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European FutureFoodS Partnership - 1st call
Funding Program
Horizon Europe - Cluster 6 - Destination 2: Fair, Healthy and Environmentally-friendly Food Systems from Primary Production to Consumption
deadlines
Opening
06.11.2024
Deadline
15.01.2025 13:00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
FutureFoodS is an innovative European partnership focused on transforming Europe's food production and consumption towards more sustainable and resilient systems. This partnership brings together leading experts, research institutions, businesses and policymakers to develop joint solutions to the complex challenges facing our food systems, such as climate change, biodiversity loss and food security. Its first call for proposals focusses on "Transforming Food Systems - reshaping food system interactions, fostering food innovations and empowering sustainable food choices".
Call objectives
This call brings together 36 funding organizations from 19 countries and the European Commission, jointly committing up to 40 million Euros to support innovative research and development projects focused on creating a sustainable food future.
The call offers funding for innovative projects that contribute to one of the following topics:
Topic 1: The way towards sustainable and resilient food systems
The European food sector is highly polarised with few actors dominating globalised process-and-supply chains. Recent external shocks and geopolitical shifts have revealed the high volatility of global food markets and lasting vulnerabilities of European supply chains. Achieving more sustainable and resilient food systems in Europe is central to EU’s Green Deal, striving for a green and digital transition. Doing so necessitates continued efforts to, i.e. improve food security and safety and finding new ways to optimize flows, optimise the use of natural capital and ecosystems services, generate less waste and reduce main environmental and climate impacts, and discourage unhealthy diets in times of resource scarcity and climate uncertainties.
This call topic aims to explore new approaches for reshaping food system interactions through novel market-based arrangements, business models, policy actions and experimental practices. The call topic seeks to promote food system sustainability in all its dimensions, i.e. respecting business profitability, ecological stewardship and societal well-being. Projects funded within this call topic shall especially address the importance of renewed collaboration and networking among food system actors to boost the society and sector’s readiness to embracing transformative and innovative solutions.
Topic 2: New foods – Fostering innovations in food design, processing and supply via demand and supply reorientation
The diversification of food demand and supply represents an untapped potential for simultaneously addressing key challenges in European food systems, i.e. unhealthy food habits, high toll on the environment and climate, over-reliance on imports for food and feed. There is an urgent need to expand the palette of foods produced and consumed across Europe. Doing so requires new approaches to food design, processing and supply to propose a greater variety of healthy, sustainable and also minimally processed food alternatives. Key leverage points include the adoption of more plant-based foods combined with animal-based foods of lower environmental impact. Biotechnologies may play a central role in enabling such a dietary shift. It also raises important questions, i.e. about consumer acceptance, the role of the food industry in proposing more robust business models and modern supply chains, as well as compliance to existing and future food safety legislation.
This call topic aims to develop systemic approaches to design, process and supply new types of foods, stemming from various raw materials, such as plants (e.g. pulses, grains, nuts, seeds, algae), edible mushrooms, as well as employing microorganisms and cell-culture based food. Meeting the demand for proteins will increasingly rely on alternatives next to animal-based food with lower climate- and environmental impact. Foods investigated within the scope of this call topic may also refer to regional, ‘forgotten’ foods, i.e. food that are no longer part of modern diets in different parts of Europe but whose nutritional qualities and ecological characteristics could make them a suitable addition to a more diverse food consumption.
Topic 3: Empowering sustainable food choices – Enabling food environments and dietary shifts
The transition towards sustainable food systems is only possible by embracing sustainable food choices, both individually and collectively, which might require changing norms, attitudes and habits. The current situation of a triple burden of malnutrition combined with negative effects on our environment shows that this is far from easy. Looking through the lens of systems approach the importance of food environments is of high interest – this could mean the overall context for one ́s purchase and consumption choices as well as enablers and barriers of adoption of sustainable food practices, for instance related to various access to information and affordability. A stronger connection and integration of individual food environments and overall food ecosystems may strengthen food literacy and bring issues related to food sustainability closer to citizens while respecting food cultural heritage.
This call topic asks for an overarching systems approach to address challenges hindering the adoption of sustainable food practices across Europe and promoting enhanced empowerment of consumers for making informed sustainable food choices. The potential for redesigning both digital and physical food environments as a way to influence food consumption shifts towards safe, healthy, nutritious, environmental and climate responsible, affordable, accessible, equitable and culturally acceptable and tasteful foods which are central to the scope of this call topic.
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Expected results
Suggested R&I aspects
Topic 1: The way towards sustainable and resilient food systems
Applicants choosing to address this call topic might touch upon some of the aspects listed below in their proposals. Applicants may choose to address other issues, either way a clear argumentation about how the chosen relate to the scope of this call topic is required.
- Understanding interfaces and potential leverage points in the food system and developing opportunities and solutions to overcome current technical, economic and policy-related barriers and lock-ins (including harmful subsidies) for sustainable and resilient food value chains.
- Exploring technological, social and organizational innovations to prevent and reduce food waste for sustainable value chains, for instance using place-based approaches or valorising by-products.
- Designing and experimenting scaling principles, in particular under stress conditions, using data-driven, hybrid models for innovative, diverse, resource-efficient and competitive processing and supply schemes for both terrestrial and aquatic resources.
- Developing scenario-based approaches strengthening risk assessment, risk management and adaptability by food actors in relation to food safety and security shocks.
- Designing, testing and scaling the deployment of digital technologies sustaining food system resilience and green transition (big data, AI, innovative data sets, information exchange models, transparency, flexible production systems etc.).
- Addressing the polarisation and fragmentation in food systems and finding innovative ways to work together towards sustainable and resilient food systems also considering the question of equity (profitability, affordability and accessibility for all)
- Learnings from large and small systems (i.e. short chain, local and alternative sub-systems, community supported-, place-based initiatives etc.), corresponding interactions and practices looking at problems and solutions in a particular context
Topic 2: New foods–Fostering innovations in food design, processing and supply via demand and supply reorientation
Applicants choosing to address this call topic might touch upon some of the aspects listed below in their proposals. Applicants may choose to address other issues, either way a clear argumentation about how the chosen relate to the scope of this call topic is required.
- Investigating and testing of new market opportunities for processing technologies and biotechnological innovations for future foods.
- Developing and experimenting new solutions to valorise by-products and side-streams for food uses in circular food systems.
- Examining challenges and finding solutions on food safety aspects, i.e. with regard to new food sources or alternative proteins.
- Developing and testing digital solutions combined with innovations in packaging, labelling and marketing to prevent waste and improve the traceability for foods process-and-supply chains.
- Investigating and employing sociocultural factors influencing the acceptance and adoption of new foods.
- Designing and implementing new business models and marketing approaches for new foods, strengthening the interplay between industry-led innovations and policy-driven experimentations.
- Monitoring the potential and impact of new foods on the realisation of food system transformation, the green and digital transition and the modernization of the European food economy.
- Investigating the potential of territorial diets and solutions in promoting regional or forgotten foods and enhance their accessibility and affordability towards more sustainable and climate-friendly food systems.
Topic 3: Empowering sustainable food choices – Enabling food environments and dietary shifts
Applicants choosing to address this call topic might touch upon some of the aspects listed below in their proposals. Applicants may choose to address other issues, either way a clear argumentation about how the chosen relate to the scope of this call topic is required.
- Investigating and finding ways to employ the ‘social tipping points’ to accelerate the adoption of sustainable and healthy diets and lifestyles for different consumer groups. What kind of hinders are there?
- Developing solutions for strengthening the influence of digital and physical food environments on sustainable food consumption behaviours through new forms of public-private collaborations.
- Investigating and enhancing the role of AI, including regenerative AI, and digital solutions in promoting food democracy, food and digital literacy and consumer engagement and mitigating the risk of misinformation affecting consumer choices, individually and collectively.
- Developing innovative ways to enhance the role of public procurement, food label and ethical marketing practices in shaping inclusive food environments in the public space.
- Designing and testing policy actions improving the availability and affordability of healthy and sustainable foods for different consumer groups, and especially for the more vulnerable groups (e.g. young children, elderly, disabled).
- Developing new policy approaches combining multi-level and place-based governance perspectives supporting and learning from place-based initiatives towards sustainable and affordable diets. Both sector/ domain specific policies as well as horizontal policies, which may directly or indirectly impact the functioning of governance systems in scope, are to be considered.
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Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
eligible entities
Education and training institution, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)
Mandatory partnership
Yes
Project Partnership
Who can apply?
Universities and universities of applied sciences, research institutes, non-profit legal entities (i.e. non governmental organisations, associations, societies, cooperatives, federations etc.), small and medium sized enterprises and large enterprises and public bodies (i.e. municipalities, regional/ national administrative bodies, authorities etc.), subject to the national/ regional funding regulations and eligibility criteria (see also Annex I).
Conditions for the participation in the call of beneficiaries of the FutureFoodS Partnership:
Research teams from some of the organisations that are also beneficiaries of the FutureFoodS Partnership may participate in this co-funded call; the list of the beneficiaries of FutureFoodS allowed to participate in the projects’ consortia is indicated in Annex H. Firewall measures are being implemented within the partnership to prevent these beneficiaries obtaining any advance or additional insights in to this call so as to mitigate the risk of, perception of, or de facto conflict of interest (CoI) or unequal treatment of applicants, including clear segregation of duties. All other beneficiaries of the FutureFoodS Partnership not listed in Annex H may not apply for funding under the co-funded call for proposals.
It is essential that each partner intending to participate in a proposal carefully reads the national/regional funding regulations (see Annex I). If in doubt, applicants should consult their NCP/RCP who can inform them of the relevant regulations.
General eligibility criteria:
- The minimum requirement for project consortia is to be comprised of three partners 1) from at least three Member States or Associated Countries participating in the call and 2) eligible to request funding from the FOs participating in this call and providing funding for the selected topic (Table 3). There is no rule for setting out the maximum number of partners that may participate in a consortium. The number should be appropriate to meet the project goals and should remain manageable (experience from past calls indicates a range of 4-8 partners per project);
- Each consortium applying must be led by a project Coordinator, who must be from an organisation eligible and applying for funding from a FO of this call;
- In order to achieve balanced consortia and promote collaboration, the proportion of the overall effort that is allocated to all of the partners from a single country shall not exceed 60% of the total number of person months allocated to the project;
- An individual affiliated to several organisations cannot request funding from more than one FO in one proposal. If participating in the call as an affiliate of more than one organisation, the individual must declare which partner and thus which organisation within the consortium they represent. That person will not be considered as two different partners within the same consortium;
- The maximum project duration is 36 months (please check Annex I for specifications);
- Self-funding: partners can join project consortia with their own resources and/ or can bring their own funding (e.g. in the case eligibility to receive funding is not met or due to other reasons). Self-funded partners will not be subject to national/regional eligibility assessments. They will appear within the project proposal as “associated partners” and will need to submit a “letter of commitment” (Annex E) with the full-proposal submission. However, self-funded partners cannot be coordinators of projects, their role should be clear and they are not counted towards the minimum number of eligible partners and countries (minimum of three funded partners from three different countries).
There is no set maximum overall project budget for the transnational project stipulated as part of the call. The costs must be appropriate to meet the project goals. Nonetheless, individual FOs may have regulations and/or restrictions concerning the budget they can award within research projects that must be respected (for example, some funders may limit the maximum budget per partner in a project to a certain amount). Therefore it is essential that each project partner carefully reads their national/regional funding regulations (see Annex I). If in doubt, applicants should consult their NCP/RCP who can inform them of the relevant regulations (see Annex B).
In addition, applicants need to respect that entities subject to EU restrictive measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) as well as Article 75 TFEU are not eligible to participate in any capacity. In addition restrictions apply to legal entities established in Russia, Belarus, or in non-government controlled territories of Ukraine and measures for the protection of the Union budget against breaches of the principles of the rule of law in Hungary need to be respected.
National/ regional eligibility criteria must be respected and the proposed project must be consistent with the national/ regional thematic priorities of the FO, if required in the respective “national/regional funding regulations”. National/regional requirements are described in the document “National/regional funding regulations” (see Annex I). FOs may require additional documents according to their own national/regional or organisational regulations. Certain national/regional FOs may not fund all organisation types (see Annex I).
Applicants must carefully read the national/regional funding regulations and it is highly recommended to contact their NCP/ RCP before submitting a proposal to make sure that they respect all the national/regional eligibility criteria and rules.
other eligibility criteria
The FOs participating in the co-funded call are listed below. The funding for transnational projects will be based on a virtual common pot mechanism. This means that the partners (applicants) in the projects selected for funding will receive the grant directly from their corresponding national/regional FO, according to their legal terms and conditions for project funding (see national/regional funding regulations, Annex I). All applicants need to check terms on conditions of the respective national/ regional funding regulations (Annex I). In addition it is strongly recommended to contact the NCP/RCPs from one ́s FO (Annex B).
Country |
FO full name |
Indicative budget in EU |
Maximum national/regional amount in EUR per project |
Topic 1 |
Topic 2 |
Topic 3 |
Austria | Österreichischer Wissenschaftsfonds | 1.000.000 | 300.00-400.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Belgium | Fonds de la recherche scientifique | 300.000 | 300.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Belgium | Fonds Voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek-Vlaanderen | 700.000 | 350.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Belgium | Service public de Wallonie, Département de la Recherche et du développement technologique |
1.000.000 | 1.000.000 | Y | Y | N |
Belgium | Vlaanderen Agentschap Innoveren & Ondernemen | 2.750.000 | 500.000/375.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Denmark | Danish AgriFish Agency | 1.000.000 | 300.00/500.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Denmark | Innovationsfonden | 1.000.000 | 300.00/500.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Estonia | Sihtasutus Eesti Teadusagentuur | 300.000 | 100.000/300.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Estonia | Regionaal- ja Põllumajandusministeerium | 100.000 | 100.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Finland | Maa- ja metsätalousministeriö | 600.000 | 250.000/300.000 | Y | Y | Y |
France | Agence nationale de la recherche | 2.000.000 | 300.000/350.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Germany | Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft | 500.000 | 250.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Germany | Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung | 2.000.000 | 350.000 | Y | Y | N |
Iceland | Rannsóknamiðstöð Íslands | 300.000 | 300.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Ireland | Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine | 1.248.000 | 350.000/124.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Italy | Ministero dell'Agricoltura, della Sovranita' Alimentare e delle Foreste |
1.100.000 | 300.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Italy | Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca | 1.000.000 | 200.000/250.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Italy | Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano/ BOZEN | 225.000 | 300.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Lithuania | Lietuvos mokslo taryba | 300.000 | 150.000-250.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Lithuania | Lietuvos Respublikos Žemės Ūkio Ministerija | 120.000 | 120.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Norway | Norges Forskningsrad | ~ 1.300.000 | ~ 260.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Portugal | Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia | 500.000 | 250.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Romania | Unitatea Executivă pentru Finanţarea Ȋnvăţământului Superior a Cercetării, Dezvoltării şi Inovării |
500.000 | 200.000/250.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Spain | Agencia Estatal de Investigación | 1.000.000 | 175.000/275.000/325.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Spain | Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnologico y la Innovacion E.P.E. |
1.000.000 | n.a. | Y | Y | Y |
Spain | Elika Nekazaritzako Elikagaien Segurtasunarako Euskal Fundazioa |
100.000 | 100.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Spain | Agencia de Ciencia, Competitividad Empresarial e Innovación Asturiana |
250.000 | 150.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Sweden | Forskningsrådet För Miljö, Areella Näringar Och Samhällsbyggande AND Verket for Innovationssystem |
2.700.000 | 300.000/400.000 | Y | Y | Y |
The Netherlands | De Staat, Vertegenwoordigd door de minister van Landbouw, Visserij, Voedselzekerheid en Natuur |
2.000.000 | 350.000/450.000 | Y | Y | Y |
The Netherlands | Nederlandse organisatie voor wetenschappelijk onderzoek |
2.000.000 | 400.000 | Y | Y | Y |
The Netherlands | Regieorgaan SIA | 900.000 | 300.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Türkiye | Tarımsal Araştırmalar ve Politikalar Genel Müdürlüğü | 200.000 | 100.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Türkiye | Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştırma Kurumu | 500.000 | 150.000 | Y | Y | Y |
Additional information
Topics
Relevance for EU Macro-Region
EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region
UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)
project duration
36 months
Additional Information
The co-funded call is conducted as a two-step-procedure. As a first step, a pre-proposal has to be submitted and following an invitation, a full-proposal can be submitted in a second step.
- Deadline for pre-proposals: 15 January 2025, 13:00 CET
- Deadline for full-proposals: 09 July 2025, 13:00 CEST
The submission of proposals will be carried out using an online submission platform, where applicants will find all of the information necessary for the preparation and submission of proposals. The submission platform is available at https://futurefoods.ptj.de.
How to start: to prepare a proposal, the coordinator needs to register and generate the proposal first. The coordinator can then assign partners, who will receive an invitation to join and register themselves to the submission platform. More info can be found on the submission platform itself.
- Proposals must be written in English;
- Proposals must be complete, respect page limits and the number/type of attachments allowed, including CV templates that are in line with sound principles for project assessment according to the proposal templates (Annexes C and D) and information provided in the online submission system;
- Proposals must be submitted using the online submission system (https://www.futurefoods.ptj.de) by 15th of January 2025 (13:00 CET) for pre-proposals and 09th of July 2025 (13:00 CEST) for full-proposals
- The prior submission of a pre-proposal is a requirement for the submission of a full-proposal. The information given in the pre-proposals is binding. No change to the objectives outlined in a proposal is allowed. A limited number of changes with respect to the administrative details/ minor revisions may be allowed upon request and approval by the CO and the FOs concerned.
- Applicants must complete an ethics self-assessment as part of the application.
Submission of pre-proposals:
The objective of a pre-proposal is to present the project idea, objectives and aim and the consortium without providing much detail on the work plan. The detailed template for the pre-proposal with explanations is provided in Annex C and an example is also available within the document section of the submission platform: https://futurefoods.ptj.de.
Submission of full proposals:
Following the invitation to submit a full-proposal, the Coordinator can submit a full-proposal via the submission platform: https://futurefoods.ptj.de. Applicants are strongly advised to consult with their NCP/ RCP to clarify any uncertainties or doubts regarding compliance with the applicable funding regulations before submitting a proposal (see Annex B).
The detailed template for full-proposals with explanations is provided in Annex D and an example is also available in the document section of the submission platform.
Note that the inclusion of project partners that participate at their own expense (self-funded partners) is permitted ONLY upon submission of a letter of commitment (see Annex E). The absence of this letter will result in the rejection of the entire proposal (see section 5.2 Eligibility).
National/ regional eligibility criteria, as defined in the respective funding regulation (see Annex I), must be respected and the proposed research project must be consistent with the national/regional thematic priorities of the FO. The FOs may require additional documents according to their own national/regional or organisational regulations.
Call documents
FutureFoodS Call 2024FutureFoodS Call 2024(624kB)
Annex I_Nat_Reg_Regulations_Annex I_Nat_Reg_Regulations_(3334kB)
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