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About the Author: Innovarum

Content produced by the Innovarum Team with inputs from different team members.

The project #AnnualFood Agenda is an initiative powered by EIT Food -a European Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC), which receives funding from the European Commission body ‘EIT’– whose goal is to engage consumers with healthier lifestyles and environments, encouraging them to think about the food they eat and involving the entire value chain.

Innovarum believes collaboration to be key for the visibility of innovation within and beyond the agri-food sector. Thus, after talks with the Institute of Food Science Research (CIAL-CSIC) – #AnnualFoodAgenda project partner – this article presents the challenges, the structure and actions the project is making.

The challenge

In 2020, the health and social crisis caused by Covid-19 has put science on everyone’s lips, giving it a relevant place in our society. Society is aware that the challenges we face need science, but it is only through collaboration between research institutions, business and government that we can find a solution to major social challenges.

From a broader perspective, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) launched in 2008 an innovation and entrepreneurship initiative in Europe with the aim of fostering collaborative partnerships. This new initiative is called “EIT Food” and addresses the challenge above working for more sustainable, healthy and reliable food systems.

The EIT Food initiative

The EIT Food initiative consists of an innovation community that brings together key industry players across Europe, with more than 90 partner organizations and more than 50 start ups from 16 EU Member States. This large European consortium’s mission is to modernize the food sector.

The EIT Food Initiative works on the implementation of different research projects between partners with application in different strategic objectives: increasing consumer confidence in the food system, creating healthier food choices, connecting the system with the consumer, improving sustainability, promoting entrepreneurship and innovation in the food sector and promoting training in this area through advanced training programs.

#AnnualFoodAgenda - Dive into the Food journey. From farm to Fork

Among the EIT Food projects is #Annual Food Agenda, a consumer-focused project that aims to encourage critical thinking about the food currently consumed and inspire new generations to increase their knowledge about the world of food, driving healthy and sustainable decision making for the system.

The project counts with seven partners including food industry companies, universities and research centres from 3 European countries: Spain (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas -CSIC-, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, IMDEA Alimentación, Grupo AN), Poland (Maspex and Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences) and UK (University of Cambridge, PepsiCo), are participating in Annual Food Agenda. The project engages consumers, encourages them to think about the food they eat and involves the entire value chain.

The project partners develop together an agenda of interactive events, deploying outreach activities in different European regions to achieve broad resonance and coverage of topics aligned with EIT Food’s objectives. The program of activities are organised in four seasons within the year, developing relevant and inspiring themes for the future of food.

Participation of the Institute of Food Science Research (CIAL-CSIC)

The Spanish Institute of Food Science Research (CIAL-CSIC) has collaborated during the last two years as a founding partner of Annual Food Agenda, carrying out more than 16 activities in different cities in Spain, reaching a large number of audiences of all ages. Particularly, events were aimed at the general public, with a particular focus on the younger population, food producers and those interested in food.

Other actions in which CIAL-CSIC also takes part include the organisation of exhibitions, museums and science communication fairs – through interactive exhibits, lectures, science cafés and workshops – designed to inspire debate and encourage dialogue between experts and consumers. The main objective of these activities is to encourage exchange between academia, industry, producers and consumers in everyday environments through co-creation dynamics.

Latest developments

During the last year, COVID 19 has affected the organisation on some activities – face to face workshops, for example. However, activities have been adapted and numerous actions have actively encouraged the participation of audiences of all ages, especially children in schools and camps.

A successful case in terms of audience and visibility is the launching of the comic book “Adventures in the supermarket“. The book provides a close and novel perspective of the key concepts and ideas consumers need to be aware of to solve doubts about the best and most sustainable food choices.

It is possible to follow all new developments of #AnnualFoodAgenda at its webpage (www.annualfoodagenda.com) and discover new EIT Food projects at the initiative projects page.

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