FINEST - Food Innovation Enabling Sustainable Transition

Funded by: FORMAS

Time period: 2020-2024

Partner organizations: RISE, Chalmers, and 15 actors within the food industry

Project description:
In order to enable a sustainable transition of the agricultural and food sector, a system perspective is required that throws light on various components of the system and their mutual relationship and interaction. In this work package, we take the research on socio-technical systems, primarily in research within sustainable transition, as a point of departure. We see the agricultural and food sector as a socio-technical-ecological system (STES), where technologies, markets, institutions, practices, cultures, infrastructure and industrial structures, policies, and distribution chains interact with a variety of actors and stakeholders, and not least with the ecological system. The work package aims to create a knowledge base around the parts of the system related to the three value chains included in FINEST, namely Swedish forest berries, Proteins from Swedish legumes and New concepts for food production.

A main purpose of the work package is to create a deep understanding of the current situation that takes into account how the system has developed to how it is today. This is the basis for the work package's second main purpose, which is to map what future development opportunities exist and how these opportunities are sustainable from an economic, social and ecological perspective. The research within this work package will be done with a multimodal methodology, as well as collaboration with the Test Center and Food Transition Lab.

Project leader (work package 1): Thomas Lennerfors

Project members: Paul Plummer, Johnn Andersson, Petter Forsberg, Nina Fowler, Maria Morgunova, Helena Fornstedt, Simon Okwir, Carl Andersson Kronlid.