Empowering local urban food systems entrepreneurship and innovation

Expected outcome

Projects results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: accelerated growth and success of innovation-led local urban food start-ups, through strengthened business development services, access to capital and investment, and boosted innovation capacities; empowered urban food entrepreneurs through inclusive, multi-actor governance models that foster mentoring, collaboration, and co-creation among local actors; established and interconnected European-wide competitive urban food systems innovation ecosystems, scaled and deployed widely, that increase the resilience, inclusiveness, and well-being of urban communities through socially innovative and climate smart approaches.

Scope

The successful proposals should drive transformative and inclusive innovation in local urban food systems, boosting decentralised competitiveness and creating positive social and environmental spillovers that enhance well-being of urban communities. It will contribute to the European Green Deal priorities and the EU’s climate ambition for 2030 and 2050, while aligning with the priorities of the Food 2030 R&I initiative: nutrition for sustainable healthy diets, circularity and resource efficiency, innovation and empowering communities. It will also support the Clean Industrial Deal, the Competitiveness Compass, in particular, the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy, and contribute to the EU Food System Monitoring Dashboard. Proposals should: develop and pilot decentralised local capacities and ecosystems, such as food innovation incubators, accelerators and hubs, which support high-impact and sustainable urban food solutions. These should provide targeted support and access to capital and investment, while connecting fragmented ecosystems across Member States and Associated Countries; integrate tailored mentorship programs to stimulate entrepreneurship and start-ups in urban food systems and facilitate participatory co-creation of place-based collaborative sustainable and climate smart business models, utilising the networks and solutions developed through the local capacities; leverage these pilot implementations to accelerate urban food system transformation and scalability, ensuring market uptake, scaling and replication across diverse EU contexts, while measuring the impact on all dimensions of sustainability by relevant indicators; connect with already established R&I initiatives, such as partnerships, missions, platforms, and other relevant projects to derive economically viable, and sustainable, business models from these initiatives, accelerating the uptake of research outcomes. This topic should involve the effective contribution of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) disciplines. Proposals should integrate the gender dimension where applicable. Consideration of other social categories besides gender (disability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnic and/or cultural origin, sexual orientation, etc.), and their intersections, should be also ensured. Proposals must implement the multi-actor approach, involving local and regional authorities, urban planners, SMEs and start-ups, food entrepreneurs, research and innovation actors, educational institutions, civil society organisations, and citizens, to co-create inclusive, sustainable, and scalable urban food system innovations. null Activities are expected to achieve TRL 6-8 by the end of the project – see General Annex B. Activities may start at any TRL.

What this means for cities and regions

Cities with an urban food strategy, their economic development teams and local food entrepreneurs. Topic budget €12 million; 2 grants expected; around €6 million per project. Opens 20 April 2027; closes 23 September 2027. Limited direct space angle.