Susfood2

This ERA-NET consists in a teamwork of 26 partners from 15 European Countries :
Belgium (Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research-Ev Ilvo, Fund Board for economic support and innovation-Hermes fund), Estonia (Ministry of Rural Affairs-MEM), Finland (Center of Natural Resources-Luke, Ministry of Agriculture and Forest-MMM), France (Actia - The French Network for Food Technology Institutes, ANR), Germany (Federal Office for Agriculture and Food-BLE, Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture-BMEL, Federal Ministry of Education and Research-BMBF, Research center of Jülich), Ireland (Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine-DAFM), Italy (Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forest Policy-Mipaaf, Ministry of  Education, University and Research-MIUR), Lithuania (Ministry of Agriculture-MoALit), Norway (Research Council of Norway-RCN), Romania (Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding-Uefiscdi), Spain (Center for Industrial and Technological Development-CDTI, National Research Institute in Agricultural Research, Technology and Food-Inia, Innovation Agency and Financial Support for companies in Castilla and Leon-ADE, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness-Mineco), Sweden (Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning-Formas), The Netherlands (Ministry of Economic Affairs-EZ, Dutch organization for Scientific Research-(NWO), The United Kingdom (Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs-Defra), Turkey (Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock-GDAR).

BEGINNING OF PROJECT
January 2017

DURATION
60 months

Grant agreement n°727473

The strategic goal of SUSFOOD2 complements the EU bioeconomy and food policies, and aims to reinforce cooperation in research, development and innovation between EU members and associated States in order to maximize the contribution of research to the development of more sustainable food systems from production to consumption.

Global demand for food is expected to rise by at least 60% by 2050. At the same time the food supply chain is under pressure due to limited resources, water scarcity, soil degradation, biodiversity loss and the impacts of climate change. More than one third of the food produced in the world today is lost or wasted. Our food system has experienced huge transformation during the last century with changes in dietary preferences impacting on consumer health and food availability (e.g. increasing non-communicable diseases and obesity).

To meet these challenges we need to strengthen a sustainable food system providing opportunities for all stakeholders to develop a secure, resilient and competitive sector.

The scope of SUSFOOD covers the entire food supply chain with the main focus on food chain sustainability beyond the farm gate. The farm level will be considered if it has direct impact on the sustainability of the other steps in the food chain.

SUSFOOD2 promotes a cross-sectoral and multi-disciplinary approach from biology to food engineering and social sciences. It addresses the following socio-economic and environmental goals:

To develop sustainable food systems from production to consumption, to increase food production sustainably while reducing waste in food supply chain and limiting environmental impacts;

To improve the quality of life by improving food quality in a sustainable way and to ensure the resilience of the food supply chain;

To encourage sustainable consumers behavior and food choices;

To improve competitiveness and economic growth in the European food industry with special attention to SMEs.