First physical meeting between practical testing labs

During sunny July days in Brussels, 36 people from 16 European countries, representing the pilot test environments of the project ZeroW met to coordinate the further steps of their collaboration; all on a common mission to suggest innovations to reduce food loss and waste (FLW).

First, with concrete actions in their own environment, then as an inspiration for peers and policy makers.
 
The Living Labs are the project’s pilot environments for testing the systemic innovations, and the project is designed to test the innovations all across the food system attacking 9 different areas from primary production all the way to the consumers. 
 
They are the core of the project’s activity, and they are clustered as follows: 
 

Visions and stages of pilot activities 

The meeting was the first physical one among the Living Labs and thus provided an important milestone to commonly kick off the coming years of testing and measuring.  

During the two-day meeting on July 12 and 13, the coordinators from the 9 so-called  “Systemic Innovation Living Labs” (SILLS) of ZeroW shared their vision and current stage of the pilot activity each is responsible for, gave each other input and discussed common obstacles and methodology. 

The common understanding of what is FLW was discussed to ensure coherence across the pilot areas and across the project. Also, linked to this, the FLW data collection specificities and processes were discussed. Besides, an initial version of a common toolbox for demonstrating the effect of the pilot tests was tested. 
 
One message from the two-day meeting came out clearly: “We could all agree that the effort of lowering European FLW calls for the engagement of even more external stakeholders willing to apply the solutions suggested. Only this way, we can fulfill the ambitious goals, not only of the ZeroW project, but also contribute to  other EU GreenDeal initiatives”, says the meeting organizers.
 

FLW reduction all the way

Needless to say that the organisers of the meeting, the lead partner ICP, had thought through all the details, even the catering provided to the participants was from fermented overshoot production brought to the site on bikes.  

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About ZeroW

9 living labs in ZeroW

Reducing food loss and waste through systemic innovation

  1. Food Loss & Waste monitoring & assessment 
  2. Innovative sustainable and smart packaging for fresh food products 
  3. Wasteless greenhouse solutions for (pre)harvesting 
  4. Mobile food valorisation as a service 
  5. Ugly food early identification 
  6. Advanced data-driven production process control & optimization 
  7. Food bank networks 
  8. Retail food waste valorisation through algae production 
  9. Informing and nudging consumers 

Learn more about innovative Living Labs.

The overall objective of the project is to:

  • Create innovative solutions to reduce food waste through systemic innovation living labs
  • Develop commercial, digital tools and instruments that contribute to the achievement of food waste reduction targets
  • Contribute to the European Commission’s ongoing legislative initiatives in the area of food waste reduction

Learn more about the project.

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