Empowering local urban food systems entrepreneurship and innovation

The destination supports the European Green Deal and contributes to Europe’s competitiveness and sustainable prosperity by supporting the sustainable development and the just and fair transition of rural, coastal and urban communities.

This destination will support the EU Commission priorities ‘Sustaining our quality of life: food security, water and nature’ and ‘Supporting people, strengthening our societies and our social model’.

R&I will support knowledge needs stemming from the EU vision for agriculture and food, the Commission strategy for generational renewal in agriculture, and continue to support the implementation of common agricultural policy and the long-term vision for EU’s rural areas.

R&I activities in this destination will also contribute to achieving the objectives of the strategy for European life sciences, the EU start-up and scaleup strategy, the new EU bioeconomy strategy and the food 2030 initiative.

R&I will complement the new European Bauhaus (NEB) initiative by transformation of spaces and integrating the core NEB values.

Overall, R&I activities under this destination will contribute to supporting people and communities while strengthening our societies and our social model.

R&I will also support communities to work and prosper with nature, preserving biodiversity and ecosystem, and scaling-up the use of Nature-based Solutions, in line with the objectives of the EU climate adaptation strategy and the EU Nature Restoration Regulation.

R&I actions under this Destination will encourage international cooperation, in line with the global approach on R&I. The Destination supports unlocking the unique assets for research and innovation of the EU outermost regions, in line with the EU strategy for outermost regions^[1].

Expected Impact: Proposals for topics under this destination should set out credible paths to "sustainably developing rural, urban and coastal areas". More specifically, proposed topics should contribute to one or more of the following expected impacts:

• Communities are empowered to act for a transformative change to increase their sustainability and resilience, through better access to knowledge and tools (including digital ones), and are better prepared to adapt to climate change and to achieve climate neutrality as well as to address environmental issues, including biodiversity loss.
• Rural communities are prepared to anticipate and respond to social, economic and environmental shocks and are attractive for young innovators.
• Urban and peri-urban communities can access affordable, healthier, nutritious and environmental-friendly food, benefitting from empowered local food entrepreneurship and socially innovative approaches, increasing resilience and inclusiveness.

[1] COM(2022) Putting people first, securing sustainable and inclusive growth, unlocking the potential of the EU’s outermost regions.

Expected Outcome:

Projects results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• accelerated growth and success of innovation-led local urban food start-ups, through strengthened business development services, access to capital and investment, and boosted innovation capacities;
• empowered urban food entrepreneurs through inclusive, multi-actor governance models that foster mentoring, collaboration, and co-creation among local actors;
• established and interconnected European-wide competitive urban food systems innovation ecosystems, scaled and deployed widely, that increase the resilience, inclusiveness, and well-being of urban communities through socially innovative and climate smart approaches.

Scope:

The successful proposals should drive transformative and inclusive innovation in local urban food systems, boosting decentralised competitiveness and creating positive social and environmental spillovers that enhance well-being of urban communities. It will contribute to the European Green Deal priorities and the EU’s climate ambition for 2030 and 2050, while aligning with the priorities of the Food 2030 R&I initiative: nutrition for sustainable healthy diets, circularity and resource efficiency, innovation and empowering communities. It will also support the Clean Industrial Deal, the Competitiveness Compass, in particular, the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy, and contribute to the EU Food System Monitoring Dashboard.

Proposals should: 

• develop and pilot decentralised local capacities and ecosystems, such as food innovation incubators, accelerators and hubs, which support high-impact and sustainable urban food solutions. These should provide targeted support and access to capital and investment, while connecting fragmented ecosystems across Member States and Associated Countries;
• integrate tailored mentorship programs to stimulate entrepreneurship and start-ups in urban food systems and facilitate participatory co-creation of place-based collaborative sustainable and climate smart business models, utilising the networks and solutions developed through the local capacities;
• leverage these pilot implementations to accelerate urban food system transformation and scalability, ensuring market uptake, scaling and replication across diverse EU contexts, while measuring the impact on all dimensions of sustainability by relevant indicators;
• connect with already established R&I initiatives, such as partnerships, missions, platforms, and other relevant projects to derive economically viable, and sustainable, business models from these initiatives, accelerating the uptake of research outcomes.

This topic should involve the effective contribution of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) disciplines.

Proposals should integrate the gender dimension where applicable. Consideration of other social categories besides gender (disability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnic and/or cultural origin, sexual orientation, etc.), and their intersections, should be also ensured.

Proposals must implement the multi-actor approach, involving local and regional authorities, urban planners, SMEs and start-ups, food entrepreneurs, research and innovation actors, educational institutions, civil society organisations, and citizens, to co-create inclusive, sustainable, and scalable urban food system innovations.

null