food4sustainability

Profile

Food4Sustainability (F4S)1 aims at placing Portugal at the forefront of sustainable and circular food production systems by developing and testing emerging farming approaches and practices, training farmers and building capacity to transition to sustainable systems and providing education and experimentation for healthy living. We are a collaborative laboratory, accredited by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT2), formally part of the national R&I system, in the form of a non-for-profit association. With relevant national and international stakeholders and experts as part of BGI’s collaboration with the Idanha- a-Nova municipality and involved multidisciplinary partners from the EIT Digital, Climate KIC, EUT Food and Health KICs and networks. F4S was awarded in 2019 the status of collaborative laboratory in Portugal by the Portuguese foundation for science and technology (FCT), after a very strict validation process that included a panel of international experts. The approved plan considers a €7,8 million investment over a period of 5 years. F4S has 15 founding members, including 4 Portuguese research and higher education institutions, 2 industrial companies, 5 tech-based SME, 3 producer-focused Farmer organisations and is led by BGI, an international start-up/scale-up accelerator. 

F4S’s top 5 priority domains are:

i) circular economy (FoodLab circular food production system, integrated multitrophic systems, extraction of high value-added compounds from by-products),
ii) sustainable farming (demonstrators and scaleup initiatives, transition of conventional systems),
iii) territorial resources and ecosystem services (monitoring and valorisation of key ecosystem services, water management),
iv) functional nutrition (functional foods, personalised diet)
v) entrepreneurship and innovation (i-Danha Food Lab accelerator and annual event, sustainable farming academy, hackathons for students).