The Food Trails Call for Solutions “Sustainable Food Systems” generated a strong interest: 200 innovative startups (78%) and SMEs (22%) applied from all over Europe and EMEA Countries (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) for the opportunity to develop a pilot within the Food Trails project.
The initiative
The Call for Solutions “Sustainable Food Systems” was launched on 2 November 2022 and closed on 16 February 2023. It was dedicated to find solutions, services and products in 7 strategic areas for future-proof sustainable food systems, which were defined with the contribution of the 11 Food Trails partner cities: 1) Education and training; 2) Communication and engagement; 3) Food waste management and reduction, distribution, delivery and logistics; 4) Data collection; 5) access to healthier food and food processing; 6) Urban farming and gardening; 7) Food packaging.
The next steps
Start-ups and SMEs, whose applications have been deemed eligible, will be evaluated by a Technical Committee composed by Cariplo Factory, the Municipality of Milan, Wageningen University and Research (WUR), and the 11 Food Trails partner cities, according to the following criteria:
1) Fulfilment of the cities’ needs in relation to the challenges (25%)
2) Value proposition and solution’s maturity level (20%)
3) Scalability/replicability of the solution (20%)
4) Innovativeness of the solution (15%)
5) Expertise, technical and managerial skills of the team (10%)
6) Market opportunity, market maturity and market metrics (10%)
The evaluation results will be published by the 17 April 2023 on this website and on the Call’s landing page.
The Match Making Day
The 22 start-ups and SMEs receiving the best score will advance to the next stage and will be invited to participate in the Match Making Day, taking place on 9 May 2023 in Milan, as part of the Food Trails Mid-Year 3 Partner Meeting.
During the event, the finalists will have the opportunity to publicly present their solutions to the Food Trails consortium, potential investors and stakeholders of the European food system. During one-to-one meetings the 22 realities will discuss with the cities advantages and opportunities of the solutions presented; and the cities will present their Living Lab activities and the potential for effective collaboration.
The very best luck to all participants, we look forward to seeing you in Milan on the Match-Making Day!
