Plant-Based Food Innovation

Context

Innovations in plant-based foods are emerging as a response to several pressing global challenges, especially the urgency to combat climate change and facilitate the transition towards a more sustainable economy. The recent years’ disruptions in global supply chains have furthermore made it necessary to enhance resilience through food security and self-sufficiency. Moreover, health-promoting policies and shifting consumer trends towards more sustainable and nutritious diets underscore the importance of plant-based solutions.

More sustainable, resilient and self-sufficient food systems concern not only agri-food sector, but they also align with circular economy, the energy transition, environmentally sound industrial processes, and sustainable consumer behaviour. To facilitate the shift towards more sustainable food systems, also a combination of plant-based and animal-based approaches is needed.

Year established: 2024

Regions (lead and partner)

Leading regions: Centro (PT), Pomurje (SI), Päijät-Häme (FI), Skåne (SE), Vidzeme (LV)
Participating regions: Gorenjska (SI), Posavje (SI)

Mission

The overarching goal of the partnership is to enhance Europe´s resilience, self-sufficiency, and leadership in plant-based sustainable food innovation. By driving local plant-based production and consumption, the partnership seeks to advance sustainability and embrace circular economy practices that are essential for future-proofing the agri-food sector. The partnership recognises that the rise of plant-based solutions will influence other sectors too, necessitating a holistic approach.

The partnership will support clusters and innovation actors through networking and knowledge sharing, as well as develop new value chains that align with EU policies. Regional authorities and organisations facilitate the process for clusters, innovation actors, RTOs, companies and other actors. The partnership focuses on specific projects and on knowledge and infrastructure sharing to shape a more sustainable and self-resilient Europe.

Objectives

Establishing a forum of regional stakeholders to exchange challenges, ideas and solutions, and to network, use complementarities and collaborate to foster innovations in the sector.
Exploring underused innovation potential of locally grown food by linking innovation stakeholders of knowledge-intensive and resource-rich regions and enhancing and developing new value chains.
Developing interregional knowledge and infrastructure sharing environment for research and prototyping.
Integrating hybrid local & European value chains, with special attention to aspects like side streams and balanced symbiosis of animal and plant-based production.

Main activities

The partnership will collaborate with and complement existing Agri-food networks and innovation organisations (e.g., S3 CoP thematic partnerships, ERIAFF, EIT/Future of Food, Interreg programs, national networks) to address innovation issues throughout the value chain, prioritising climate impact and sustainability. Our overarching goal is to enhance Europe's resilience, self-sufficiency, and leadership in plant-based food products - from “farm to fork” - while synergising with animal-based production.

Activities include interregional exchange events, robust web and social media presence, project initiation to advance common objectives, and integration with existing networks to leverage shared knowledge.

In the initial operational year, is working on detailing the partnership activities, with a broader outlook on ambitions for the next two to three years. This includes fostering mutual learning, expertise sharing, innovation enhancement, piloting initiatives, and exploring funding opportunities.

Organisations involved

Finland:

Regional Council of Päijät-Häme (FI)

Latvia:

Vidzeme Planning Region (LV)

Portugal:

Comissão de Coordenação e Desencolvimento Regional do Centro, I.P. (PT)
TAGUSVALLEY (PT)

Slovenia:

BSC Kranj Regional development agency of Gorenjska (SI)
Development Center Murska Sobota (SI)
Regionalna razvojna agencija Posavje (SI)

Sweden:

Skåne Food Innovation Network (SE)

Shared smart specialisation areas

All partners prioritise agri-food in their S3 strategies.

Related projects

Contact

Elina Aakko, Regional Council of Päijät-Häme, elina.aakko@paijat-hame.fi.
Marco Alves, TAGUSVALLEY, marco_alves@tagusvalley.pt.
Laila Gercāne, Vidzeme Planning Region, laila.gercane@vidzeme.lv
Tadej Pirc, RCMS, tadej.pirc@rcms.si
Hanna Savola, hanna.savola@livsmedelsakademin.se