Development of the Digital Matchmaking Platform for international cooperation in the biogas sector
¹Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of Information Technologies, Department of Computer Systems, Lielā iela 2, LV-3001, Jelgava, Latvia
²Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 32 + 36, DE 53113 Bonn, Germany
*Correspondence: aleksejs.zacepins@llu.lv
Abstract:
The demand for sustainable, renewable and clean energy sources has been increasing in the past decade in order to combat global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Biogas has proven to be a versatile energy carrier which can be used for heating purposes, power and fuel. Having acknowledged the high potential for the use of biogas energy and having researched the demand and supply markets, the Digital Global Biogas Cooperation (DiBiCoo) project aims to link European biogas and biomethane technology providers with emerging and developing markets. To achieve this goal the development and application of innovative digital support tools is necessary – a digital matchmaking platform (DMP) with bi-directional partnership architecture. DMP can be used as means to build trust-based business relationships, share information on available European technologies and serve as an additional marketing option for EU and non-EU companies and industries. This article presents the developed platform prototype and demonstrates its basic functionality and the development process. Basic business and functional requirements were defined and then refined into functional, user-interface and performance requirements for implementation. User requirements were defined using user centred design approach in collaboration with potential platform end-users, considering their specific needs. During the development process Agile methodology was used. In the future digital platform functionality will be extended based on discussions and feedback of the stakeholders and end-users during local workshops and other events, where the DiBiCoo platform will be presented.
Key words:
biogas, DiBiCoo, international cooperation, IT platform, matchmaking