The mission of the Sustainable Food Systems Partnership for People, Planet and Climate is to mobilize research and innovation (R&I) to accelerate the transition towards sustainable food systems with the help of a wide range of stakeholders, who are joining forces in the FutureFoodS partnership. The vision of FutureFoodS is to collectively achieve environmentally-friendly, socially secure and fair, economically viable, healthy, and safe food systems (FS) in Europe. The first call “Transforming Food Systems - reshaping food system interactions, fostering food innovations and empowering sustainable food choices” will be open until January 15, 2025 for pre-proposals and July 9, 2025 for full proposals.

Target group

The funding program is aimed at researchers working in the field of sustainable food systems and production at universities, non-academic research institutions, and research departments in related sectors.

Funding goals

The EP FutureFoodS aims to drive the transformation of food systems through its four thematic research and innovation areas, which focus on:

  • Changing the way we eat
  • Changing the way we process and supply food
  • Changing the way we connect with food systems
  • Changing the way we govern food systems

Funding period and funding amount

The maximum funding period is 36 months.

Requirements

The requirements and specifications for the FWF program Principal Investigator Projects apply.

Information on the current call “Transforming Food Systems - reshaping food system interactions, fostering food innovations and empowering sustainable food choices ”

The call is aimed at researchers working in the field of sustainable food systems. The objective is to fund new cross-border collaborations addressing one of the following topics:

  • The way towards sustainable and resilient food systems
  • New foods – Fostering innovations in food design, processing, and supply via a reorientation of demand and supply
  • Empowering sustainable food choices – Enabling new food environments and dietary shifts

Each application must be supported by a minimum of three partners from at least three different participating partner countries. There is no maximum number of partners that may participate in a consortium, but it should be appropriate to meet the project goals and should remain manageable (experience from past calls has shown that between 4-8 partners per project works well). A joint document must be submitted to the central Call Secretariat by the coordinator.

The researchers are funded by their respective national/regional funding organization.

Funding organizations from the following 19 countries are planning to join this call: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and Türkiye.

Please see the FutureFoodS website for a complete list of potential participating countries.

Approval

Decided by the Scientific Board based on a recommendation of the Call Secretariat.

Application information

Applications are submitted online using the Call Secretariat’s system. Please see the FutureFoodS website for a link to the application system.

There will be a two-step submission and review procedure.

  • Submission of pre-proposals from November 6, 2024 to January 15, 2025 (2:00 pm local time Vienna)
  • Submission of full proposals is July 9, 2025 (2:00 pm local time Vienna)
  • Funding decision: estimated December 2025

In addition to the application submitted to the Call Secretariat, administrative and financial data as well as academic abstracts (in accordance with the FWF guidelines for Principal Investigator Projects) must also be submitted to the FWF using the online portal elane. In the pre-proposal stage, proposals are submitted under the program category “PIK – International Projects – pre-proposal” (deadline January 15, 2025, 2:00 pm Vienna local time). For the full proposal stage, applicants must choose the program category “PIN – International Projects” (Deadline July 9, 2025, 2:00 pm Vienna local time).

Please note that applications must be approved for submission by the research institutions by the deadlines indicated above.

Both steps are mandatory.

Funding institution

Austrian Science Fund (FWF)

Further information

  • Please see the FutureFoodS website for further details.
  • For specific questions related to the budget, criteria, and rules of your funding organization, please consult your funding organization directly. Contacts and details of the national and regional regulations of the individual funding organizations can be found in the call text on the FutureFoodS website.

Submissions

Nov. 6, 2024 to Jan. 15, 2025 (02:00 pm Vienna local time)

Inquiries and contact

Dr. Milojka Gindl
milojka.gindl(at)fwf.ac.at
+43 676 83487 8209

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