data management. Tomato seeds will serve as the initial proof of concept, with the ambition to develop solutions that can be adapted to other vegetable species. But developing new technology is only one part of creating impact. Ensuring that research results reach the right users, can be taken up in practice and remain useful beyond the lifetime of a project is equally important. This is where RISE plays a central role.

RISE connecting research, innovation and impact

As a CUSTOMICS partner, RISE's role brings together several elements that are essential for moving research beyond the laboratory:

From results to the right users

RISE will coordinate the dissemination of CUSTOMICS' scientific and technical results to research, professional and enforcement communities. This includes supporting scientific publications and conferences, sectoral dissemination, thematic workshops and the sharing of selected resources and protocols. The focus is not simply on making results visible, but on making them accessible and relevant to the communities that can use them.

From innovation to uptake

Through innovation management and exploitation activities, RISE will identify key exploitable results and intellectual assets generated by the project. The work will consider ownership, protection needs, market and operational opportunities, and potential pathways for valorisation and uptake. An important part of this work will be exploring pathways for integrating relevant CUSTOMICS results into customs and phytosanitary workflows, while engaging industry stakeholders and potential adopters.

RISE will also lead communication and outreach activities designed to build awareness of CUSTOMICS and communicate its progress, results and relevance to different audiences. Creating opportunities for external innovation RISE will also play a key role in managing CUSTOMICS' Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP) mechanism.

The project will dedicate €210,000 to one competitive open call, supporting two implementation pilots. Selected external organisations will be able to develop and test activities contributing to CUSTOMICS' objectives, with pilots running for up to 12 months. RISE will support the operational side of this process, including call documentation and templates, the submission process and helpdesk, eligibility checks, evaluation logistics, records and reporting. Building impact beyond the project lifetime Impact is also about what happens after the project ends. RISE will therefore contribute to policy feedback and long-term sustainability, translating project findings into policy-oriented outputs and considering how key results, resources and networks can remain in use beyond the funding period.

CUSTOMICS brings together advanced science with the operational realities of customs, phytosanitary authorities and law enforcement. Its success will depend not only on the technologies developed, but also on whether those results can be understood, accessed, adopted and sustained by the communities that need them. Through its work across communication, dissemination, innovation management, exploitation, stakeholder engagement and sustainability, RISE is helping build those pathways from the very beginning of the project.