FERI

Name of project: Systemic Innovations Towards a Zero Food Waste Supply Chain

Acronym: ZeroW

Refrence nr./contract nr.: Grant agreement ID: 101036388

Project website/link: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101036388

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/zerow-project/

Project funding/programme: H2020-EU.3.2. LC-GD-6-1-2020 H2020-LC-GD-2020-4

Time frame: 1 January 2022 - 31 December 2025

Total costs: Overall budget: 12 932 881,25 € ; EU contribution: 11 999 733,50€

Co-funding rate (in %): 7%

The amount of co-financing (UM FERI share): 180 625 € (100% funded)

UM FERI Coordinator: assist. dr. Martina Šestak

Project Coordinator: INLECOM COMMERCIAL PATHWAYS COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE (ICP)

Other partners: UNIVERZA V MARIBORU, FAKULTETA ZA ELEKTROTEHNIKO, RAČUNALNIŠTVO IN INFORMATIKO (UM FERI, SLO), INLECOM INNOVATION ASTIKI MI KERDOSKOPIKI ETAIREIA, WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY, NEDERLANDSE ORGANISATIE VOOR TOEGEPAST NATUURWETENSCHAPPELIJK ONDERZOEK TNO, WATERFORD INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, BIOSENSE INSTITUTE - RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN BIOSYSTEMS, DIGIOTOUCH OU, EIGEN VERMOGEN VAN HET INSTITUUT VOOR LANDBOUW - EN VISSERIJONDERZOEK, SAFE FOOD ADVOCACY EUROPE, Food & Bio Cluster Denmark (FBCD) AS, VLTN GCV, INSTITUTO TECNOLOGICO DE ARAGON, KONNECTA SYSTEMS LIMITED, ITC - INOVACIJSKO TEHNOLOSKI GROZD MURSKA SOBOTA, FONDAZIONE ISTITUTO SUI TRASPORTI E LA LOGISTICA, INSTITUTO TECNOLOGICO DEL EMBALAJE, TRANSPORTE Y LOGISTICA, ASOCIATIA TRANSILVANIA IT, ASOCIATIA CLUSTERUL AGRO-FOOD-IND NAPOCA, FUNDACION CORPORACION TECNOLOGICA DE ANDALUCIA, INSTITUTO ANDALUZ DE INVESTIGACIONY FORMACION AGRARIA PESQUERA ALIMENTARIA Y DE LA PRODUCCION ECOLOGICA, AgriFood Lithuania DIH, SINTEF AS, STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT BRABANT, NOVAMONT SPA, SONAE MC - SERVICOS PARTILHADOS, SA, MODELO CONTINENTE HIPERMERCADOS SA GRUPO EMPRESARIAL LA CAÑA S.L., MULTISCAN TECHNOLOGIES SL, UAB ART21, LIETUVOS DARZOVIU AUGINTOJU ASOCIACIJA, LIETUVOS MAISTO EKSPORTUOTOJU ASOCIACIJA (LITMEA), F6S NETWORK IRELAND LIMITED, F6S UK ALLMICROALGAE NATURAL PRODUCTS SA, UNIVERSIDADE DO MINHO, INSTITUTE OF COMMUNICATION AND COMPUTER SYSTEMS, INNOVATIESTEUNPUNT VOOR LANDBOUW EN PLATTELAND, OPENBARE VLAAMSE AFVALSTOFFENMAATSCHAPPIJ, ICLEI EUROPEAN SECRETARIAT GMBH (ICLEI EUROPASEKRETARIAT GMBH), KMETIJSKO GOZDARSKA ZBORNICA SLOVENIJE KMETIJSKO GOZDARSKI ZAVOD MURSKA SOBOTA, Robin Food, DIL Deutsches Institut für Lebensmitteltechnik e.V., ASOCIACION DE INVESTIGACION DE INDUSTRIAS CARNICAS DEL PRINCIPADO DE ASTURIAS, AVES NOBLES Y DERIVADOS, S.L., TERMOFORMAS DE LEVANTE SL, EROSKI S.COOP., Voedselbank Limburg, and SVZ international BV

Project summary:

ZeroW is a 4-year project that aims to play a key role in the transition of current food systems towards significantly decreasing food loss waste (FLW) generated within the EU area and on a global scale. In terms of legal backbone for this initiative, current EU policies aim to cut food waste (FW) in half by 2030 and reach a near-zero FLW goal by 2050. ZeroW tackles this challenge by setting ambitious goals to make a significant impact on this endeavour. These goals are to be achieved through a series of research and development activities, more important of which include prototyping and assessing the systemic innovations to support FLW reduction efforts, establishing interoperability through a common FLW Data Space and defining a transition pathway to near-zero FLW through EU directives and policy recommendations.

ZeroW provides an opportunity to demonstrate innovations in nine real-life food supply chains, by employing a systemic innovation approach, to effectively address the multidimensional issue of FLW. This involves:

(i) pre-identifying systemic innovations, that incorporate multiple interlinked dimensions (process, organisational, strategy, marketing, product, technological, governance, etc.), which are tested and demonstrated;

(ii) steering the evolution of innovations towards higher levels of systemic readiness and impact, using a Systematic Innovation Living Lab (SILL) co-creation and multi-actor collective learning approach;

(iii) enhancing the Living Lab actors’ innovation advancement capability with shared resources facilitating new ways and means of cooperating and co-developing innovations;

(iv) developing context-specific trajectories for the systemic innovations (from ideation to scaling-up and commercialisation) leading to the provision of currently missing end products and services that align with consumer attitudes, food actor needs and policy trends.

The nine SILLs included in the systemic innovation demonstration within the project encompass different aspects of FLW within food supply chains ranging from production process control and optimization, (pre-)harvest greenhouse solutions, shelf-life assessment, smart packaging to informing consumers. Throughout the project duration, the project SILL participants will work on developing and assessing digital technology solutions to implement best practices and propose innovative approaches for achieving near-zero FLW in the long term.

UM FERI activities:

UM FERI will largely participate in SILL1 research and development activities, where its role is to implement a data-driven solution/platform for food loss and waste (FLW) data collection, transparency, monitoring and management, ensuring established secured data flows between food production/supply and consumers.