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Towards Innovation - driven and smart solutions in short food supply chains

Project description

Innovations for sustainable short food supply chains

Short food supply chains play a crucial role in the EU’s agri-food system. It is imperative to enhance the sustainability and competitiveness of this sector. The EU-funded SMARTCHAIN project aims to promote and expedite the transition towards collaborative short food supply chains. This will be accomplished through concrete actions, recommendations, the development of robust business models, and the introduction of innovative solutions. The project will conduct an analysis of 18 case studies, examining various technological, regulatory, social, economic, and environmental factors. Furthermore, it will assess the interconnectedness and interactions among all stakeholders involved in short food supply chains. By doing so, the project will identify critical parameters that influence sustainable food production and rural development across different European regions.

Objective

SMARTCHAIN is an ambitious, 3 year project with 43 partners from 11 European countries including key stakeholders from the domain of short food supply chain as actors in the project. The central objective is to foster and accelerate the shift towards collaborative short food supply chains and, through concrete actions and recommendations, to introduce new robust business models and innovative practical solutions that enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of the European agri-food system.
Using bottom-up, demand-driven research, the SMARTCHAIN consortium i) will perform a multi-perspective analysis of 18 case studies of short food supply chains in terms of technological, regulatory, social, economic and environmental factors, ii) will assess the linkages and interactions among all stakeholders involved in short food supply chains and iii) will identify the key parameters that influence sustainable food production and rural development among different regions in Europe.
The project aims to establish 9 national communities of short food supply chains (Innovation and Collaboration Hubs) in different partner countries (France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia, Spain and Switzerland) and a virtual innovation hub in order to facilitate stakeholder engagement, bringing farmers and consumers together in a trust-enhancing environment enabling them to generate demand driven-innovations.
Combination of scientific and practical knowledge and the use of innovation workshops will enable the development of practical innovative solutions as well as the promotion of a framework for different forms of collaborative short food supply chains in urban and rural areas. SMARTCHAIN will generate concrete actions for knowledge transfer, through the organisation of multi-stakeholder workshops and training activities for farmers and short food supply chain entrepreneurs.

Call for proposal

H2020-SFS-2016-2017

See other projects for this call

Sub call

H2020-SFS-2017-2

Coordinator

UNIVERSITAET HOHENHEIM
Net EU contribution
€ 641 250,00
Address
SCHLOSS HOHENHEIM
70599 Stuttgart
Germany

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Region
Baden-Württemberg Stuttgart Stuttgart, Stadtkreis
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 641 250,00

Participants (44)