CORDIS

FIT4FOOD2030 supports the European Commission FOOD 2030 policy framework on the urgently needed food systems transformation towards sustainable, resilient, responsive, inclusive, competitive and diverse future-proof food systems through Research & Innovation. To this end, FIT4FOOD2030 aims to (1) strengthen Research and Innovation (R&I) policy coherence and alignment (2) build competences for food systems R&I, and (3) raise awareness. The established FOOD 2030 Platform comprises three interlinked structures: EU Think Tank, Policy Labs and City Labs, which interact regularly to exchange information, learn from one another, and plan actions. To support the emerging platform current trends, policies, showcases and breakthroughs in food systems R&I are analysed.

FIT4FOOD2030’s activities comprise four phases: (1) actor identification/mobilization and visioning/system understanding; (2) developing roadmaps; (3) action planning and training; and (4) scaling up and continuity. Cross-cutting components are: methodology development and transformative learning. During its first 18 months, the project has laid the foundation for the FOOD 2030 Platform, and have successfully completed the first two phases.

FOOD 2030 Platform

City Labs
Seven City Labs are up and running in Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Milan (Italy), Budapest (Hungary), Barcelona (Spain), Athens (Greece), Sofia (Bulgaria) and Tartu (Estonia). Bringing together policy makers, researchers, food chain partners, educators and citizens, the City Labs have started working on understanding the food systems and need for food system transformation through organisating various workshops. They have created visions of their aspired food system and have started collecting and analysing local best practices. Soon they will pilot the educational modules that have developed. New City Labs will be joining the project Fall 2019.

Policy Labs
The first seven Policy Labs have been established in The Netherlands, Italy, Hungary, Flanders (Belgium), Lithuania, Norway and Romania. They have organized two national meetings on ‘awareness and understanding of food systems and related R&I’ and ‘visioning future food systems’ respectively. Due to different starting points and local contexts the focus of the Policy Labs varies; some focus on organising national meetings with stakeholders from the industry, academia and government to discuss current challenges and align regional approaches, while others work towards an integrated Food Policy, supported by an R&I agenda. Four new Policy Labs have joined the project in April 2019 – Ireland, Austria, Estonia and Basque Country (Spain) – and have already been trained in strategies for setting-up their first national meetings.

EU Think Tank
The EU Think Tank provides a link to the European Commission and serves as a sounding board with global outreach. Since its inception June 2018, it has had three meetings, contributing proactively to the project via the development of policy briefs. The first policy brief “A Systems Approach to Research and Innovation for Food System Transformation” was published in October 2018 (www.fit4food2030.eu/reports-publications/). The second policy brief highlighting the need for a systems approach to consumption is nearing completion.

Trends, showcases and breakthroughs
The following analyses serve as an important building block for stakeholder engagement in the FOOD 2030 Platform:
• current trends, drivers and barriers affecting the food system and its transformation;
• current EU and national food system-related policies;
• showcases where R&I practices have shown to adopt holistic food systems approach and/or Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) for food system transformation;
• future Research and Innovation breakthroughs that have the potential for significant change.
The analysis of trends in food systems R&I as well as an overview of related European food policies have been finalised, both as an extensive report and as engaging card games that facilitate group discussion on the topic of food systems and related challenges. The collection of showcases, covering the four FOOD 2030 priorities (Climate, Innovation, Nutrition and Circularity), is well underway with currently 150+ cases identified as well as identification of a diverse set (social movements, technological innovation, new business models etc.) of 16 potential Research & Innovation showcases through a multi-stakeholder process. The selected cases will be used to develop a guideline for best practices, including success factors for the transitioning towards a more sustainable and future-proof food system. An inventory of possible future Research & Innovation breakthroughs is published, relating these to the trends and cases. Recently an analysis of success factors, enablers and drivers for breakthroughs has been completed.

Outreach and impact

The project is on track in realising its formal impact criteria and is engaging many different stakeholders either directly through project activities of the City and Policy Labs or indirectly through communication and dissemination. Direct active engagement of stakeholders as taken place in about 50 workshops, FIT4FOOD2030 events and numerous other engagements including over 500 policy makers; 1200 researchers/teachers; almost 500 (representatives of) businesses including farmers, start-ups and retail; over 250 consumers; over 150 NGOs and almost 100 research funders; as well as indirect engagement of another 2,500 stakeholders and an online indirect engagement of over 288,000 on online platforms and social media. In the final 18 months of the project direct engagement of consumers, school children and students is a key priority. In addition, many Consortium partners organise presentations and workshops for example within the context of their networks annual meeting.

It is, however, not just about ticking those boxes; FIT4FOOD2030 aims to fundamentally transform EU R&I in order to future-proof food systems through its activities. There are also already examples of the project’s impact beyond the initial impact indicators: through the Romanian Policy Lab, FIT4FOOD2030 was involved in the Austria EU Presidency Event (workshops) and was involved in the Romanian EU Presidency Event (workshop and a keynote presentation by the Coordinator). Furthermore, the project is more strongly linking up with the work and needs of the Commission, by for example organising a high-level event at the World Food Day in 2019 together with FAO and WFP.

The final 18 months of the project are about scaling-up and realising continuity as well as about widening and broadening stakeholder involvement. The Policy and City Labs will move towards action planning and will start experimenting for system transformation. This entails experimenting with and securing sustainability of the educational modules as developed by the seven incumbent City Labs as well as the recruitment of seven new City Labs, but also working towards transformed R&I systems on the national level through experiments for policy innovation in the 11 Policy Labs. In order to realise impact through the FOOD 2030 platform, the project will closely work with the EC in order to provide appropriate support for the implementation of FOOD 2030.