Call for expression of interest to participate in “EIT Food RIS Consumer Engagement Labs" 2024

EIT Food RIS Consumer Engagement Labs

EIT Food RIS Consumer Engagement Labs is the largest food co-creation initiative in Europe. In 2019-2023, the co-creation processes involved 106 consumer panels and 49 companies from 17 European countries, who worked together to design, develop and introduce to the market over 20 innovative food products.

In 2024-2025, the methodology will be applied to societal challenges, linked to targeted nutrition and protein diversification. The activity impacts will also be linked to the reduction of adult obesity and food-related non-communicable diseases through its focus on targeted nutrition and protein diversification. New products co-created with consumers will spur the wave of innovations in the market, showcasing the market potential and encouraging companies to consider the specific needs of selected groups of consumers.

Product proposals co-created by consumers as part of Consumer Engagement Labs will be followed up by subsequent design, development, market testing and commercialization activities by companies. Each participant-food company is required to introduce to the market one new product, designed as the outcome of the Labs/consumer co-creation process in 2024-2025 and document product sales of at least 10k€ by 2025.

Who can apply?

Funding for this Request for Implementing Participants is available to organisations (scientific institutions and food companies) from Member States of the European Union (EU) and from Horizon Europe Associate Countries that are covered by the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS):

• EU Member States: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia
• Horizon Europe Associated Countries: Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Türkiye, Ukraine
• Outermost Regions: Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Réunion, Martinique, Mayotte and Saint-Martin (France), the Azores and Madeira (Portugal), and the Canary Islands (Spain)

Below you can download the Call for EIT Food RIS Consumer Engagement Labs 2023 and application form.

Application Submission

The deadline for the submission of full applications is 12 February 2024, 11:00 AM CET.

Please send the electronic version of application in English, based on the attached template of application form, to the following address within the deadline mentioned above:

Subject line: Consumer Engagement Labs Application 2024

E-mail: magdalena.zatorska@uw.edu.pl

Evaluation and Selection Process

All submitted applications will undergo an eligibility check and evaluation to determine their feasibility and suitability for funding. The evaluation will be conducted by at least 3 external evaluators and 1 internal evaluator.

EIT Food RIS Consumer Engagement Labs aim to support up to six consortia in 2024, delivering 1 co-creation process per consortium.

More information about the Consumer Engagement Labs methodology developed by the University of Warsaw is available at https://www.eitfood.eu/project....

Funding

Implementing participant recipients will receive a subgrant to fund their cost. This is cascade funding:

• Participation from March 2024-December 2024
• Maximum funding for that period per participant-scientific organisation is: 18,750€
• Maximum funding for that period per participant-food company is: 12,500€

Detailed tasks of the participant- scientific organization

1. Responsibility for the organisation and delivery of sessions with 4 consumer teams in the country of operations in 2024, using the methodology developed and shared by University of Warsaw and involving at least 2 expert facilitators (1 per 2 consumer teams);
2. Ensuring involvement of the other member of the consortium (food producer) in selected Labs sessions;
3. Selection of consumers-participants of the Labs session to ensuring the participation of at least 20 consumers matching the selection criteria;
4. Communication with consumers-participants of the Labs session in the local language;
5. Ensuring the signatures of attendance lists and legal consent forms by consumers-participants of the Labs compliant with GDPR, organizational procedures for personal data protection and EIT reporting requirements;
6. Organisation of the Labs sessions for 4 teams of around 5 consumers each, altogether 20 consumers, in 2024 (sessions include online meetings of ~2 hours for each team, distributed over a period of several weeks) including: logistics of the online workshop (using video conferencing software, with workshop scripts, facilitator guidelines, templates and materials provided by University of Warsaw in English, requiring translation into local language);
7. Facilitation of the Labs session based on guidance provided by University of Warsaw, using the standard workshop scripts, templates and materials and offering technical support for participants to enable their active participation (including a technical orientation preceding the Labs sessions);
8. Preparation of the documentation of Labs sessions and results;
9. Involvement in the process of selecting the most technically viable and commercially feasible new product concept co-created by consumers;
10. Communicating with local media to ensure at least 1 publication in the local language (newspapers, thematic magazines or specialist Internet portals) describing the project, published in 2024, consistent with EIT Food visual identity standards and project reporting requirements (each consortium partner is obliged to ensure 1 publication, 2 publications in total per consortium);
11. Submitting the required inputs into project deliverables (project reporting) including details on organisation of the Labs, data on participants, descriptions of the creative process, summaries of results and lessons learned. Detailed instructions and templates will be provided by University of Warsaw;
12. Participation in the final debriefing session (online) with University of Warsaw to discuss the project experiences and lessons learned.

Detailed tasks of the participant - food company

1. Participation in selected sessions of Consumer Engagement Labs to present the company and work alongside consumers on new product proposals;
2. Offering tokens of gratitude for ~20 consumers participating in the Labs session (e.g. shopping vouchers, sets of food products), with a view to incentivize the participation of consumers (please note that the access to these incentives should not require consumers to enrol into loyalty programs, share personal data or install dedicated software applications);
3. Planning for commercial exploitation of results of the Labs by screening for commercially feasible product concepts;
4. Selection of one new food product concept co-created by consumers participating in the Labs session that will be commercialized, with the commitment to introduce the product on the market, following the branding/visual identity guidelines defined by EIT/EIT Food (the development and marketing of the product will not be funded by this project and is the responsibility of the subcontractor);
5. Submitting “Report on the new product concept selected for commercialization” (providing details of 1 new product concept selected for market introduction and commercialization plans) in 2024 - detailed instructions and report templates are provided by the University of Warsaw;
6. Participation in the debriefing session with the team from the University of Warsaw to discuss the project experiences and lessons learned;
7. Introducing to the market 1 new food product based on “Report on the new product concept selected for commercialization” in 2024-2025, with documented sales results of at least 10k€ by 2025;
8. Communication with media (industry magazines, newspapers, specialist Internet portals) to ensure at least 1 publication describing the Labs and its outcomes, published in 2024, consistent with EIT Food visual identity standards and project reporting requirements (each consortium partner is obliged to ensure 1 publication, 2 publications in total per consortium);
9. Participation in the debriefing session with the team from University of Warsaw to discuss the project experiences and lessons learned.