Think Collaboration, Think Partners Connect in the Land of Brezel, Munich

In the city of the Bavarian capital, Munich, Partners Connect was held on the 25th and 26th of March 2025. This event brought EIT Food Strategic and Delivery Partners from all three regions- West, South and North East, together for the very first combined dedicated partners' event. The focus areas for Partners Connect Munich were Advanced Agri-Food Biotechnology and Regenerative Agriculture, two very important areas for both EIT Food and our food system as a whole.

To further boost collaboration and partnerships, EIT Food Chief Partnership Officer, Viktoria de Bourbon de Parma and EIT Food West Director, Gulsah Uysal were present along with the EIT Food North-East and South Directors, Begona Perez Villarreal and Marja-Liisa Meurice Pihlstrom, a first for EIT Food.

A question raised by Viktoria that really got the audience thinking was “We should not forget that we used to be hungry in Europe, it was a long way to today's innovations, but we need to think further: how can we make our food even more sustainable and healthy?"

There was also a live video call from EIT Food CEO, Richard Zaltzman from Brussels emphasizing the importance of our new Partners Connect events.

The Mayor of Munich, Dieter Reiter, also extended his warm greetings and shared his support which is available for EIT-Food partners in the Munich region, which he says is now known as the new “Food Valley” and “Biotechnology Cluster”.

Our day one keynote speaker, Randy Jagt – Future of Food Global Lead & Strategy Partner at Deloitte, spoke about food systems transformation and the role of partnerships, expressing that “To drive success in food systems transition models from a linear based value system to an ecosystem is needed”.

There were two expert panels during the event comprising of personnel from the industry, university, NGO as well as startups, to bring out diverse perspectives on the topics of Regenerative Agriculture and Advanced Agri-Food Biotechnology.

EIT Food West Partnership Managers, Regine Roncucci and Alicia Abendroth, led these sessions with partners - Roquette, Agricultural University of Athens, Wageningen University and Research, and Rikolto, being panellists. They all emphasized the importance of working with farmers and understanding their needs to bring regenerative agriculture to fruition.

The panel on Advanced Agri-Food Biotechnology was co-moderated by Lorena Savani, Mission Lead – Healthier Lives Through Food, EIT Food and Nazanin Khayyat, Partnership Manager, EIT Food. This panel consisted of VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland), Shakeup Factory and Roquette. This panel unanimously agreed on biotechnology being a disruptive technology and that to make it feasible, one must simplify the processes, reduce the cost and chemicals.

Amidst the panels, there was opputunity for the projects working in the space of Regenterative Agriculture and Advanced Agri-Food Biotechnology, to pitch their project ideas and place in front their partnership needs. The projects were as follows:

Regenerative agriculture

• UK Agri-Tech Centre - Scaling Data Integration for Regenerative Agriculture Monitoring

• Danone Ecosystem and Biospheres - Régénaïades Regeneration of Water Cycles and Soil Health

• Catalyze group- Bio-based and biodegradable delivery systems for fertilising products to reduce microplastics pollution & promote soil health

• BGI - TERRA: Tailored Enhancement for Regenerative Rhizosphere Agriculture

Advanced Biotechnology

• University of Barcelona: Fermenting the Future: Plant Cell Cultures for Next-Gen Drinks

• Lund University: Plant & Seaweed based biomass for future food

• AI Bobby: ProtAI4Food

• TUM: Research Group of Precision Fermentation

Funding opportunities are another important discussion area for partners to be able to excel within innnovation and truely have the opportunity to make change. Vivien Bodereau, Mission Lead – A Net Zero Food System, EIT Food, presented the audience with different funding opportunities and more information about EIT Food’s Mission Insights and explained how to get more involved.

Day two commenced with a keynote speaker Peter Van den Berghe, Principal Consultant & Department Head of Strategic Consulting at Catalyze Group, discussing key strategies for Horizon Europe applications.

Engaging with the audience, Peter found that majority of partners have either already, or wish to, put in a Horizon Europe application. He shared tips and tricks about the process and reminded people that connection is a very important factor when putting an application together and to ensure to understand your audience and make them happy.

Two tips from Peter were to “Focus on impact to create a ripple effect” and that “Inclusivity is important for consortium building”

Followed by interesting and knowledgeable presentations, our partners took part in guided matchmaking breakout sessions that focused on the different partner pitches brought to the stand the day prior. This allowed partners to connect on a more personal level, share thoughts, ideas and expertise, creating relationships for future purposes regarding our missions and targets with Regenerative Agriculture and Advanced Agri-Food Biotechnology.

The event ended with a guided city tour and tasting session exploring the local food scene in Munich held at the Viktualienmarkt in the city centre. Partners and the EIT Food team enjoyed the local flavours that Bavaria had to offer along with soaking in the history behind the places and food. The flavours ranged from a cheese ripened in the German mountains with air rich of salt, traditional pickles, breads, meat and of course not to forget, Brezel.

Partners Connect was a Next Bite satellite event, an event leading to Next Bite 2025, which is Europe’s largest conference in food system, happening on the 15-16th October in Brussels Belgium. EIT Food West hopes that the conversation which took place at Partners Connect in Munich will continue in the upcoming Next Bite 2025 event.