CNH INDUSTRIAL BELGIUM

Their core work

CNH Industrial is a global manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment, known for brands like Case IH and New Holland. Their Belgian operation in Zedelgem focuses on integrating digital technologies — IoT, precision farming, and autonomous systems — into agricultural machinery. Through H2020 projects, they contribute real-world use cases and field-testing environments for smart farming platforms, satellite positioning for agriculture, and safety frameworks for autonomous machinery. They serve as an industry end-user that grounds research in practical farming applications.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

CNH Industrial's early H2020 involvement (2017-2018) centered on IoT-enabled smart farming — connecting farm equipment to digital platforms, improving food chain efficiency, and piloting large-scale IoT business integration in agriculture. Their later projects (2018-2023) shifted toward autonomous systems, machine safety, and data interoperability, reflecting the industry's move from connected equipment toward fully autonomous machinery. This progression mirrors the natural technology ladder: first connect machines, then make them independent.

CNH Industrial is moving toward autonomous agricultural machinery with emphasis on safety certification and cross-platform data standards — expect future interest in AI-driven decision support and regulatory compliance for autonomous farm equipment.

How they like to work

CNH Industrial consistently participates as a partner or third party rather than leading consortia, which is typical for a large industrial company contributing use cases and validation environments rather than driving the research agenda. With 182 unique partners across 27 countries, they operate in very large consortia (IoF2020 alone was a massive pilot). This makes them an accessible partner — they are used to working within big, complex projects and provide the critical industry grounding that research consortia need.

With 182 consortium partners across 27 countries, CNH Industrial has one of the broadest collaboration networks in agricultural technology research. Their partnerships span the full EU geography, connecting them to universities, technology SMEs, and farming organizations across Europe.

What sets them apart

CNH Industrial brings something most research consortia struggle to find: a major equipment manufacturer willing to integrate and field-test experimental technologies on real agricultural machinery at scale. Unlike tech startups or university labs, they offer direct access to commercial farming equipment platforms and global distribution channels. For any project needing to demonstrate that smart farming or autonomous technology works on actual tractors and harvesters, CNH is a rare and valuable partner.

Highlights from their portfolio

• IoF2020
  One of the largest IoT pilots in European agriculture, bringing together the entire food chain — CNH contributed as a key machinery manufacturer testing smart farming at scale.
• SAS
  Addresses the critical safety certification challenge for autonomous systems — directly relevant to CNH's trajectory toward self-driving agricultural equipment.
• ATLAS
  Tackles the interoperability problem that blocks data exchange between different farm equipment brands — a strategic concern for any major manufacturer.