Rethinking the planet’s nourishment
Our collective ambition is bigger than one stakeholder, one initiative or one innovation
We can only change a food system together. Local, regional, national and global parties have to join and work transparently and energetically to accelerate the transition to an efficient, inclusive, sustainable, nutritious and healthy food system.
The Food Innovation Hub Europe aims to provide scalable, socially accepted, tangible results via interventions, under the themes Nutrition & Health, Protein Transition and Circular Agrifood for the global society and the planet, co-created with game changers and frontrunners through the entire value chain so that we create a fair food system which is ecologically sustainable.
To achieve this goal, the Food Innovation Hub Europe generates, facilitates and supports international, multi-stakeholder initiatives that potentially have a high impact on the challenges of the food system in Europe.
Initiatives
The Food Innovation Hub Europe initiated several projects in collaboration with European partners. The following projects are currently in development or are implemented.
Innovative Solutions to Reduce Obesity and Malnutrition in Europe
Obesity and malnutrition are complex challenges, but by accelerating innovation in personalised nutrition, we can help to create a healthier and more equitable food system. EIT Food, Foodvalley NL and Food Innovation Hub Europe have organised a 2022 challenge: Personalised Nutrition for All!
Personalised nutrition for all is a call to action to find innovative solutions to reduce obesity and malnutrition in Europe. This year six winners will be awarded €30,000 to further develop their solution, opening the possibility for further funding by EIT Food to develop their project and go to market. Deadline for submission is 1st September 2022.
Startups and multi-stakeholder groups are invited to submit their Personalised Nutrition ideas. Winners will be announced on the 17th October 2022, just after World Food Day.
More information about the call is available at the website.
Theme: Nutrition & Health – Personalised Nutrition
Running time: 2022 to 2023
Theme: Circular Agrifood – Regenerative Agriculture
In development, more information will follow soon
Regenerative Agriculture Innovation Impact Fund
Regenerative agriculture offers one of the greatest opportunities to help Europe address human and climate health, along with the financial well-being of farmers. Reports from leading science, knowledge institutions and business networks, state the fundamental importance of transitioning to more regenerative agriculture methods if Europe is to meet its climate change targets, food security needs, protect arable lands and environmental landscapes and build a healthier food system. Various companies have made commitments to source materials and ingredients from regenerative agriculture, while organizations across the world are looking to reduce the Scope 3 emissions of their supply chain operations. Transitioning to regenerative agriculture offers:
- Restoring the natural rhythm of our ecosystems
- Reviving landscapes
- Curbing GHG emissions for generations to come.
With such an impact in mind EIT Food, Foodvalley NL, Food Innovation Hub Europe and Imagine Food Collective are setting up the Regenerative Agricultural Innovation Impact Fund Europe. The Impact Fund will invest in a portfolio of innovations, initially between 2022-2025, to accelerate and enable transitioning to regenerative agricultural production, sourcing and procurement of food towards 2030 targets.
Interested to participate in the fund and receive more information? Please feel free to reach out to Jolijn Zwart – van Kessel or Jeroen Wouters.
Find innovation collaboration partners in Asia to boost the sustainable transition of the food system worldwide
Global FOODture is a project to boost the sustainable transition of the food system worldwide through international collaboration and innovation. It develops and implements a joint internationalisation strategy that facilitates access to countries outside Europe for European SMEs, specifically Japan, South-Korea, Singapore and Thailand. By organizing different activities like masterclasses, matchmaking and 2 international missions, Global FOODture will facilitate and support international innovation collaboration of European SMEs. The project focusses on food sustainability challenges with the following 5 focus areas:
- Agriculture cultivation support solutions
- Alternative proteins
- Health products, functional and personalised food
- Sustainable packaging
- Reducing Food waste
Are you a European SME working in the above described fields? Or are you a partner from Asia and interested to meet European SMEs working in these areas? Please visit the website or register for the first activities.
Theme: Nutrition & Health, Cricular Agrifood, Protein Shift
Running time: September 2021 to January 2024
Theme: Nutrition & Health – Personalised Nutrition
Running time: June 2021 to December 2022
Prevent and Reduce Obesity through Personalised Nutrition by Multi-stakeholder Initiatives
Food Innovation Hub Europe is always looking for new initiatives in the field of personalised nutrition that aim to reduce obesity (within Europe and beyond).
Three initiatives received the Booster Award in 2021. They received: 30,000 euros development budget, 1 year of monitoring, visibility of the initiative and access to a large international food network. The award is intended to encourage these initiatives that support the reduction and prevention of obesity through the use of personalised nutrition tools. The 2021 winners are;
- Happy Feet on Healthy Food
- A.App (Juvenile Antiobesity App)
- Ready to (h)eat meals tailored to gut, genes and guidelines
More information about the initiatives is available here.
Facilitating and Supporting Learning on Entrepreneurship in the Food and Bioeconomy Value Chain
P2P FINBIO is a pan-European project. The 5 participating partners share their current support services and methods offered to SMEs and exchange good practices in order to generate insights and develop a common Design Options Paper (DOP). Participating clusters are Food and Bio Cluster Denmark (FBCD), Denmark; Corporación Tecnológica de Andalucía (CTA), Spain; Association Industries et Agro-Resources (IAR), France; Technology and Innovation Campus (BLC3), Portugal and Foodvalley NL, The Netherlands.
During the project the DOP has been developed, which is a document with learnings about the entrepreneurship support services. Interested to read the outcomes? Please visit the website to read more about the learnings of this project.
Theme: Nutrition & Health, Cricular Agrifood, Protein Shift
Running time: September 2021 to September 2022
Partners
Food Innovation Hub Europe started with a number of organisations in the Netherlands with a world-wide scope. Through the various networks the partnership will be extended and is open to organisations across Europe. The following organisations are the initial partners, supporting the development and the establishment of the Food Innovation Hub Europe: Wageningen University and Research, Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature & Food Quality, Unilever, DSM, Rabobank, Topsector Agri-Food and Foodvalley NL. Food Innovation Hub Europe is part of the network of Global Food Innovation Hubs initiated by World Economic Forum and facilitated by the Global Coordinating Secretariate.
The Team
The Action Team is responsible for the development and execution of the partnership and programs of the Food Innovation Hub in Europe. The Action Team will act as a focal point secretariat, implementing and developing activities with European partners:
Jeroen Wouters – Lead Global Connections, Foodvalley NL, chairperson
Corinne Abbas – Project lead FIH Europe, Foodvalley NL & Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality
Elina Coerts –Policy officer Food innovation of the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality
Angelique van Helvoort – Program manager Global Coordinating Secretariat Food Innovation Hubs
Tjerna Ellenbroek – Relations Liaison, Foodvalley NL
About
The Food Innovation Europe was launched in January 2021 as part of a global network of Food Innovation Hubs initiated by the World Economic Forum. The Food Innovation Hub Europe aims to tackle regional challenges to accelerate the transition of the food system into a fair food system which is ecologically sustainable.
Food Innovation Hubs are open and inclusive platforms for strengthening and upscaling local food innovations, transforming them into global, sustainable food solutions. Together, hubs and partners form a worldwide infrastructure and network for developing, sharing and improving these much-needed agrifood innovations.
Are you interested to read more about the Food Innovation Hubs worldwide? Please visit the website for more information.
The World Economic Forum initiated together with public, private and civil society sector partners Food Innovation Hubs worldwide. The World Economic Forum (WEF), committed to improving the state of the world, is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. The Global Coordination Secretariat supporting the Food Innovation Hubs in collaboration is based in Wageningen, The Netherlands.
