Empowering citizens with information and data about food and nutrition can enable better, more environmentally conscious choices. This data can also benefit the entire food system, aligning with the EC's "Food 2030" Pathway on Data & Digital Transformation. Current popular food platforms often restrict citizens' personal data rights. FOODITY addresses this by establishing a European ecosystem of digital food and nutrition solutions that respect data sovereignty. To deliver this, FOODITY would run a 2M€ pilot programme and fund 12 projects to develop and pilot solutions that demonstrate the potential of data-driven innovations in food and nutrition.
To achieve this main objective, FOODITY defined and achieved the following specific objectives (SO):
> SO1: Ran a pilot programme for the creation of 12 innovative data-driven solutions for food and nutrition, respectful of user's personal data sovereignty, powered by services for pilot development including mentoring, innovation strategy, citizen engagement capacitation and technology access and technical support.
> SO2: Provide state-of-the-art tools/software components as building blocks and other technical resources respectful of personal data sovereignty.
> SO3: Encourage the development of data-sharing practices, including data commons and open science in the food and nutrition domain to encourage innovation.
> SO4: Establish a sound communication strategy aimed at 1) attracting top talent innovators for the development of the pilots; 2) involve stakeholders of food systems e.g. producers, processors and retailers, in expressing their data needs to be more competitive and to achieve a fairer distribution of wealth; 3) engaging citizens in the development of the pilots, allowing them to express their needs and raise their concerns with respect of their data rights when using data-driven solutions for food and nutrition.
> SO5: Raise citizen's awareness in exercising their "data rights", and how they can use them to create an effect in nature-positive food systems.
Consequently, FOODITY has delivered the following impact (I):
> I1: Ensured an increased uptake of data-driven solutions for food and nutrition by (1) running the FOODITY pilot programme and supporting the development of 12 solutions; (2) involving citizens and other stakeholders in defining and deciding on challenges to which applicants submitted their solutions; (3) having the solutions use technologies for personal data management; and (4) having the FOODITY beneficiaries participate in an ecosystem with possibilities of scaling and having external recognition.
> I2: Contributed to a higher availability of shared data for increased competitiveness and sustainability of food system actors thanks to data-driven innovation, and by collecting data sets from the 12 projects.
> I3: Engaged citizens in environment-friendly food systems targeting healthy food diets by (1) defining and launching communication actions targeted at the public and (2) having the 12 projects deliver actions to inform how their solutions lead to healthier and more environmentally friendly diets.
> I4: Facilitated citizens being in charge of their own data related to health and nutrition by (1) FOODITY developing and making available tools and technologies that allowed users to have full control over their data and (2) having the 12 projects evaluating the impact of their solutions, particularly how end-users perceive control over their data.
