Co-funded Call Mid-term seminar in Ghent, Belgium

From 28th to 29th of November 2019, the SUSFOOD consortium, 56 participants large, was present in Ghent, for the Co-funded Call Mid-term seminar. Several activities were organized for the SUSFOOD2 partners, the research project coordinators (or representatives) and the SUSFOOD2 External Advisory board, with a focus on the first results of the projects, Responsible Research and Innovation and “tips and tricks to valorise research”. 

Most of the SUSFOOD2 partners knew Ghent from a series of workshops, defining the scope of SUSFOOD1 in 2012, and now 7 years later we travelled back for the Cofunded Mid-term seminar of the SUSFOOD2 ERA-Net. Hosted by The Flemish Research Institute for Agricultural (ILVO).

On the first day of the Mid-term we made a visit to the Food Pilot, an application and analysis center, with facilities that can mimic all sorts of food production lines (meat, vegies, fruits, dairy, …) cofounded by ILVO and Flanders’ FOOD.

There we not only got to know more about the first results of the projects InProVE and IMPROVE, we also got a taste of the projects, by fruit juices produced within the projects!

Afterwards we went to Roof Food near Ghent, where we continued to think about sustainable food systems, to have an inspiring presentation on urban farming and a delightful “roof-top dinner”.

The next day, the second part of the mid-term with presentations of the results of the remaining 10 projects was held in co-organisation with the Flanders’ FOOD Inspiration Days and EIT FOOD. This doubled the number of participants and gave researchers the opportunity to mingle with industry and get their results communicated broader.

After a short welcome, we had an inspirational and mind-blowing talk about Food Systems on Mars!?!: “The SpaceBakery” by Bram Pareyt from Puratos. The presentations of the projects were divided into three sessions spread over the day and during lunch a postermarket of all SUSFOOD2 research projects was organized. To catch a glimps of the atmosphere those days, have a look at our Twitterpage! 

Maybe you already knew this all, and got some taste of the SUSFOOD2 Mid-term seminar via a postal card? Because all participants have send out SUSFOOD2 postcards all over the world from the seminar with the message “Towards a sustainable food system for the future!”