More than one hundred projects funded by the European Research Council (ERC) since 2007 have addressed the need for sustainable and future-proof food production and consumption, according to a report published by the ERC.
The document maps ERC-funded research, all driven by scientific curiosity, in ten key areas of the EU’s Food 2030 research and innovation policy. The research projects, worth in total €228 million, cover among others sustainable and healthy diets, climate-smart food systems, resource efficiency, the microbiome world, and food safety.
The mapping follows a request and collaboration with the European Commission’s Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM). It is the first of a series showing the impact of ERC-funded projects beyond science. These feedback-to-policy reports do not offer policy recommendations but aim to provide scientific evidence for decision-makers.
For the report on food systems, the ERC used an internal classification system to identify a pool of 270 projects relevant to the Farm2Fork strategy (see Frontier research for the European Green Deal | ERC (europa.eu). Further analysis revealed that 103 projects directly align with one or more of the 10 pathways outlined in the Food 2023 policy.
Source: European Research Council I News (https://shorturl.at/pABJ8)