Over the last year and a half, Ecsite, four of its members hosting City Labs, and a variety of partners from across Europe have been building momentum on the sustainability of food systems by working towards the implementation of the European Commission’s FOOD 2030 policy framework as part of the FIT4FOOD2030 project.
Seven City Labs hosted by science engagement organisations - whose coordinators regularly train together with tools for transformation - have established committed communities of citizens and stakeholders. After developing a shared vision of the future of food systems and the competences needed in this future by students of all ages, researchers, professionals or citizens more generally, they co-developed educational activities for competence building in formal and informal settings. Hands-on, project-based and future-oriented approaches have been favoured for an impactful experience. Prototypes are currently being piloted and the insights will help us build an adaptable toolkit of activities for the community.
Curious about what it means to run a City Lab? Read this interview with Matteo Villa from the City Lab Milan team at Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci
The City Labs are complemented by two other structures - Policy Labs working at the national level and a 15-member EU Think Tank which is using the results obtained by these two sets of Labs as well as their expertise and networks to inform policy making at the European Commission and further beyond.
Driving the conversation are the project’s contributions to analysing European food systems and necessary steps for change: among others, trend cards make good food for thought for discussing the future of food while 150 innovation case studies - as one of the science centres participating in this project remarked - can be the source for a new exhibit or hands-on workshop.
And more ambitious objectives lie ahead as the project keeps growing. Four more Policy Labs have been added to the team in the past few months, while over 30 organisations expressed their interest in becoming (City) Food Labs during our recent call for applications. Seven organisations will be selected to carry out workshops with citizens and consumer associations and experiment with the educational activities developed by the project - bringing insights and adapting tools for new locations and audiences.
Download our mid-term project overview below and keep an eye out for our next updates: with a toolkit of educational resources due for publication this December, new collaborators and events, there is still a lot to come!
