Food-scalEUp implemented a comprehensive set of activities to strengthen Europe’s agri-food digital innovation ecosystems, focusing on both emerging and strong innovator regions. The project centered on the following key areas: understanding regional ecosystems, enhancing acceleration services, fostering connectedness and knowledge exchange, developing recommendations to improve business acceleration support.
A core achievement was the mapping of acceleration ecosystems, which provided an in-depth analysis of the services, gaps, actors, and interactions within 11 European regions. The methodology used is adaptable and helps regions identify gaps in their acceleration support systems, improving the scalability of food-sector innovations.
The project established knowledge exchange peer groups that brought together stakeholders such as accelerators, start-ups, policymakers, and industry partners. These groups also helped the co-creation approach used to design and pilot tailored acceleration services in five regions.
Food-scalEUp delivered customised business acceleration services, introducing new or improved services such as mentoring and coaching, pitching and investor engagement, and deep-tech integration. The services portfolio is adaptable and replicable across different regions.
A Virtual Forum, hosted on FoodLeap, was developed, consituting a digital platform for continuous stakeholder collaboration, supporting long-term connectedness and impact.
The project also provided strategic recommendations for business acceleration providers and policy recommendations to address regulatory challenges, support sustainable acceleration services, and promote public-private partnerships. These outputs aim to improve the overall innovation capacity of the European agri-food sector by fostering a more connected and resilient ecosystem.
The robust and collaborative approach and the link to different regional accelerators and Thematic Smart Specialisation Partnerships (S3Ps), particularly SS4AF, ensure that the results remain relevant, adaptable, and facilitate further uptake in other regions.