FAIRCHAIN was represented at the 2022 edition of the STADTLANDBIO congress, which took place in Nürnberg from 27 to 28 July. During the round table “EU agricultural policy, world market, large corporations – how regional can agricultural and food policy really be?” partners from FH JOANNEUM discussed intermediate value chains and the Food Innovation Incubator case study.
The Austrian case study started with the Food Innovation Incubator programme in September 2021. Two Open Food Jours Fixes took place since then. Jour fixes will have a defined agenda and take place three times a year in a virtual room.
Each jour fixe starts with a short introduction round of the persons who take part in the meeting. It continues with the presentation of a specific food innovation topic, shows updates of the ongoing activities within the incubator programme and invites selected participants to introduce a topic of interest. It ends with a general discussion of other relevant dates, activities and events connected to the target food system. The target group of the jour fixes are food system and network stakeholders and experts.
Also, in November 2021 a ‘Call for Food Product Innovation Ideas’ was sent out, and 11 farmers and food entrepreneurs sent in their ideas to be developed as part of a co-creative workshop series. On the 21st of January, a kick-off workshop took place, in which the goals of the respective food product development projects were discussed, and the infrastructure of the incubator was shown to the participants (picture).
The Austrian case study was shared with the participants of the 2021 European Round Table on Sustainable Consumption and Production, which was held in Graz between 8 and 10 September 2021. During the session ‘How will we eat?’, case study leader FH JOANNEUM, represented by Hartmut Derler, gave a presentation entitled ‘Food innovation incubator as a co-creative space for the establishment of intermediate and competitive food value chains’.
Following a goal-defining meeting with regional stakeholders in April, FH JOANNEUM and Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research moderated a workshop to prepare the launch of an incubator programme bringing together fruit and vegetable stakeholders from the Austrian province Styria aimed at developing intermediate value chains in the respective sectors. It is the start of a series of implementation workshops, moderated and hosted by the case study teams.
FAIRCHAIN partner FH JOANNEUM (Sustainable Food Systems research group at the Institute of Applied Production Sciences) hosted a workshop with food stakeholders of the Styrian region to prepare the launch of the future Food Innovation Incubator. The topics discussed included concerns within the Styrian fruit and vegetables sectors; offers that could address these issues and expectations from the Food Innovation Incubator. Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research in Karlsruhe supports the co-creative methodology.