EIT Food RIS Policy Council – performance and outcomes 2021-22

EIT Food RIS Policy Council is a policy advisory body consisting of stakeholder representatives from EIT Food RIS targeted countries. The Council acts in policy dialogue and other interactions in the target countries, contributes towards the further elaboration of EIT Food instruments and projects, as well as promotes linkages with government authorities and other stakeholders, intending to synchronize the development of EIT Food portfolio with national or regional Smart Specialisation Strategies of the targeted EIT RIS countries.

28 Dec 2022

In 2021 the Council Members were divided into working groups focused on thematic areas. They took part in meetings tackling trends and challenges affecting their countries in regard to chosen EIT Food Strategic Objectives and EIT Food Innovation focus areas.

In 2022 the Council Members met with various guest experts to talk about topics which are crucial for the future of the agrifood industry, like the EU Taxonomy, water scarcity and farmers' collaboration. Those actions contributed greatly to the creation of the S3 Guidebook, which will be published by EIT Food in the first quarter of 2023.

The EIT Food RIS Policy Council was facilitated by Natural Innovations Lab with participation of RIS Team from CLC South and CLC North-East.

Who are the EIT Food RIS Policy Council Members?

To ensure the highest quality results current members of the EIT Food RIS Policy Council had to demonstrate experience in:

smart specialization strategies (design, implementation)
at least two EIT Food Innovation Focus Areas (sustainable agriculture, sustainable aquaculture, circular food systems, digital traceability, targeted nutrition, alternative proteins)
research and innovation policy at national or regional levels (design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation)
stimulating cooperation between government, academia, business and society (quadruple helix).

Sustainability and Digital Traceability in Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture and Targeted Nutrition

Sustainabile Agriculture and Circular Food Systems

What were the main outcomes?

The main outcomes of the work in 2021 included the following focus areas and main challenges as well as solutions to face them effectively:

Technology & Digitalization

Promote digitalization among farmers from RIS countries. In order to capitalize the European Union trends (zero waste, green deal, circularity, digitalization, etc) and use technology and science trends (precision farming, digital traceability, IoT, Sensors) we must find an effective way to educate the farmers and make them ready to understand, believe, utilize, adapt and enhance the knowledge and the services.

Regulation & Institutional framework

Reduce legislative barriers in the development of sustainable agriculture, better governmental support and tackle legislation gaps. Finding and developing ways to collect data from farmers, on which policies and regulations could be based so that they are relevant for the RIS countries. Interregional cooperation for digital traceability is needed in order to set common standards for a specific European value chain. Regulators should establish laws encouraging food producers to bring more healthy and nutritious products to the market.

Cross-sectoral collaboration

Enhance collaboration between countries/ industries/businesses (particularly creating a collaboration culture among SMEs) / academia. Building national platforms for knowledge exchange, linkages between research and agricultural actors / farmers / creating networks for sharing knowledge and creating research–business linkages so that they work closely with specialists in the area to answer occurring problems.

Public Engagement

Addressing human and social capital challenges - ensuring people's ability to earn and support their lifestyle engaging in sustainable agriculture. Providing study and research on the local market and consumers to better understand RIS populations needs and how to effectively influence nutrition habits. Co-creation of solutions with the consumers and with the participation of the community.

New Business models

Support and help to implement new business models as sustainable changes that will contribute to higher harvest and better competitiveness thus higher income for the RIS farmers. Helping farmers/SMEs with the development of new business models compatible with new technology and market standards and building practical case study on the market.

Funding Opportunities

Providing long term capital focused on sustainability in RIS countries and developing and providing ecosystems for startups in RIS countries.

Smart Specialization Strategies

A shift from S3 into S4 - Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) convert into Sustainable Smart Specialisation Strategies (S4) to help in delivering the Green Deal. In S4 innovation is no longer considered only as a means to achieve economic growth but also to find solutions to societal and environmental challenges creating new competitive advantages in the markets through new green technologies, solutions and services.

Soon the EIT Food S3(RIS3) guidebook "A call to action for agrifood policy makers and doers" will be published!

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