Transforming food systems in the context of climate change, biodiversity loss, soil fertility depletion, water pollution, food insecurity, and diet-related diseases requires the socially just development and implementation of new ideas, practices, or technologies that can address the drawbacks of our 'broken' food system. The current interest in the UK on expanding Dynamic Food Procurement (DFP) and the key role of place-based public food procurement through its significant buying power is increasingly recognised as having the potential to make large-scale changes along food supply chains (from farm to fork), leading to sustainable food system transformation. This project proposes to leverage place-based public food procurement to drive a shift to more inclusive, sustainable, healthy, diverse and resilient local food systems facilitated by open-source socio-technical innovations including dynamic food procurement, 'market dialogues' and market 'devices' such as group certification. We will conduct four case studies to identify the opportunities for place-based public food procurement, examine the barriers/constraints and challenges, co-design and implement locally driven solutions which will reduce environmental and financial costs of public food procurement while delivering positive economic, social, nutritional, and environmental outcomes. We will co-develop the project with end-users (producers and procurers) to embed impact throughout and will co-produce a range of outputs including an open access web-based tool kit for assessing the sustainability impacts of place-based public sector food procurement, and a multimedia support package to guide the set-up of new networks/partnerships. Building on direct experience of Open Food Network UK (OFN) as a project partner in facilitating successful pilot studies in Wales and aligned with the National Food Strategy's recommendation for expanding DFP in the UK, the overall aim of this research is to critically evaluate the conditions in which place-based public food procurement networks, utilising open-source socio-technical innovations, can scale to deliver the transformative changes needed for socially just transitions in food systems in different geographical settings within the UK. It will generate new insights from developing place-based collaborative public sector food procurement partnerships across 4 sites in the UK aimed at promoting community-led local food systems that are environmentally sustainable, economically fair and socially just. The project will address the following objectives: Obj1: Identify the opportunities and challenges faced by small-scale producers and public procurers in building place-based public food procurement networks. Obj2: Identify the characteristics, opportunities and challenges relating to the application and further development of open-source socio-technical innovations for place-based public sector food procurement involving small-scale producers. Obj3: Critically evaluate the role of place-based governance frameworks in creating an enabling environment for place-based public procurement networks involving small-scale producers. Obj4: Identify and apply the most appropriate indicators to monitor and communicate the sustainability impacts, climate resilience, and social value of open-source socio-technical innovations for place-based public sector food procurement from small-scale producers. Obj5: Enhance collaboration between small-scale producers and procurers through open-source socio-technical innovations, market dialogues, and policy recommendations.

The scale of change needed to transform UK food systems for health, social justice and environment requires new ideas, organisational models and collaborative approaches that can meaningfully engage individuals and communities. Existing top-down approaches to the challenge of sustainable food provision and diet have failed to tackle the crisis of poor dietary health and sustainable food production. Our proposed research will focus on the distinctive role of social enterprises as an integral part of a more diverse system, exploring and enhancing their unique contribution to food systems that are more inclusive, sustainable and healthy. Social enterprise are organisations that are trading with a core social and environmental purpose, and make up 9% of the business population. Initial work by the project team and partners reveals how social enterprises and their community engagement around food and wellbeing can occur through a variety of activities, including community growing spaces and distribution schemes, leisure and fitness centres, children's nurseries and other community-based services. The proposed research will examine the extent to which such 'bottom up' approaches that build on local understandings, networks and capabilities have further unrealised potential to engage diverse communities and other organisational actors (private, public and civil society), and thus catalyse the expansion of sustainable and healthy local food systems across the UK. To this end, our transdisciplinary team, led by researchers who are part of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, brings together expertise from the natural, social and policy sciences, with specialisms in social enterprise, sustainable consumption, nutrition and environmental life cycle assessment. This team will work with six partner social enterprises in England, Scotland and Wales and six support/policy organisations all of whom contribute to the research design at all stages. This will ensure the potential for transformational impact on policy and practice is maximised. The research will include the following main elements: -Analysis of the range and types of social enterprise involved in developing local food systems and connecting people to growing spaces and other green areas. -Examination of the scientifically measurable outcomes of the interventions on the supply chain, environment and nutrition, and identification of good practice in measuring such impacts. -Case studies of social enterprises focused on food and community wellbeing to examine how they engage their communities, their ownership/governance structures, partnerships and innovative practices, the challenges they face and their support needs. -Exploration of the different understandings of sustainable food and diets within diverse communities. -Mapping the wider food network, key stakeholders and supportive ecosystem in each case study locality. -Exploring how transformational change can come about from scaling up social enterprise activity and policy change. Central to the project is the active participation of our social enterprise partners, their staff and community members, with particular attention to developing their research skills and capacity, as well as those of the academic researchers to enable participatory research. The research findings will be used to co-design resources and toolkits to support the scaling-up or replication of successful models and innovations and the sharing of good practice across the country. This is not without its challenges and the project will examine the various barriers and constraining factors and how they can best be addressed. In addition to good practice guides for social enterprises and other organisations across the country, policy briefings will be prepared, focusing on the different levels of local, regional and national policy making.