Inspire - Past editions

Sustainable Aquaculture - This unique 3-week programme aims to develop a new generation of entrepreneurs and innovators that is equipped to shape a new kind of food system that is innovative, resilient, and sustainable. It is guided by an innovation mindset, where participants will think of solutions for the current challenges in the sector, based on knowledge of technology and its application. You will learn how to turn your ideas into a business proposition with the support and coaching from EIT Food top experts in sustainable aqualculture, innovation, sustainability, and growth strategy. If you want to drive productivity, sustainability and profitability of the aquaculture sector, this is for you!

Targeted Nutrition - Inspire Targeted Nutrition is focusing on transforming the food system to fight non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by improving diets and lifestyles. During the 3-week programme, you will learn about consumers with specific nutritional needs. You will get familiar with targeted nutrition for pre-pregnancy and pregnancy, infancy, childhood, adolescents, middle age, and older adults. In addition, you will get to understand how to develop food products - from the consumer understanding and ingredients to food processing, food safety and packaging, as well understanding the UK and EU's policy landscape. The Inspire Targeted Nutrition programme is open to the participants from around the globe.

Post-Harvest School - This programme offers a unique, intensive, and hands-on immersion on the topics of sustainable and regenerative agriculture and its impact on the food production systems (carbon markets, alternative proteins, short food supply chains and digital tools to support sustainable agriculture). Participants will be able to choose the most relevant topics for their activities.

Guided by an innovation mindset, participants will think of solutions for challenges faced by regenerative agriculture farmers visited in the context of the program. We are seeking:

• farmers and practitioners aiming to understand what the transition to sustainable farming entails,
• students researching on the topic,
• young professionals and industry participants from the agri-food chain who wish to incorporate sustainability in their activities,
• food retailers staff for a broader perspective of the value chain,
• aspiring entrepreneurs interested in innovating in the food system and in improving the wellbeing of the population by providing them with safer and healthier products.

Sustainable Agriculture for Biodiversity - Join us at the Sustainable Agriculture for Biodiversity Inspire programme! You will get an opportunity to improve your knowledge on how to combat climate change and how to reverse biodiversity loss. You will also have an opportunity to design innovative solutions for the agriculture sector and learn how to turn your ideas into business propositions. Best ideas will receive a prize!

In this programme, you will learn about unsustainable vs. sustainable agriculture practices, the AI potential to accelerate global efforts to protect the environment and conserve biodiversity, ways to stop the loss and degradation of carbon- and species-rich ecosystems; you will explore the resilience for biodiversity & food, how to re-nature the cities & boost the ecosystem health, what is community-based biodiversity conservation. Furthermore, you will learn about governance & finance in agriculture, inclusive business models, and much more!

Farm to Fork: sustainable production & consumption in public canteens (RIS) - This three-week programme is focused on Southern and Eastern European countries with the aim of addressing sustainable consumption and major nutritional challenges within the framework of the European Farm-to-Fork strategy. It will provide you with an insight into sustainable production and consumption towards healthier diets, helping to tackle the current obesity levels across RIS countries and increasing the adherence to healthier diet and more sustainable consumption.

By participating in this programme, you will gain knowledge on the local dimension of this challenge and the Farm-to-Fork dynamics implementation, thanks to the focus on urban farming and to a hand-to-hand approach. Experiencing a journey through the value chain, from the production of local, organic products and the use of diversified sources of proteins to the co-development and co-design of more sustainable and healthier menus. You will also be able to design and pitch your developed manifesto for public canteens.

By the end of the programme, you will be ready to develop concrete strategies with an entrepreneurial mindset that can support the promotion of healthier and more sustainable lifestyles and reduce the number of dependent adults.

InnovPlanet Summer School (RIS) - There is only one planet Earth, yet by 2050, the world will be consuming as if there were three. At the same, the European Commission acknowledges that 2/3 of our soils are degraded, while the adoption of technology and disruptive innovation in a highly traditional environment as the agrifood sector, has been one of the main barriers towards a more sustainable agrifood system, especially across Southern and Eastern countries in Europe. All of this, under a scenario of climate change.

This programme offers a unique and intensive immersion to state of the art methodologies and tools to develop sustainable agriculture, with a focus on the importance of digital transformation and the implementation of smart farming technologies, while linking the role of soil health to target nutrition towards a better health and wellbeing. Guided by an entrepreneurial mindset, you will think of innovative solutions to address challenges on how to reduce the use of chemical inputs, enhance biodiversity and assist soil carbon sequestration.

With the support of real examples on systemic and digitally enabled solutions for a more sustainable use of resources, management of food waste or water needs. You will have the opportunity to ideate around how innovation in sustainable agriculture can improve nutrition and being introduced to the world of traceable food value chains to achieve more safety in the food systems.

New technologies to manage food ecosystems Summer School (RIS) - Most jobs of the very near future will require a basic understanding of math and sciences applied to new technologies development. This trend highlights the need for development of Innovation and entrepreneurship within RIS countries. Through this programme you will become a critical thinker, with an increased science literacy, and will be prepared as the next generation of innovators across RIS countries, better enabled and positioned to reach high value jobs and accelerate startups, retaining local talent. This strategy is especially crucial within the Southern and Central Eastern regions to tackle the brain-drain that we nowadays face.

As a future entrepreneur you will gather knowledge in the use of new generation computer tools (digital twins) for the management, control and maintenance of food ecosystems. Having direct experience with real case studies from RIS regions, this programme will enable you to understand how digital technologies can be applied in your own local ecosystems with a Pan-European vision. You will also be able to see how the choices of geographical positioning of food ecosystems are influenced by the strategic logic of supply chains in respect of the Kilometre Zero tendency for a better and more sustainable environment.