Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SecureFood (AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO ENHANCE FOOD SYSTEMS RESILIENCE, ADVOCATING FORFOOD SECURITY AND UNINTERRUPTED FOOD SUPPLY)
Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2025-06-30
SecureFood adopts an integrated, systems-thinking approach that acknowledges and embraces the complexity of food systems, addressing them as an interconnected network of actors, elements, activities, processes, infrastructures, and essential services related to the production and delivery of food. Based on this approach, it brings together, 36 consortium partners (incl. affiliated entities) being multiple actors of the food supply chain itself, such as producers, food and beverages industries retailers and consumers, but also actors supporting the functioning of the supply chain, such as bulk carriers and road transport carriers. The actors network also includes entities operating under their auspices responsible for coordinating national resilience-building efforts. The goal of the project is to address the aforementioned food security challenges, by creating an ecosystem of scientific knowledge, collaborative processes, and digital tools. This ecosystem is being developed to provide evidence-based indications on the risks and vulnerabilities of different value chains (grain, fruits& vegetables, fish& aquaculture products, milk & dairy products) in different geographic contexts, and thus to contribute in a structured manner to the safeguarding of food security before and during crises, and to the reinforcement of food systems resilience. The cornerstone of SecureFood is a Food Systems Resilience Management Framework under development with interlinked resilience and sustainability orientations as well as a Resilience Governance Framework that draws on collaborative principles and adopts inclusive and participatory processes to ensure successful cooperation between experts and stakeholders. The SecureFood ecosystem is currently being developed and is planned to be tested and demonstrated for different case studies, one of which addressing a currently ongoing food security crisis, i.e.. Ukraine’s grain value chain that has been severely impacted by Russia’s invasion and the disruption in grain shipments that has pushed millions people into poverty or food insecurity.
The initial phase of the project (RP1) defined the background analysis on the food security drivers the definition of the User Requirements for the SecureFood system and a Reference Architecture, it started work on building up the Risk and Resilience governance and management frameworks, proceeded with the development of the digital tools and started forming the Use-Case scenarios. Main achievements during RP1 are:
• A detailed background analysis of food security dynamics, regulatory framework, guidelines, standards, best practices and activities/results of national and international initiatives and projects.
• The analysis revealed several critical gaps in EU food security policy and strategy.
• The definition of 66 user requirements that inform project partners on what the SecureFood system must be able to do.
• The development of 17 Use Cases that detail the tasks that the users can perform, with the solutions developed in SecureFood.
• The definition of SecureFood’s Technical Requirements based on validated user needs, forming the foundation for all technical development.
• The development of the SecureFood Reference Architecture, detailing tool-level integration, interfaces, databases, and data exchange mechanisms.
• The specification of implementation requirements in terms of required infrastructure (hardware, software, licensing etc) and design priorities for each digital solution, with an emphasis on interoperability of the tools and modularity of the SecureFood platform.
• The establishment of a Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM), linking each technical requirement to corresponding user needs, and enabling structured progress monitoring throughout the project lifecycle.
• The generation of a methodology and approx. 600 scenarios using Cross-Impact Balance Analysis (CIB) across six case studies. For each case study, two high-impact and plausible scenarios were selected based on their total impact score, which reflects internal consistency and logical strength.
• Structuring of a mathematical model to assess food security risks across the four pillars: availability, access, utilization, and stability. This model supports scenario analysis and intervention optimization.
• The development of a structured framework for analysing the financial and operational responses of food supply chain actors during systemic shocks.
• The preliminary modelling of food security drivers, pillars, and FLW datasets, through tool for automated scoring and dynamic SecureFood Index output by country and sector.
• Multi-Stakeholder Engagement: A broad and diverse group of stakeholders has been actively involved, including 22 internal contributors from the project and members of the External Stakeholder Group (ESG).
• The development of a preliminary structure for the resilience governance incorporating strategic goals and core resilience principles. This framework is grounded in both theoretical research and practical stakeholder input.
• The development of a set of plausible food crisis scenarios a triangulated approach. These scenarios reflect the most pressing vulnerabilities identified so far across the four supply chains and will serve as a strategic foundation for guiding the development of the resilience governance framework.
• Started development (coding) of some of these models that will be part of the DT library. A preliminary data requirement specification has been elaborated.
• Defined the Evaluation and validation strategy of the Use Cases and designed the respective evaluation tools.
• A detailed background analysis of food security dynamics, regulatory framework, guidelines, standards, best practices and activities/results of national and international initiatives and projects.
• The analysis revealed several critical gaps in EU food security policy and strategy.
• The definition of 66 user requirements that inform project partners on what the SecureFood system must be able to do.
• The development of 17 Use Cases that detail the tasks that the users can perform, with the solutions developed in SecureFood.
• The definition of SecureFood’s Technical Requirements based on validated user needs, forming the foundation for all technical development.
• The development of the SecureFood Reference Architecture, detailing tool-level integration, interfaces, databases, and data exchange mechanisms.
• The specification of implementation requirements in terms of required infrastructure (hardware, software, licensing etc) and design priorities for each digital solution, with an emphasis on interoperability of the tools and modularity of the SecureFood platform.
• The establishment of a Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM), linking each technical requirement to corresponding user needs, and enabling structured progress monitoring throughout the project lifecycle.
• The generation of a methodology and approx. 600 scenarios using Cross-Impact Balance Analysis (CIB) across six case studies. For each case study, two high-impact and plausible scenarios were selected based on their total impact score, which reflects internal consistency and logical strength.
• Structuring of a mathematical model to assess food security risks across the four pillars: availability, access, utilization, and stability. This model supports scenario analysis and intervention optimization.
• The development of a structured framework for analysing the financial and operational responses of food supply chain actors during systemic shocks.
• The preliminary modelling of food security drivers, pillars, and FLW datasets, through tool for automated scoring and dynamic SecureFood Index output by country and sector.
• Multi-Stakeholder Engagement: A broad and diverse group of stakeholders has been actively involved, including 22 internal contributors from the project and members of the External Stakeholder Group (ESG).
• The development of a preliminary structure for the resilience governance incorporating strategic goals and core resilience principles. This framework is grounded in both theoretical research and practical stakeholder input.
• The development of a set of plausible food crisis scenarios a triangulated approach. These scenarios reflect the most pressing vulnerabilities identified so far across the four supply chains and will serve as a strategic foundation for guiding the development of the resilience governance framework.
• Started development (coding) of some of these models that will be part of the DT library. A preliminary data requirement specification has been elaborated.
• Defined the Evaluation and validation strategy of the Use Cases and designed the respective evaluation tools.
Results beyond the State of the Art are shaping through the Foresight Analysis and modelling of future state scenarios, the development of the Risk Assessnment and Scenarios, Resilience Management Framework and its digital implementation as FSRM tool, and the Resilience Management Governance Framework (all in WP3) and the digital tools and supporting system that are being developed in WP4 & 5 and are expected to conclude in the next RPs.