Food System Hubs Innovating towards Fast Transition by 2030

Project Information

FoodSHIFT2030

Grant agreement ID: 862716

DOI

10.3030/862716

Project closed

EC signature date 23 August 2019

Start date 1 January 2020

End date 31 December 2023

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Total cost

€ 8 249 471,05

EU contribution

€ 7 493 676,86

Coordinated by

KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Denmark

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - FoodSHIFT2030 (Food System Hubs Innovating towards Fast Transition by 2030)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The FoodSHIFT2030 project takes departure in the EU Food 2030 Research and Innovation Policy Framework, the EU’s commitment under the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with an overarching objective to foster a food system transition towards a low carbon circular future, including a shift to less meat and more plant-based diets.

Our food system is not sustainable. Between 21% and 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to the food system, with 15% from livestock alone when including emissions from ruminants, feed production, and land use change. Currently 70% of all deaths in Europe can be ascribed to non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, strokes and certain types of cancer that are all significantly affected by what we eat and how much we eat. Furthermore, we have disconnected ourselves from the land that feed us and there is a widening urban-rural gap across the EU. Whereas GDP per capita in urban regions is 24% higher than the EU average, GDP per capita in rural regions is 30% lower than the EU average. The solution to these challenges is a more plant-based and localized food system.

By utilizing and supporting the transformative power of citizens already engaged in developing sustainable innovative food system solutions in European city-regions FoodSHIFT2030 will deliver an increase in food sector jobs and SMEs, an increase in citizen empowerment and urban-rural cohesion, and a lasting positive impact on food system sustainability that will continue beyond the project lifetime.

A fast citizen-driven food system transition will be achieved by creating a framework and efficient mechanisms for maturing, combining, upscaling and multiplying existing food system innovations through the operationalization of nine citizen-driven FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs and twenty-seven FoodSHIFT Enabler Labs established in existing and emerging city-region food system hubs distributed across Europe.

The benefits of existing and accelerated food system innovations will be determined by assessing their effects on a set of FoodSHIFT Indicators. Strategies and advisory plans for citizen-driven food system governance will be co- created in the FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs (FALs)to support food system transition and foster market uptake of new food system innovations in the participating city-regions.

A further transition of the food system beyond the FoodSHIFT2030 project will be obtained by creating a snowball effect starting with targeted knowledge transfer via a number of city and region networks working on facilitating the food system transition and continuing the establishment of FoodSHIFT Enabler Labs (FELs) in other European and global city-regions.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In RP3 we: Launched the FoodSHIFT Toolkit, summarizing key outputs from the entire project; published 9 city-stories documenting the Labs' journey throughout the project; submitted the final 11 Deliverables; completed the final 2 milestones; created FoodSHIFT ScoreCards showing the project addressing all 6 Farm to Fork Initiatives, all 4 Food 2030 Priorities, and 9 of the 11 FOOD 2030 pathways; conducted 4 training workshops targeted at external organizations outside the current network, each with an average of 125 registrations and 50 attendees from municipalities and stakeholders across Europe; hosted the FAL2FEL networking event, drawing an impressive attendance of 65 participants, including 21 esteemed FEL representatives; and hosted the FoodSHIFT Policy Conference with over 20 guest speakers, including experts and EU affiliates.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Moving beyond state-of-the-art on sustainable food system solutions requires a “radical innovation” approach and an acceleration of diverse, multi-scale food system innovations. By establishing open innovation FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs in nine European city-regions with active participation from key food chain actors representing private companies, local governments, research institutions and the civil society we have successfully created a strong framework for developing and implementing a ground-breaking mechanism for maturing, combining and upscaling existing food system innovations in an iterative innovation process based on multidisciplinary collaboration. In each of the nine FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs we have identified 10+ food system innovations that will be further developed during the project period through a citizen-driven and expert-supported increase of their Technological, Societal and Innovation Readiness Levels (TRLs, SRLs & IRLs) towards being highly competitive within an operational technological environment (TRL9) and towards achieving stronger societal adaptation (SRL9). By identifying and combining complementary food system innovations, the overall resilience of the food system will be increased by applying design thinking and circular economy principles while optimizing resource use efficiency and ensuring regional food security. By establishing FoodSHIFT Enabler Labs (FELs) in twenty-seven follower city-regions, and subsequently additional city-regions, we will exploit the full potential for upscaling the food system innovations at the wider regional, national and global market.

The interdisciplinary expertise within the project is a strength when supporting such diverse and lasting economic, social and environmental impacts: The WP teams combined are covering the following key aspects; establishing multi-actor networks, supporting and promoting food system innovators, tools and indicators to monitor impacts, development food system governance strategies, targeted knowledge sharing, summarised outputs in easy to digest formats and proactive dissemination. This is coupled with specialised ‘on the ground actors’ within the FAL leveraging extensive networks of food chain actors centred around the nine city regions.

In the first 18months, the full force of FoodSHIFT 2030 was not yet realised although a very strong foundation was built via all nine FALs and the project’s presence is felt in local and European arenas. As of M36, it is clear that the project is in full stride with project targets and objetives being met on varying levels, from on the ground actions in FALs, innovative WP methodologies and macro policy contributions via extended networks. The FoodSHIFT 2030 is perfectly positioned to continue maximising impact and quality outputs over the final 12 months with special focus on legacy outputs.

FoodSHIFT 2030 official logo