pressure is being placed on the agricultural industry and associated supply and retail sectors. In order for growers, logistics companies and traders to cope with the exigencies of a globalised economy and growing world populace, they require access to increasingly accurate, detailed, and up-to-date data and information. At present, worldwide agribusiness lacks the coordination and coherence for the exchange of this data to be executed smoothly, with no standardised measures or gauges in place to be used as universal points of reference. To combat these shortcomings and work towards a synthesised exchange of information, AGRIXCHANGE was set up as an EU-funded consortium, with participants as diverse as academic institutions, farmers and ICT companies. Through international dialogue and cooperation, AGRIXCHANGE has developed novel techniques for sharing and comparing data and knowledge, making agri-business more efficient, economical and sustainable. The backbone of AGRIXCHANGE, has been an analysis of a variety of scenarios regarding the exchange of agricultural information in each of the EU's 27 Member States and Switzerland. Despite expected differences between levels of organisation and communication amongst the countries being studied, several identifiable trends emerged. These included an ageing population of farmers, and consequent lack of adaptation to, and investment in, ICT, including: the need for better broadband internet in rural areas; the need for better mobile telephone infrastructures if mobile devises and smart phones are to fulfill their potential; and the potential for rapidly developing countries to skip outdated infrastructures and opt for advanced systems straight away. To support the setup of the AGRIXCHANGE community, a web-based platform was developed. The platform provides information about the project and information exchange in general, but mainly functions as a community of practice in which stakeholders currently collaborate in 9 use cases, 24 interface descriptions and 20 standards. It has over 400 registered users, mostly from Europe, but also other countries. A LinkedIn group 'AGRIXCHANGE' (600 members) was supportive to the platform and contains many active discussion topics. A central activity of AGRIXCHANGE has been the development of a Reference Framework. The Reference Framework's functions have been introduced in the form of a work flow, using the novel aXTool, specially designed to incorporate the Reference Framework design into the existing AGRIXCHANGE platform. The principle behind the aXTool is that it strictly guides the contributing of solutions and information, but makes the finding of information easy and efficient. The AGRIXCHANGE Reference Framework and aXTool are used to update the number of use cases and interfaces, and to improve the standards of the platform; together with relevant stakeholders, work has been done to make practical implementation available. AGRIXCHANGE organized four workshops that were embedded in larger conferences, collaborating with other EU projects and organizations, such as ICT-AGRI ERA-NET, FutureFarm and SmartAgriFood. The conferences were attended by an impressive number of delegates from various countries (also outside the EU),from areas including software and hardware development, farming, consultancy, agri-food business, governmental organisations and research institutes. Most participants are members of the European Federation for Information Technologies in Agriculture, Food and the Environment (EFITA), but, increasingly, organisations from outside EFITA are also being incorporated into the debate particularly partners from the software industry. The conferences were used for dissemination and to test concepts and ideas against current practice and resulted in the establishment of a great deal of new networks and contacts. In addition to this work, AGRIXCHANGE is also collaborating with a variety of European standardisation organisations, through which contact with GS1, the global standards organisation and Global GAP has been made. Further afield, AGRIXCHANGE is in contact with projects both in the US and New Zealand, positioning AGRIXCHANGE within a global effort, further increasing the opportunities for knowledge to be shared. Collaborating closely with the AGRIXCHANGE community, this work has been supported by the establishment of a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA). In addition to its primary focus on standardisation, this SRA also provides recommendations for prioritising research within the agri-food sector. Overall, these advances constitute significant steps in the right direction, aiding the exchange of information and working towards a standardised system.