Partners Connect 2025: Strengthening Collaboration and Shaping the Future of Food in Bilbao
EIT Food gathered its community of strategic and delivery partners at the B Accelerator Tower (BAT) in Bilbao on 12 May for the 2025 edition of Partners Connect—an event designed to foster collaboration, share strategic insights, and align efforts.
Begoña Pérez-Villarreal, Director of EIT Food South, opened the event with a warm welcome, highlighting the crucial role that EIT Food partners play in delivering innovation with real impact.
“Partners Connect is a space for making connections and building alliances to address critical areas that will impact the food industry in Europe”, remarked the EIT Food South Director.
In a keynote speech that followed, Richard Zaltzman, CEO of EIT Food, reflected on the evolving role of the EIT Food community in driving systemic change. As game-changers, EIT Food is focused on scaling impact to shape the food we produce, distribute, and, finally, consume by bringing brilliant and bold ideas throughout the value chain.
“We do not focus on individual projects but rather on larger scale collaborations, a collection of projects working together with different stakeholders”, pointed out Richard Zaltzman
Our mission is to help create a food system for everyone and working together is the only path to achieve it
Ilario Ingravallo, Mission Lead for “Reducing Risk for a Fair & Resilient Food System,” shared insights on future Mission funding calls, while Javier Gonzalez, Senior Business Support Manager, provided a detailed overview of Horizon Europe opportunities and how EIT Food partners can prepare for forthcoming programmes in 2025 and beyond.
Our experts introduced hot-topics, such as generational renewal, nutrition and health, and water managements as some of the most pressing challenges of the industry and Southern Europe. EIT Food encouraged attendees to participate and take the lead on future European projects.
The agenda shifted toward interactive engagement with two parallel breakout sessions aligned with key EIT Food Missions:
Food & Health, led by Lorena Savani, explored EIT Food’s ongoing initiatives in the domain of nutrition and healthy diets and Circular Food Systems, facilitated by Vivien Bodereau, focused on strategies for reducing waste and increasing circularity in agrifood systems.
Selected partners pitched their projects, followed by structured discussions to encourage matchmaking and collaborative exploration.
The event concluded with final reflections and next steps from Begoña Pérez-Villarreal, who encouraged participants to carry forward the connections and ideas generated throughout the day. The closing cocktail and previous networking opportunities offered further space for relationship-building.
We are here to share ideas and build the foundation of our work in the future
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