Coronavirus global response of the European Union
The European Union and its partners launched a coronavirus global response effort on 4 May.
The aim of the conference is to raise €7.5bn to develop diagnostics, treatments and vaccines and deploy them to every corner of the world at an affordable price.
Key messages:
- To fight the coronavirus, the world urgently needs effective and safe diagnostics, treatments and vaccines
without these we ALL remain vulnerable
- The European Commission has made a significant contribution to the Coronavirus Global Response pledge with €1 billion mobilised by Horizon 2020
- Together, we are stronger: EU research and innovation brings Europe’s leading scientists and innovators together to coordinate efforts across the EU and beyond to tackle the coronavirus crisis
- The crisis requires a response of unprecedented scale, speed and solidarity – the global research and innovation community is already mobilised but we need to do more
- We are committed to continuing to support our researchers and innovators in these critical times
More information can be found on the official website.
Together, let’s stop the virus and protect people.
Joint strategic priorities for research and innovation
On the 15th of October 2019, Copa-Cogeca's Working Party on Research & Innovation and ETP "Food for Life" launched a Joint Statement on strategic priorities for Research and Innovation.
The Joint Statement can be found here
FOOD2030 – Launch of on-line consultation for first strategic plan of Horizon Europe!
Dear FOOD 2030 friends,
We are delighted to inform you that the stakeholder consultation in view of helping us further build up Horizon
Europe has just been launched!
We thus invite you to consult the Strategic Planning document at: https://ec.europa.eu/research/pdf/horizon-europe/ec_rtd_orientations-towards-the-strategic-planning.pdf
Your feedback is warmly welcomed via on our on-line platform, that is expected to remain open until early
September.
Furthermore, our September R&I Days (24-26 Sept) event will also provide an exciting opportunity to exchange views and share your ideas with us, so we hope you will join us there.
Please do not hesitate to share the news with your colleagues and networks! So as to be kept informed of relevant next steps, news and events, all are welcome to fill in our online FOOD 2030 stakeholder list.
Kind regards,
FOOD 2030 Team
Healthy Planet Directorate
DG Research & Innovation
European Commission, Brussels
Website:FOOD 2030
Twitter:#FOOD2030EU
News & Events: Join the FOOD 2030 Stakeholder list
European Master’s: University of Hohenheim Launches Unique Degree Program "Food Systems"
Innovative Master’s program with top partners at Germany's #1 University for Agricultural Research & Food Science. Studies in three countries, with innovative teaching and exciting career prospects: The new "Food Systems" Master's program at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart will start in the winter semester. The degree program is a cooperative project by six European universities (University of Hohenheim (Germany), University of Reading (England), University of Warsaw (Poland), University of Torino (Italy), Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain) and Queen's University Belfast (Northern Ireland)) with contributions from the top companies in the food sector. Each university accepts only 15 students per year, and these students complete segments of the program at three member universities during the course of their studies. The program will start in the winter semester 2019/2020.
"In the Food Systems Master's program, students acquire expert knowledge in all areas of the food system," explained Prof. Dr. Jochen Weiss, degree program director. “An
entrepreneurial spirit and cooperation with industrial partners help to provide a great deal of practical knowledge and a profile that is extremely sought after in the nutrition sector."
A top education with the best contacts is guaranteed. This is because Europe's leading names in research and industry in the food sector are involved in the "Food Systems" degree program: the
project is sponsored by EIT Food, one of the European Union's knowledge & innovation communities. The EU supports the 180 university places at six universities with 2.4 million euros
annually.
Additional information:
Master’s in Food Systems www.uni-hohenheim.de/food-systems-master-studium
EIT Food Academy www.eitfoodacademy.eu/masters
Admission requirements: https://mfs-apply.eitfood.eu/contents/content/11-admission-requirements
Scholarships: https://mfs-apply.eitfood.eu/contents/content/2-scholarships
Media Contact:
Prof. Dr. Jochen Weiss, University of Hohenheim, Department of Food Physics and Meat Science
T +49 711 459 24415
Andreas Glombitza-Cevey, University of Hohenheim, Department of Food Physics and Meat Science
T +49 711 459 24071
andreas.glombitza@uni-hohenheim.de
H2020 SMARTCHAIN - Internal and external driving forces of short food supply chains: questionnaire
SMARTCHAIN (http://smartchain-h2020.eu/) wants to foster and accelerate the shift towards collaborative short food supply chains and, through concrete actions and recommendations, to introduce new robust business models and innovative practical solutions that enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of the European agri-food system.
With the questionnaire below, SMARTCHAIN aims to find out the main internal and external positive and negative factors influencing short food supply chains’ development, in order to know where and how to act to facilitate them. The questionnaire is made so that any kind of actor can answer it (producers, cooperatives, consumers groups, sectorial federations, experts, research centers, etc.).
- German version: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd2hYAUWaWUQpkatQtGEIYZshcpx4ISWYonWWKCZuJm-BSfhg/viewform?usp=sf_link
- French version: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdozJ6kIvWWXdJlO_AJwiPqsv5uEHgN9yNtyohm8Q3WeZlWag/viewform?usp=sf_link
- English version: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdPMSH587zmCylIAl664ha_MK9QBjpZwQ84D8W3KM8t-Bi55Q/viewform?usp=sf_link
- Italian version: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf-ccA6a3kKR-YwIT5o1hxLHMMiMSZ9ZuLZZLmb43VL20ksoQ/viewform?usp=sf_link
- Greek version: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdWQrxBmw-u5O6G-lxzXCVGANEzIQ6u4y1nOngQXV3s1IZNRA/viewform?usp=sf_link
- Serbian version: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJBbCAYBWsbDHk5P8wcQBE4NACBa_H8qDSDNcRhNnasWK2uQ/viewform?usp=sf_link
- Hungarian version: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf0F552e-e8IkfmLtAHxTbXNbiNOHentZzgvsnHgAodmwvt1A/viewform?usp=sf_link
- Dutch version: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdihSH0OszOPoglCVfiN5bnyTy7u1D8SNgRUYKQeAe-etTCIQ/viewform?usp=sf_link
- Spanish version: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfrLLMy9f4HF8CK3fr5OMDb9M80ThJ0kpu2AD1LlsjDn9CJsg/viewform?usp=sf_link
If you have any doubt or question about this questionnaire or about the project, do not hesitate to contact us: louisemehauden@gestionaglobal.es
Thanks a lot for filling this questionnaire! Your knowledge and experience will provide us precious information about food supply chains driving Forces.
H2020 SMARTCHAIN project just launched its website!
SMARTCHAIN is an ambitious, 3 year project with 43 partners from 11 European countries including key stakeholders from the domain of short food supply chain as actors in the project. The central objective is to foster and accelerate the shift towards collaborative short food supply chains and, through concrete actions and recommendations, to introduce new robust business models and innovative practical solutions that enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of the European agri-food system.
The project aims to establish 9 national communities of short food supply chains (Innovation and Collaboration Hubs) in different partner countries (France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia, Spain and Switzerland) and a virtual innovation hub in order to facilitate stakeholder engagement, bringing farmers and consumers together in a trust-enhancing environment enabling them to generate demand driven-innovations.
SMARTCHAIN has just launched its website. The website will be the main source of information about the project activities and results. The website will be regularly updated with all project relevant documents, news, events and other resources. As the target audience of the project is very diverse, including citizens, consumers, Agri-food supply chain practitioners, but also policy-makers and academics the website is constructed in a simple manner, driven by SMARTCHAIN contents and enabling the different users to navigate the website and find the relevant information for them quickly.
Please, visit the web for further information about the project!
http://www.smartchain-h2020.eu/
Project Duration: 09/2018 - 08/2021
Coordinator: University of Hohenheim (Susanne Braun and Dr. Dimitrios Argyropoulos)
Participating countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia, Spain and Switzerland
I-CON Interreg Central Europe project: Crowd Design Platform – a tool for Food Design
We all know that a way to the excellent design is not easy and at the same time expensive. However, it does not have to be this way! Crowd Design Platform (CDP) is a great I-CON tool for food SMEs. Sometimes they want to change packaging design, logos, promotional materials etc. On the other hand, sometimes they just need new ideas for affordable price.
After successfully completing many pilot projects, I-CON consortium is convinced that CDP is a very useful tool for obtaining new design by taking just few steps. The most crucial part is definitely a brief. Good brief is an important part of a good design, so the SME needs to provide designers as many information as possible about needs, wishes and/or about the company itself. CDP offers the upload of documents, for example the existing design, logo, etc.
Within a few hours, SME can get first designs. At the end of the project, 20 sometimes even 80 designs are sent to the SME, which depends on the selected package and difficulty of the design (e.g., logo can be easier to design than the packaging for a specific food product).
The last step is to choose the favourite design, but it is important to keep in mind, that as a company, you can always request the designer to change something if needed.
Thus, use the Crowd Design Platform to design your business!
I-CON Interreg Central Europe project: Atlas Mapping Tool
The I-CON project stands out to put together food SMEs needs and solution providers, enhancing their own potentials along the food value chain in order to increase SMEs competitiveness and above all to create a sustainable socio-economic multiplier effect. More than 200 SMEs analyzed by the partners, more than 70 good practices and solutions identified, more than 72 funding opportunities on food sector innovation collected, thanks to an effective international cooperation between 10 partners from 7 central European countries (Austria, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Germany and Italy).
I-CON Atlas Mapping Tool is the online tool of the project providing a visual depiction of joint possibilities and enables to understand how well regions and SMEs are able to access the resources and opportunities necessary for meeting their basic needs and advancing knowledge. This user-friendly tool consists of six main panels of which some have additional subcategories to choose from and the search bar with filtering options. All of this is accompanied by the interactive map. The main panels are:
1. Organizations
2. Projects
3. Funding Schemes
4. CDP Labelling Tool (DesignCrowd – Freelance food label design platform)
5. Good Practices & Solutions
6. I-CON Facilitators
“I-CON: Improving COmpetences and skills through Food sector InNovations”
Period: 01.06.2016 – 31.05.2019
Duration: 36 months
Coordinator: Pomurje Technology Park
Partners: CCSI-Chamber of Agricultural and Food Enterprises Slovenia, Business Upper Austria, Campden BRI Hungary, STRIA-South Transdanubian Regional Innovation Agency, CNA Regional Association of Emilia Romagna, UNISEF Industry Association Service & Training of Treviso and Pordenone, University of Hohenheim, Polish Chamber of Food Industry and Packaging, and Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Transforming the EU Agri-Food Sector
Joint declaration to transform the agri-food sector in Europe into a more competitive, sustainable and trusted sector, securing the production of safe, nutritious food that every consumer loves.
The European Technology Platform ‘Food for Life’, FoodDrinkEurope, the European Federation of Food Science and Technology (EFFoST), EIT Food, Food Nexus and FOODforce have issued a declaration to transform the agri-food sector in Europe into a more competitive, sustainable and trusted sector, securing the production of safe, nutritious food that every consumer loves.
These organisations, key stakeholders in the agri-food sector representing farmers, food producers, academia and other actors in the food industry, share a common vision to create a broad, pan-European movement with the citizen at its heart, connecting and leveraging all actors and initiatives underway.
The signatories of the declaration call on the European Commission and Member States to support this strategy through a comprehensive program in FP9, targeting technological solutions in food security, sustainable farming, food safety and healthy nutrition.
Please click the file below to download this declaration.
New H2020 project: SMARTCHAIN "Towards Innovation - driven and smart solutions in short food supply chains"
On the 1st of September, the new H2020 project SMARTCHAIN: "Towards Innovation - driven and smart solutions in short food supply chains" will be officially launched. The kick off meeting will take place on the 17th and 18th of October at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany.
SMARTCHAIN is an ambitious, 3 year project with 43 partners from 11 European countries including key stakeholders from the domain of short food supply chain as actors in the project. The central objective is to foster and accelerate the shift towards collaborative short food supply chains and, through concrete actions and recommendations, to introduce new robust business models and innovative practical solutions that enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of the European agri-food system.
Using bottom-up, demand-driven research, the SMARTCHAIN consortium i) will perform a multi-perspective analysis of 18 case studies of short food supply chains in terms of technological, regulatory, social, economic and environmental factors, ii) will assess the linkages and interactions among all stakeholders involved in short food supply chains and iii) will identify the key parameters that influence sustainable food production and rural development among different regions in Europe.
The project aims to establish 9 national communities of short food supply chains (Innovation and Collaboration Hubs) in different partner countries (France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia, Spain and Switzerland) and a virtual innovation hub in order to facilitate stakeholder engagement, bringing farmers and consumers together in a trust-enhancing environment enabling them to generate demand driven-innovations.
Combination of scientific and practical knowledge and the use of innovation workshops will enable the development of practical innovative solutions as well as the promotion of a framework for different forms of collaborative short food supply chains in urban and rural areas. SMARTCHAIN will generate concrete actions for knowledge transfer, through the organisation of multi-stakeholder workshops and training activities for farmers and short food supply chain entrepreneurs.
Project Duration: 09/2018 - 08/2021
Coordinator: University of Hohenheim (Susanne Braun and Dr. Dimitrios Argyropoulos)
Participating countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia, Spain and Switzerland
SUSFOOD2 ERA-NET BIOCARB-4-FOOD Kick off meeting (7 September, 2018, IATA-CSIC, Valencia, Spain)
The European project BIOCARB-4-FOOD "Extraction and characterization of BIOactives and CARBohydrates from seaweeds and seagrasses FOR FOOD-related applications" will officially start the 1st of September 2018. The kick off meeting will take place on the 7th of September in Valencia, Spain.
BIOCARB-4-FOOD proposes to explore, in close collaboration with industry, novel, environmentally friendly and efficient extraction techniques (ultrasound, microwave, enzymes and their combinations), combined with the exploitation of the remaining biomass, rich in bioactive compounds, to sequentially obtain novel carbohydrate-based extracts and fibers (nanocellulose) from seaweeds and seagrasses. This SUSFOOD2 project will characterize structure, technological properties, toxicity and bioactivity of the fractions obtained from the various extraction technologies and a life cycle assessment (LCA) will also be conducted for proving the sustainability of the procedures.
The project is expected to contribute to improved process efficiency, development of ingredients with high added value from already commercialized seaweed species and from under-exploited sources (seagrasses) which can positively impact in the competitiveness of seaweed, food and non-food companies at EU scale by a better valorization of raw materials.
Project Duration: 09/2018 - 08/2021
Coordinator: IATA-CSIC (Spain)
Partners: Nofima AS (Norway), Teagasc (Ireland), University of Hohenheim (Germany) and RISE Research Institutes of Sweden (Sweden)
FOODforce in the 5th International ISEKI_Food Conference 2018 (3-5 July, 2018, University of Hohenheim, Germany)
In the frame of the 5th International ISEKI-Food Conference 2018 at the University of Hohenheim, Peter Jongebloed, as a keynote speaker representing FOODforce, gave a presentation on ‘How to implement a FOOD system approach in Horizon Europe’?
Food has a twin identity: it has an important role in the unprecedented global challenges we face. But, on the other hand, it can be a central component of the solutions for these global challenges and thus also meeting the UN’s Sustainability Development Goals. A well-established Food System Approach is essential to come up with the game changing solutions needed.
However, the Food System involves complex interactions among the different actors in the different parts of the value chain and value net. We see that actors of the value net often work in do not work together, do not meet each other, thus act as independent silos. As such, the role of consumers and citizens as consumers are strongly undervalued. This makes the impetus to encourage stronger involvement of European citizens an even bigger challenge.
A transition from the current unsustainable food system to a healthy, circular and resource-efficient paradigm is essential. Such transitions will be hugely complex, since the multiple patterns of food production and consumption are closely interconnected and changing one aspect can easily have major unintended consequences. Therefore substantial actions are needed which must be driven both by science as well as the values and engagement of European citizens’.
FOODforce has identified and synthesised three major gaps “The Grand Gaps” in the complexity of food systems. These gaps can be filled with a set of approaches and solutions, to make the transition happen. Based on that, a FOODforce Position Paper "Food System Approach" will be available soon.
More info on the 5th ISEKI_Food Conference 2018 at https://www.isekiconferences.com/stuttgart2018/
New Master Programme in Food Sciences
New Master Programme in Food Sciences for Innovation and Authenticity at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano in South Tyrol/Italy
This two-year master provides you with sound knowledge of current and future
challenges in food sciences, combining innovation and authenticity, and
offering you the opportunity to interact closely with the food industry. The
programme is *a joint initiative with the Universities of Parma and Udine*,
known worldwide for their excellence in higher education in the field of food
sciences.
The course aims at training professionals who are able to work confidently in
areas of food sciences, such as technology, engineering, microbiology,
chemistry and sustainability.
Ater the first year, you can choose among *five different profiles*:
* Applied Engineering and Genetics;
* Food Quality and Management;
* Nutrition Sciences;
* Food Chemistry;
* Food Packaging.
During their master students have the opportunity *to do an exchange
programme with the University College Cork, Ireland and the Technical
University of Munich*, Germany, two global leaders in food sciences.
The application deadline is 18 July 2018