Data-driven solutions to empower people to make better food choices

The EU-funded FOODITY project has launched its first open call for innovative data-driven solutions that not only promote better food systems but also give citizens the power to use their personal data. Launched in January 2023, FOODITY is revolutionising the food and nutrition space in Europe by fostering the development of digital solutions that prioritise citizens’ health, sustainability and data sovereignty. Current food systems have a negative environmental and health impact, being responsible for one third of global greenhouse gas emissions and contributing to obesity, a leading cause of premature death in Europe. FOODITY aims to promote change by empowering citizens to make informed choices that support healthier diets and more sustainable and resilient food systems. To achieve this, data and technology were used as key tools.

The first open call for proposals for the project is accepting proposals to develop data-driven solutions focusing on one or more of three domains or an open challenge. The three domains are personalised food and nutrition, sustainable food systems and shopping experience. The proposed solutions must be between technology readiness level (TRL) four and six, but should be scalable up to level seven. The six pilot solutions to be developed by the selected candidates should focus on social innovation and promote citizen participation. For its pilot solution development programme, FOODITY is seeking diverse teams of innovators consisting of a mix of research and technology organisations, universities, SMEs and start-ups, social innovation actors and training organisations. The selected innovators will receive extensive support in the form of individual mentoring, group advice and technical, business and legal training, as well as financial support of up to EUR 187,500 per beneficiary to develop the pilot solutions. “Enabling citizens to become aware of the importance of their data is key to achieving our goal, as it will give them control over how their data is used and where it is stored,” the FOODITY team said in a news release , which details the open call. “We have created a data architecture to properly protect and store user data, which we will require the pilot solution development teams to use. This data lake will store data (apart from users’ personal data, which will be managed by the pilot solution development teams), and will be processed and managed by our data_U software.” The release continues: “The selected FOODITY innovators will learn how to properly use this data architecture through training and mentoring, which will also help them to gain a deeper understanding of the ethics of data management, among other technical topics. The training will also cover citizen engagement methods, as the pilot solutions must involve end users from start to finish. Mentoring, especially in the second phase, will focus on business issues, from innovation strategy to product development. In addition, development teams of pilot solutions can request support in specific areas to ensure the progress of the TRL. The deadline for applications to the open call for the FOODITY (FOod and nutritiOn Data-driven innovation respectful of citizen's Data SovereIgnTY) project is 8 November 2023. Applications must be written in English and submitted via the F6S platform . For more information, please visit: FOODITY project website