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.
