The vision of FutureFoodS is to collectively achieve environmentally-friendly, socially secure, fair and economically viable healthy and safe Food Systems (FS) for Europe. FutureFoodS gather 87 partners from 22 EU Member States, 6 Associated Countries and 1 third country. FutureFoodS includes public and private actors, policy makers, foundations, locally, sub-nationally, nationally, EU-widely. All these FutureFoodS partners are fully aligned on the vision for the Partnership and the methodology for its implementation in line with SDG17 and EU Green Deal components. This vision has been broken down into general (GO), specific (SO) and operational (OO) objectives applying across the 4 R&I areas and 4 transversal activities identified by the FutureFoods consortium in its stable draft Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) which constitutes the strategic backbone of the project. The four GO cover: GO1 - Functioning of FS; GO2 - System approaches; GO3 - Inclusive government; GO4 - Co-creation cases. These GO have then been translated into SO prioritised in line with the timescale and resources of the Partnership: SO1 - Change the way we eat; SO2- Change the way we process and supply food, SO3 - Change the way we connect with FSs and SO4 - Change the way we govern FS. In addition, 6 interconnected OO have been set: OO1- Pooling R&I resources and programming; OO2 - Operational FS Observatory; OO3 - Active FS knowledge Hub of FS Labs; OO4 - Functioning knowledge sharing and scaling mechanisms; OO5- Revisiting the SRIA; OO6 - Promoting, supporting, widening & gathering FS various communities. The objectives implemented in the 8 WPs of FutureFoodS will exert impact directly or indirectly in most of the destinations of Horizon Europe’s Cluster 6 2023-2024 work programme and particularly for the topic destination ‘Fair, healthy and environment-friendly FS from primary production to consumption’ echoing to the main EU and World FS policies & strategies.

The effective application of biotechnology plays a crucial role in building a sustainable European industry, in line with the EU Bioeconomy Strategy and its Progress Report, and contributing to the transformation of Europe outlined in the Green Deal. But despite the enormous potential of biotechnology for contributing to sustainable development in areas such as healthcare, materials, chemicals and food production, the technology is not widely accepted and supported by the general public. This leads to reluctance among industry to adopt and invest in biotechnological solutions, uncertainty among investors, and creates little incentive to eliminate regulatory barriers that prevent implementation. Recognising their concerns is therefore essential for improving the adoption of these technologies. The main objective of the B-TRUST project is thus to develop a transparent and inclusive governance model enabling the application of biotechnology to the bio-based and agri-food sector. More specifically, to (1) inform and create transparency related to consumer and environmental safety, (2) leverage engagement from citizens and other stakeholders, and (3) develop and exchange best practices. This model will be built based on the Theory of Change, to ensure impact while keeping all actors committed, and use co-creation trajectories with civil society and stakeholders as trust catalysts, leading to a set of measures and principles for building trust. The model will be developed and finetuned via four biotech use cases chosen to cover different types of concerns and benefits. Mapping out the real and perceived risks and benefits of these technologies will lead to a comprehensive assessment of the technologies, laying the foundations for general trust-building. Lastly, a forum will be created to deploy trainings and keep stakeholders engaged and informed, allowing the model to be replicated and sustained for further research and development, policy making and funding schemes.

Agri-food industry generates nearly 50% of the average composition of global waste in form of organic residual stream. Current management practices for waste management, including landfilling as the worst option, have to be improved to fulfil the targets of the EU. Agri-food residual streams are a potential substitute of fossil-based resources and have an important added value if used as feedstock in for the BBI, but present a high complexity and variables mixture of molecules, which makes difficult its valorisation. For this reason, the integration of a deeper knowledge on composition, logistics and volume of various organic streams could support the decision-making process to maximise profit from a specific feedstock and to select the most appropriate technologies for its optimal valorisation . The main project objective is to develop and validate at a relevant environment, the MODEL2BIO Decision-Support System tool. This will be an innovative concept that using predictive models, will estimate i) the agri-food industry residual streams composition (considering the seasonality, territorial features and origin); ii) the best recommended ways for valorising it. These recommendations will be made under a holistic perspective (technical, economic, environmental and social), with the prioritisation of the valorisation possibilities through technical and economic criteria and the final decision through holistic criteria. This innovative tool is based on the interconnection of three complementary elements: Simulation module, Optimisation algorithm and the LCA module. MODEL2BIO consortium consist on a multidisciplinary team of 11 partners from 5 different countries, covering the whole value chain and containing RTDs, universities, SMEs and clusters, and the active involvement of 27 companies providing residual streams, production process data and validating the MODEL2BIO tool. MODEL2BIO Budget is 5.970.976,16€ and request 4.730.393,8€ for funding.

Smart Sensor Systems for Food safety, quality control and resource efficiency in the food processing industry (S3FOOD) will facilitate the modernisation and digitalisation of the food processing industry. S3FOOD will stimulate the integration of IoT and related technologies via the implementation of smart sensor systems in the food production processes in order to improve quality control, resource efficiency and the follow-up of food safety in the food production process. S3FOOD brings together clusters with a background in food processing industry, IoT, ICT and sensor technology. It will strengthen current and develop new cross-sectoral industrial value chains within the food production and processing industries through a combination of direct and indirect innovation actions, as well as support and capacity building measures. S3FOOD sets up a network of living labs, organize cross-sectoral, cross-border matchmaking/business/investment events, demonstrations and study visits for SMEs across geographical borders, sectors and with different innovation actors. An innovation voucher scheme will support the realisation of high-TRL, large scale, demonstration and commercialisation projects across Europe. Besides the consortium network, associated clusters from the S3 platform on Smart Sensor Systems 4 agri-food and other networks will support the outreach to SMEs across the EU. More than 2000 SMEs will be reached. More than 200 SME will participate in matchmaking events. A turnover growth rate of 30% is targeted in the SMEs having participated in support cases one year after the end of the project, preserving / creating more than 1000 jobs after the end of the project and by 2025. S3FOOD will operate for 3 years and has a total budget of € 5.046.050, €3.993.000 of which will directly benefit SMEs (79%). € 2.875.000 of the budget is targeted to provide innovation vouchers, and catalyse large-scale demonstration with commercialisation projects with 62 beneficiaries.

The BioeconomyVentures project aims to build the reference platform for bioeconomy-based start-ups and spin-offs seeking to gain access to finance, becoming the main meeting point in the European bioeconomy. Our solution, aligned with the European Bioeconomy Strategy (2018) and the vision and strategy of the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC), is based on a threefold approach: 1) Building and leveraging the first of its kind bioeconomy entrepreneurship ecosystem, boosted by the BioeconomyVentures Ambassadors Programme (AAP). 2) Creating and validating an assessment methodology for qualify and quantify the needs of the start-ups and spin-offs though the BioeconomyVentures Evaluation Matrix 3) Designing, developing and executing an interactive one-stop-shop- platform that will serve as a main meeting point for the bioeconomy entrepreneurship field, bringing together relevant groups of stakeholders (start-ups, spin-offs, investors and corporates) and integrating, on one single access point, high-quality services aiming to unlock the innovation potential and uncover opportunities to build relationships and partnerships across the BioeconomyVentures network. The consortium forms a strong pool of experts along with the fields of bioeconomy and business with a track record managing entrepreneurship programs. Its partners have been intentionally selected by their expertise and geographical reach, bringing together 6 different countries (IE, ES, BE, AT, IT, RS) to consolidate the maximum outreach of the initiative. It consists of 9 partners with complementary competences: 5 clusters or networks of start-ups, spin-offs, corporates and investors (IBF, FF, FOOD+I, FSH, and FSH), 2 innovative SMEs (ENCO, ALC) with an important background in providing services and training to entrepreneurs, the main Pilot Plant Facility in Europe (BBEPP) and one Research and Innovation Centre specialized in venture development within the bioeconomy field (AITIIP).