REDESIGN - Transformative Food Value Systems

Objectives

REDESIGN will support the transformation of local urban food systems by creating Food Value Systems (FVS). FVSs aim to strengthen urban resilience through food-led green urban and peri-urban infrastructure enhancement, foster participation in the food system of local communities (with a particular focus on vulnerable groups), contribute to the quality and beauty of living places, and mitigate climate change through the integration of urban agriculture with the built environment. The FVSs will operate through the development and application of a “Learning Loop” methodology grounded on NEB values to accelerate innovation in all the steps of the food system (including production, consumption, exchange, and disposal) and expand beyond the notion of ‘food chain’ to integrate the cultural, social and political dimensions of the transformation. The network will consist of three main groups of actors, ‘observation’ cases, ‘implementation’ cases, and a board of cities. Observation cases exemplify consolidated best practices. In the pilots, the REDESIGN Food Value Networks will be set up and implemented with the involvement of local stakeholders, particularly vulnerable groups. Each implementation case will have a specific focus on one of the domains of the urban food system (nutrient recovery and food production, the setting up of a multifunctional food lab, and food policy councils). The implementation cases will become Living Labs, through which the innovation in local food value networks will scale up at two levels: the metropolitan one, contaminating nearby districts through training and transfer, and the international one, enhancing the observation cases (closing the ‘learning loop’), and informing the board of cities for policy innovation and learning. Results will include regenerated neighborhoods in the implementation cases, the setting of three Living Labs steering the Food Value Networks, a Learning Loop methodology, all scalable and replicable in other contexts.

Activities

The project is structured around five main areas of activity.

The first area concerns the establishment and operation of the REDESIGN Network (RED-N), which connects Living Labs, case studies, research organisations, public authorities, civil society actors, and related initiatives. The function of the network is to support exchange, comparison, and transfer of knowledge and practices across different territorial contexts.

The second area concerns the development of the project’s conceptual and methodological framework. This includes the definition and application of the Food Value Framework and the Transformative Loop Methodology. These tools are used to assess food-system initiatives across multiple dimensions and to structure iterative learning between research, experimentation, evaluation, and replication.

The third area concerns the implementation of three Living Labs. Each Living Lab focuses on a specific field of intervention within urban food systems. In Dortmund, activities address food policy and governance. In Salt, activities address inclusion, integration, and urban agriculture. In Teviot, activities address circular economy, food waste, local food production, skills development, and community-based regeneration. Across all Living Labs, the project applies co-design, stakeholder engagement, participatory methods, and monitoring activities.

The fourth area concerns analysis, assessment, and scaling. REDESIGN examines governance conditions, stakeholder relations, policy coherence, and sustainability implications in order to identify enabling and limiting factors for transformation. This strand also includes the development of scenarios, action plans, and upscaling strategies intended to support transferability and long-term implementation.

The fifth area concerns communication, dissemination, and exploitation. The project produces communication materials, digital tools, public events, audiovisual outputs, and practice-oriented resources to support visibility, stakeholder engagement, and uptake of results. These activities are intended to ensure that project knowledge is accessible beyond the consortium and can inform future initiatives, policies, and practices.

Other comments

The successful implementation of Transformative Food Value Systems depends on long-term collaboration between local authorities, civil society organizations, food producers, researchers, and local communities. Existing urban food initiatives should not be considered isolated examples but connected through networks that facilitate knowledge exchange and mutual learning to avoid the silos effect that has been affecting urban food initiatives in European cities. Accordingly, the REDESIGN project has been developing and testing novel tools for cross-city collaboration and positive contamination: the REDESIGN Network (RED-N), a network of best practices, inspirational case studies, municipalities, and policymakers that periodically reunites and discusses urban food-related topics; the Transformative Loop Methodology, an iterative methodological approach that provides practical mechanisms to support this process.

Key enabling factors include political commitment, active stakeholder participation, and the identification of local social and cultural values that can guide food system transformation. Common barriers include fragmented governance, limited long-term funding, weak coordination between sectors, and insufficient community engagement.

Future work should focus on scaling the tested REDESIGN methodologies in additional European and non-European contexts, strengthening links between urban food policies and spatial planning, and supporting the long-term institutionalization of collaborative food governance models.