NWE produces 60% of the EU milk which represents 13% of the turnover of the food industry in EU-27. OptiMIR aims to improve the sustainability of the dairy sector by providing milk producers with tools enabling them to manage the cows fertility. feeding. health. pollutants. milk quality. etc. Milk records will be used in an innovative way: the entire MIR milk spectrum. including variations in its shape will be used as indicators of the cows status for a range of characteristics: 1. To reduce the costs of production through improved daily herd management (e.g. costs of feeding with energetic balance indicator. veterinary costs with early diagnosis of mastitis. costs of semen straws with insemination predictor. etc.) The yearly potential saving on the costs is some €115/cow. giving ± €490 Mio per year in NWE (see Appendix). 2. To bring opportunities to access competitive markets by measuring quality traits linked to higher added value (e.g. low-cost measure of food label claims). 3. To ameliorate impact on the environment (quantification of methane and nitrogen production). Milk Recording Organizations (MROs) collect milk samples up to once a month from each cow for analysis. They will implement OptiMIR tools as a web-application on their data-processing system. and incorporate outcomes in their advisory services to farmers. Herd information will be automatically uploaded in the private web-account of milk producers providing them with management solutions to sustain their business. EU dairy sector will improve its ability to resist crisis and fluctuating prices. and to adapt to the progressive increase of milk quotas until their abolition (2015). A sustainable dairy sector is mandatory for ensuring food self-sufficiency and controlling the safety of food chain. The safeguarding of farming activities leads to a decreased erosion of jobs. a strengthened social fabric and a conserved landscape in rural areas. Achievements: An innovative European network of Milk Recording Organizations (MROs) is constituted and enables them to address the sustainability of the milk production all together and bring everyone to the highest level:- They share existing tools and approach of services to farmers.- They harmonize the way to record key data into the farm for their integration in a common transnational database which is unrivalled at European scale.- They access to the latest technology in getting information out of milk analysis through exchange and levelling upwards (access to spectral data, calibrations of fatty acids and minerals, Test Day Model, etc.)The common transnational database contains MIR spectra of milk samples from individual cows, plus associated milk components and animal physiological data. This database is a unique and powerful statistical tool enabling research and development on innovative indicators about dairy cows physiological state through mathematical models.The response given by the different MIR spectrometers is standardized across laboratories and across brands of apparatus. Its done through monthly ring tests which enable to calibrate all together the 69 apparatus of the 29 labs involved in the project. This standardization of spectral data is innovative and will be the subject of a scientific publication. In fact spectrometers must be standardized with each other to enable valid comparisons between them.By using the transnational database Universities and Research Centres on animal science develops bio-models that provide predictions about cows. These predictions are made only by using the milk analysis of existing milk recording services in an innovative way (use of spectral data). They provide indications to farmers for decision-making regarding their management and therefore the profitability and sustainability of their business.The 8 most promising models are: pregnancy diagnosis, abortion detector, acidosis alert, ketosis alert, methane emission gauge, energy balance estimator and mastitis diagnosis. Working groups are constituted to cover the topics through an integrated approach.The link between researchers and farmers is ensured all along the project by the MROs who enable the development of concrete web-application from research prediction equations. The functional specifications for the IT development of the spectral standardization module, for the pregnancy diagnosis 1.0, the abortion detector 1.0, the fatty acids and minerals convertor and the methane gauge based on SF6 are all ready. These modules can therefore be transposed to a programming code and installed on the data system of the MROs.Almost all MROs have already developed the code for the spectral standardization module. French, German and British MROs also developed the fatty acids and minerals convertor modules. This one is necessary for the utilization of the pregnancy diagnosis 1.0 but can also be used alone. In fact in some area the fatty acids profile of the milk can be used by dairies for nutritional claim.The pregnancy diagnosis 2.0, the abortion detector 2.0 and the methane gauge based on SF6 will be developed at the end of 2014 or beginning of 2015. The ketosis alert will follow.