Overview
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project - Research and innovation

CLEVERFOOD

Project identifier: 2023HE_101086320_Towards a fair, healthy, sustainable and circular food system
Contacts
Ongoing | 2023 - 2026 Italy, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Greece, Hungary, Spain, Poland, Portugal
Ongoing | 2023 - 2026 Italy, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Greece, Hungary, Spain, Poland, Portugal

Context

Europe’s food system is expected to substantially reduce environmental impacts (including greenhouse gas emissions and pressures on soil, water and biodiversity) while also contributing to better public health outcomes by promoting food environments and consumption choices that support healthy and sustainable diets. 
Despite growing political and societal attention, the transition is hindered by recurring barriers: initiatives and projects are often fragmented and poorly coordinated; mutual learning and scaling remain difficult; governance and policies are not always consistent across local, regional, national and EU levels; innovation frequently remains incremental; access to finance for sustainable business models is limited; and technological and financial lock-ins slow down change along value chains. Moreover, citizens and communities are not always sufficiently informed, engaged and empowered to take part in the transformation. 
In this context, CLEVERFOOD responds to the need to accelerate the shift towards more sustainable, resilient and regenerative food systems. 

Framed within EU priorities for food systems transformation (FOOD 2030, Farm to Fork and Fit for 55), the project aims to create and connect spaces, methods and tools for multi-actor engagement to strengthen coordination, capacities and learning among territories and stakeholders, support locally rooted and replicable solutions, and contribute to the transition of Europe’s food system. 

Objectives

CLEVERFOOD aims to accelerate Europe’s transition towards more sustainable, resilient and regenerative food systems by strengthening the capacity of territories and communities to design, govern and scale change. The project’s ambition is to mobilise actors across the food system: from citizens and young people to public authorities, civil society and value-chain stakeholders. In that way, the transformation becomes socially supported, evidence-informed and actionable at multiple levels. 
To achieve this, CLEVERFOOD seeks to improve the coherence and effectiveness of food governance by fostering dialogue and alignment between local, regional, national and EU policy arenas, and by enabling shared learning among territories. In parallel, it aims to stimulate and de-risk innovation for transition, supporting stakeholders in overcoming technological and financial lock-ins and in adopting approaches that make progress measurable and transferable. 

Activities

A) Coordination and facilitation of cross-project collaboration 

  • Establish and run a FOOD 2030 Project Collaboration Network, connecting EU projects, partnerships and networks on food system transformation through regular meetings, thematic workshops and webinars.  
  • Develop a FOOD 2030 Connected Lab Network that links Policy Labs and Living Labs from local to EU level and supports their integration into lasting organisational structures. 
  • Map needs and interests of labs and initiatives and provide tailored support, coordination and cross-fertilisation to avoid siloed work and enable scaling/replication. 

B) Policy Labs: governance and policies 

  • Assess and compare food policy frameworks and governance models (city/regional level) and their links to national/EU regulatory contexts; strengthen connections with food policy councils and relevant governance bodies. 
  • Implement a structured peer-learning programme for cities and local authorities, including learning workshops and exchange formats, and support inclusive national policy dialogues in focus countries/territories. 
  • Convene multi-level policy dialogues and European/international roundtables with decision-makers; produce evidence and actionable outputs (e.g., policy briefs and recommendations) to support implementation of Farm to Fork and other relevant frameworks. 

C) Living Labs: innovation and data-driven transition 

  • Facilitate exchange and mutual learning among Living Labs and across European partnerships to mobilise stakeholders along sustainable food value chains, including citizens and local communities.  
  • Co-create strategies to address technological and financial lock-ins, support the development of sustainable food value chains, connect City-Region Food System approaches with other regional/national/sectoral innovation systems (including AKIS linkages where relevant), and promote uptake of digital/data-enabled approaches to monitor transition progress. 

D) Engagement, education and tools  

  • Co-create and deploy the FOOD 2030 Multi-actor and Public Engagement Toolkit (incl. training via webinars and on-site workshops) to support engagement and citizen science activities in Policy and Living Labs, with attention to involving vulnerable groups. 
  • Design, build and tour the FOOD 2030 Interactive Exhibition (“food systems lab”): an interactive hands-on and audio-visual travelling exhibition, including an installation/adaptation manual and touring schedule, complemented by local engagement programmes (e.g., science cafés, workshops, hackathons). A digitalised virtual exhibition tour is also developed and integrated and travelling across different European museum. 
  • Implement schools and youth education actions: a FOOD 2030 Education Toolkit, teacher trainings (webinars/workshops/summer schools), an educational pack linked to the exhibition, and collaboration formats to support higher education teaching transformation (incl. networking and shared learning). 
  • Strengthen long-term mobilisation and uptake through FOOD 2030 Competence Centres, a knowledge online platform resources, storytelling and media formats, and collaboration with influencers to broaden reach and engagement. 
Project details
Main funding source
Horizon Europe (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
Type of Horizon project
Multi-actor project
Project acronym
Towards a fair, healthy, sustainable and circular food system
CORDIS Fact sheet
Project contribution to CAP specific objectives
  • SO10. Driving simplification
  • Environmental care
  • Protecting food and health quality
  • Fostering knowledge and innovation
Project contribution to EU Strategies
Achieving climate neutrality

EUR 7 999 981.25

Total budget

Total contributions including EU funding.

EUR 7 999 981.00

EU contribution

Any type of EU funding.

Project keyword(s)

Resources

1 Practice Abstracts

Despite strong evidence that current food systems and lifestyles harm health and the environment, mainstream systems, policies, and cultural habits remain resistant to change. This persists even in the presence of Living Lab initiatives that connect research, policy, business innovation, and citizen engagement. The efforts that Living Labs undertake to create positive impact across all stages of the food chain show that they face a range of barriers and lock-ins inherent in the current food system.

In response to this dilemma,  the CLEVERFOOD project has launched the Food 2030 Unlock Strategy (FUS)  that is meant to foster sustainable food value chains and to remove barriers and lock-ins at the micro level (local/urban/sub-urban), meso level (city-region, inter-region, metropolitan), and macro level (global, international, national). FUS hereby acknowledges that lock-ins relate to systemic and deep-rooted conditions that maintain the current linear system at the macro-level. At the same time, barriers reflect design failures that are considered solvable by target measures at the micro- and meso-levels. This approach has included a series of Focus Group meetings with selected Living Labs from the Food 2030 Connected Lab Network. These sessions have laid the groundwork for targeted strategy actions to empower Living Labs and key food system innovators to engage in collaborative actions. FUS users are mainly transition agents such as Living Labs, Food Hubs, and other food-system-related stakeholders. 

The exchange with Food 2030 Living Labs highlights: (1) the interconnectedness of micro, meso, and macro-level issues, (2) the need for concerted action between different transition agents, (3) the role of evidence-based interventions by Living Labs to support monitoring and reporting higher impacts, and (4) the coordination of efforts over time by designated strategy managers to align efforts across micro-meso-and macro-levels to mainstream food system innovation.

View detail page

Despite strong evidence that current food systems and lifestyles harm health and the environment, mainstream systems, policies, and cultural habits remain resistant to change. This persists even in the presence of Living Lab initiatives that connect research, policy, business innovation, and citizen engagement. The efforts that Living Labs undertake to create positive impact across all stages of the food chain show that they face a range of barriers and lock-ins inherent in the current food system.

In response to this dilemma,  the CLEVERFOOD project has launched the Food 2030 Unlock Strategy (FUS)  that is meant to foster sustainable food value chains and to remove barriers and lock-ins at the micro level (local/urban/sub-urban), meso level (city-region, inter-region, metropolitan), and macro level (global, international, national). FUS hereby acknowledges that lock-ins relate to systemic and deep-rooted conditions that maintain the current linear system at the macro-level. At the same time, barriers reflect design failures that are considered solvable by target measures at the micro- and meso-levels. This approach has included a series of Focus Group meetings with selected Living Labs from the Food 2030 Connected Lab Network. These sessions have laid the groundwork for targeted strategy actions to empower Living Labs and key food system innovators to engage in collaborative actions. FUS users are mainly transition agents such as Living Labs, Food Hubs, and other food-system-related stakeholders. 

The exchange with Food 2030 Living Labs highlights: (1) the interconnectedness of micro, meso, and macro-level issues, (2) the need for concerted action between different transition agents, (3) the role of evidence-based interventions by Living Labs to support monitoring and reporting higher impacts, and (4) the coordination of efforts over time by designated strategy managers to align efforts across micro-meso-and macro-levels to mainstream food system innovation.

View detail page

Contacts

Project email

Project coordinator

  • University of Copenaghen

    Project coordinator

    ku@ku.dk Website Research institute