Lund University

Centre for Environmental and Climate Research

BIOECONOMY Graduate Research School

BIOECONOMY Graduate Research School (BIOECONOMY GRS) is a transdisciplinary graduate research school at Lund University Centre for Environmental and Climate Research with an overall aim of developing the competencies necessary for participants to:

• adopt systems approach in order to identify and assess the full range of technological, economic, social and ecological challenges and opportunities in transition to a circular bioeconomy; 
• lead the way in innovative inter/trans-disciplinary research and education for a sustainable bioeconomy in the international arena.

BIOECONOMY GRS aims to act as a collaborative learning platform at Lund University allowing researchers and PhD students, across faculties/disciplines and research areas, as well as non-academic stakeholders to meet with each other in order to identify, carry out and communicate innovative, analytically advanced and yet problem-oriented research for a sustainable future circular bioeconomy covering the whole biomass value chain. BIOECONOMY GRS's main focus is on Sweden, but in Nordic and global contexts.

Food Faculty

LU Food Faculty is a "bottom-up" initiative that promotes interdisciplinary collaborations across faculty boundaries at Lund University. The network also promotes collaborations with external stakeholders, including companies, public sector and non-profit organizations. Thereby, we facilitate innovation processes in companies and society with the help of research.

LU Food Faculty is an interdisciplinary research network that:

• Promotes collaborations across faculty boundaries at Lund University, as well as with external stakeholders 
• Supports the future research competence in food science at Lund University
• Enables strong multidisciplinary research applications with Lund University as principal manager
• Facilitates the innovation process for research projects
• Visualizes the ongoing research in food science at Lund University

LU Food Faculty has prioritised five areas that capture the comprehensiveness of the challenges and link the research between different sciences with relevance to the food area:

• Sustainable food production
• Food, nutrition and health
• Food safety, logistics and traceability
• Future food trade and consumer behaviour
• FoodTech and innovation

EIT Climate KIC

About

EIT Climate-KIC was established in 2010 as part of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union. Our founding purpose was to bring together businesses, research centres, higher education and the public sector to tackle climate change through innovation.

In 2017 our approach to innovation evolved to fully acknowledge and address the challenges of systemic change, social equity and sustainable prosperity at the heart of the climate change challenge.

We bring a 10-year track record of learning about what works and what does not. We have learnt that a ‘business as usual’, supply-focused approach to innovation, in the context of public, or even philanthropic funding, runs the risk of bias towards discrete, single-point solutions of an incremental nature. Such solutions are unlikely to address climate change at the speed and scale we need. 

EIT Climate-KIC has therefore chosen to position itself as an orchestrated innovation ecosystem that connects ‘demand’ and ‘supply’ in catalysing systemic change, working closely with demand-side actors and those with high ambition for change. Today we are an unrivalled community of changemakers, committed to working with a systems logic, made up of funders and investors, large and small companies, scientific institutions and universities, cities, regions and other public bodies, as well as start-ups and students.

Alternative Proteins and Systemic Change in our Food Systems

Our current food systems are incompatible with the need to feed a growing global population while keeping global temperature rise to 1.5C. Intensive farming, overuse of chemicals, threats to biodiversity and deforestation are all part of an agricultural system that produces a third of the world’s emissions, while leaving billions of people either underfed or obese. Our current food systems are not able to sustain the world population within the boundaries of our planet. 

In Europe, a major problem is the over-consumption of animal protein. In addition to causing poor health outcomes^[1], this causes high carbon emissions, and is an inefficient use of land and water. As much as 71% of arable land in the EU is used for animal feed^[2], and even then most countries still import soy for feed from countries such as Brazil and Argentina, where it leads to deforestation.

Food value chains are complex and ridden with cross-cutting problems, meaning that a standalone solution will be insufficient. Tackling any one problem — whether loss of biodiversity, overuse of pesticides, or soil depletion — requires consideration of the whole system.

To tackle complex challenges like this, EIT Climate-KIC has launched the Deep Demosntrations of Change which is a systems approach to orchetrating innovation of entire systems.

One of these deep demosntrations is th he Deep Demonstration of Resilient Food Systems which is dedicated to transform the entire food system — from production to retail, consumer behaviour to governance — with a portfolio of solutions. Together with our challenge owners we are focussing on primary production and on Nordic public meals. We are starting in the Nordic region, because the Nordic countries are in a good position to be at the forefront of sustainable protein consumption and production due to their diverse food resources, strong research institutions, and the sea as an alternative food source.

EIT Climate-KIC supports a shift away from animal protein to other sources when it comes to food and away from imported soy when it comes to feed.

EIT Food - CLC North-East

EIT Food is a Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) supported by the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT).

EIT Food is Europe’s leading food innovation initiative, working to make the food system more sustainable, healthy and trusted. EIT Food seeks to transform the way in which we produce, distribute and consume food throughout Europe to improve consumer confidence and health.

EIT Food is a unique network of diverse partners that provide a holistic view of the food value chain. The network consists of over 50 partners, including key industry players, universities, research centers and agrifood startups from across Europe, all working together to deliver an innovative and entrepreneurial Food sector.

EIT Food has the ambition to:

• Support European consumers in the transition towards a smart Food system that is inclusive and reassuring
• Enable consumers to make informed and affordable personal nutrition choices
• Develop a digital Food Supply network with consumers and industry as equal partners
• Develop solutions to transform the traditional 'produce-use-dispose' model into a circular bio-economy
• Provide 'food system' skills for students, entrepreneurs and professionals through advanced training programs
• Support startups and investing in the most promising businesses with the most brilliant ideas to contribute to the future of our Food.

^[1] Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-LANCET Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems

^[2] Over 71% of EU farmland dedicated to meat and dairy, new research