Second stream “Engaging stakeholders for food system transformation” emphasizes hands on information, learnings, and tools on how to best engage with stakeholders at EU, national and city level to drive food system transformation and food policy coordination. It is primarily intended for EU and national policy makers as well as local actors.

Dr. John Bell

Director Healthy Planet, DG Research & Innovation at European Commission

Dr John Bell is the ”Healthy Planet” Director in DG Research & Innovation. He is responsible for leading the Research and Innovation transitions on Climate Change within planetary boundaries, Bioeconomy, Food Systems, Environment and Biodiversity, Oceans and Arctic, Circular Economy, Water and Bio-based innovations. This includes harnessing the investments of €10 billion Horizon Europe, Circular Bioeconomy, the EU Bioeconomy Strategy, and Governing Board of €3.7 billion in Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking, as well as delivering policy initiatives as FOOD2030, and the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance.

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„More than ever, we need to foster the role of cross-pollinators in our society. It is no longer possible to confront the complexity of food systems with a one-dimensional approach”

Prof. Jacqueline Broerse

Project Coordinator, FIT4FOOD2030, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Jacqueline Broerse is full professor of innovation and communication in the health and life sciences (with focus on diversity and social inclusion) and since 2020 director of the Athena Institute, Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Her current research is focused on (1) methodology development for multi-stakeholder co-creation innovation processes, and (2) management of system change processes, in order to contribute to more equitable and inclusive innovation processes that address societal challenges. Her research projects are in the domain of (global) health, food and sustainable development.

She currently coordinates the Erasmus Mundus Joint Degree Program on Transdisciplinary Solutions to Global Health Challenges, and the large EU-funded FIT4FOOD2030 project on improving R&I so as to contribute to more sustainable, resilient, responsible, competitive and inclusive European food systems.

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„FIT4FOOD2030 has engaged a wide variety of stakeholders across Europe to build a multi-level platform that supports food system transformation through research and innovation”

Beatrix Wepner

AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Center for Innovation Systems & Policy

Beatrix Wepner, PhD, is a scientist and technology manager at the Center for Innovation Systems & Policy at AIT. She has been involved in or managed a number of national and European funded studies and foresights about value chain analysis, manufacturing technologies like additive manufacturing or laser technology, and energy and resource efficiency strategies (bio-economy). In Fit4Food2030 her focus is on identification of trends, barriers and breakthroughs in the food system. Also, AIT has taken a lead role to set up policy labs to foster food system transformation in this project. In general, Beatrix Wepner`s work areas at AIT are monitoring and detecting emerging issues and emerging technologies as well as supporting roadmapping and foresight processes, interviews and interactive workshops. She develops and enhances models for investigating data so that emerging trends can be identified. She brings extensive experience in the field of cluster management from her previous engagements of managing the food cluster of ecoplus, Lower Austrian Business Agency, and at ofi Austrian Research Institute for Chemistry and Technology, where she worked as a scientist and head of the institute for packaging and later for medical devices.

Chiara Pontillo

Research Manager, Life Sciences & Bioeconomy Unit

Chiara Pontillo is currently working in the Research and Competitive Funding Area of the University of Bologna, specifically in the Life Sciences and Bioeconomy unit. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations and Diplomatic Affairs, a first Master’s in Local and Global Development, and a second Master’s in Human Development and Food Security. During the university period, Chiara attended an intensive course in Development Projects Management at the Maastricht School of Management, which led her post-graduate career towards the Project management and implementation area. Before becoming a member of the FIT4FOOD2030 UNIBO’s team, she worked as a Project assistant in the NGO environment and volunteered in Mexico. In FIT4FOOD2030, she supported the development of WP2, specifically by turning the EU Food Policy database resulted from Task 2.2 into a demonstrative set of more user-friendly Policy Cards, aimed at highlighting potential policy gaps and priorities and creating debate opportunities around food system-related issues.

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Prof. Margaret Gill

University of Aberdeen, chair of the FIT4FOOD2030 EU Think Tank

Margaret Gill is a former Chief Scientific Adviser to the Scottish Government on Rural Affairs and the Environment. She is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Aberdeen, and chairs the Scottish Science Advisory Council and the UKRI-BBSRC Sustainable Agriculture and Food Strategy Science Advisory Panel. She also chairs the Science Advisory Panel for the Our land and Water Challenge programme in New Zealand and chaired the Science Advisory Board of FACCE JPI until June 2017. Her original research career was in animal science, broadening out over time to an interest in the impacts of agriculture on the environment and how science can provide an evidence base to inform policy. She is also a Trustee of GALVmed a charity which seeks to make animal products affordable for smallholder livestock owners in developing countries. For more information, please click here.

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Mirjana Gurinovic

Scientific Research Advisor, FAO Nutrition Consultant, Research Team Leader at the CENM, University of Belgrade

Mirjana Gurinovic MD. PhD Nutrition, Scientific Research Advisor, FAO Nutrition consultant, research team leader at the  Centre of Research Excellence in Nutrition and Metabolism, Institute for Medical Research, University of Belgrade, Serbia, www.srbnutrition.info is recognized public health nutrition scientists, actively engaged in research on nutrition, food composition data bases, public health nutrition epidemiology,  harmonization of the  dietary intake assessment, nutrient recommendations, food and nutrition policy, Sustainable Food Systems for Healthy Diets, nutritional tools development and research infrastructure for food and nutrition research, preschool and schoolchildren nutrition improvement , diet and health and capacity development in food and nutrition specific for  CEE countries. She had leading and active role in national and international food and nutrition research projects (EC FP6 and FP7 NoE projects, including EURRECA, EuroFIR, BaseFood , CHANCE, EuroFIR-Nexus , BACCHUSS, ODIN , four EFSA projects and member of  project advisory board in Euro DISH project). Dr. Gurinović is a Chair of the Network for Capacity development in Nutrition in CEE Countries (CAPNUTRA) (www.capnutra.org) which was established in 2005 in FAO in Budapest and contributed to food & nutrition capacity development in this region. She has over 300 published peer-review papers, abstracts, and reports in national and international journals. Dr. Gurinovic is a member of a number of professional associations including: Europe Expert Group on ‘Evaluation of New Methods for Dietary Intake Assessment’, EFSA Scientific Network on Food Consumption Data, ‘’EU Think Tank’’ FOOD 2030, World Public Health Nutrition Association (WPHNA), Nutrition Expert Group in European Heart Network where she contributed to the European food and nutrition recommendations for cardiovascular diseases prevention. She is research professor at the integrated food science module for PhD students at the University of Belgrade. For more information, please click here, or here.

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Raymond Gemen

Senior Manager – Food & Health Science | Collaborations Coordination, European Food Information Council (EUFIC)

Raymond Gemen is Senior Manager at the European Food Information Council (EUFIC). He has a BSc in Biology and an MSc in Nutrition & Health from Wageningen University. Before joining EUFIC in 2012, he has worked in different public and private organisations in Europe. In his current role, he coordinates EUFIC’s activities in several EU-funded projects and leads the communication work package in FIT4FOOD2030. He sits on various scientific/advisory boards and is a Board member of the European Nutrition Leadership Platform (ENLP).

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“What should be the Research and Innovation pathways of the future food systems in Europe? Scoping possible R&I breakthroughs of the future and using foresight scenarios are some of the tools that we have explored to answer this crucial question”

Dr. Hugo de Vries

Research Director, Science Direction Food and Bioeconomy, French National Institute for Agricultural, Food and Environmental Research (INRAE), President of the European Federation of Food Science and Technology (EFFoST)

Dr. Hugo de Vries is member of the Scientific Directory Team ‘Food, Nutrition and Bioeconomy’ with a specific focus on European and Mediterranean Affairs concerning Sustainable Food and Bioeconomy Systems. He is actively involved in e.g. the SCAR and SAPEA Working Groups on Sustainable Food Systems, the FAO-led International Sustainable Bioeconomy Working Group, the EU-CSA Fit4Food2030, in Foodforce, in PRIMA foundation. Previously he has been director of the Joint Research Centre IATE of INRA, the University of Montpellier, Montpellier SupAgro and Cirad focusing on transformation of renewable resources into food, bio-energy, biomaterials and bio-molecules. He is President of the European Federation of Food Science and Technology. In The Netherlands, he has been the Head of the Food Technology Research Centre of Wageningen UR and coordinator of the European Integrated Project NovelQ (novel processing methods for the production and distribution of high-quality and safe foods). He obtained a PhD in physics and has held several positions around the globe.

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“The Covid-19 pandemic and recent policy developments at the European and international level show that striving for safe and sustainable food systems is both ethically responsible and geopolitically necessary”

Marteen van der Kamp

Director of the Education Functional Area, EIT Food

Dr Maarten van der Kamp is EIT Food’s Director of Education. He is passionate about developing entrepreneurs that are equipped to respond to current and emerging environmental and social challenges to create a more sustainable society. Before joining EIT Food, Maarten taught entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship and sustainability at Cranfield School of Management and Hult International Business School. He did his PhD on the standardisation of sustainability at Lancaster School of Management. Before then, he worked as a senior engineer and team leader in Philips Medical Systems, and ran a network of entrepreneurship centres in support of excellent entrepreneurship education.

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Chrissie Brierley

Deputy coordionator, Joint Programming Initiative – A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life (JPI HDHL), ZonMw

Chrissie Brierley works as programme manager at ZonMw (The Netherlands organization for healthcare research) in The Hague and has been the deputy coordinator of the JPI Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life since Nov. 2017. Through the involvement of JPI HDHL in the FIT4FOOD2030 consortium, she coordinates the R&I Policy Labs in the project. Before this she worked as a policy officer on the organization of primary care in The Netherlands. She has a background in history, holding MA degrees in Medieval Studies and History of politics and culture 1750-2000.

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Dr. Stef Bronzwaer

FIT4FOOD2030 Advisory Board, Research Coordinator at EFSA

Stef Bronzwaer graduated as a medical doctor at the University of Amsterdam (NL). Later he completed his International Master of Public Health, and his PhD in Medical Sciences at the University of Groningen (NL). As a medical doctor he worked shortly in a slum-area near Manila (the Philippines), and in 1997 he moved to the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome (IT), as project manager of an EU-project on communicable diseases. From 1998 to 2002 he worked in the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in the Netherlands, where he helped establish the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (EARSS). From 2002 to 2005 he worked at the European Commission in Luxembourg, where he was responsible for the proper functioning and coherence of a number of European surveillance networks on communicable diseases. Since February 2006, he has worked at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), currently as Research Coordinator, informing research agendas and promoting EFSA’s and national food safety research priorities. He facilitates access to research programmes by sharing information on calls and funding opportunities and coordinates EFSA’s research involvement and requests for research participation.

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„Let’s strengthen trust in the EU Food Safety System!

Contribute to co-creating new strategies, speeding digitalization and boosting transparent communication to shape the Food Safety System of the future!”

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Tatiana Tallarico

Policy officer in the Bioeconomy and Food Systems unit, Healthy Planet Directorate, DG Research and Innovation – European Commission

Within the FOOD 2030 team, Tatiana contributes to EU research and innovation programmes for sustainable healthy and inclusive food systems, both in terms of content and process coordination. In particular, she is responsible for the activities related to urban areas, food waste prevention and reduction and social innovation.

Before joining the Directorate General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) in 2018, she worked at the DG for Agriculture and Rural Development, where she was involved in the implementation of EU research programs, including communication and dissemination activities. Prior to that, she was a Bluebook trainee at the DG for Health and Food Safety, supporting the Food waste team. Between the graduation in 2012 and the Brussels career, Tatiana worked in Milan for a research centre, Expo Milan 2015 and a consultancy company. She holds two master’s degrees respectively from the Bocconi University of Milan and the Paris Institute of Political Studies.

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“The urban poor in low-income countries do not only suffer from undernutrition (a problem long associated with rural areas), they also face the rapid increase in the problems of overweight, obesity, and diet-related noncommunicable diseases. Redirecting urban food demand to healthier choices holds tremendous potential, but how do we get there?”

Carola Fabi

Senior Statistician, FAO Statistics Division

Carola Fabi is a Senior Statistician in FAO Statistics Division where she leads the Methodological Innovation team. She is coordinating the new Data Lab, created at the end of 2019 with the objective to modernize the statistical processes, and promote the use of non-official data and data science methods to fill in data gaps.

Vicente C. Domingo González

Director of World Sustainable Urban Food Centre of València (CEMAS)

Vicente C. Domingo González has a degree in Audiovisual Communication and a Diploma in Language Theory from the University of València. He has also studied in the field of audiovisual communication at the New York Film Academy, at the Menéndez Pelayo International University and at the Official Institute of Spanish Radio Television. He worked in Spanish Television and in the Valencian regional television Canal Nou RTVV between 1989 and 2013. He is author of numerous documentaries on Human Rights, the Environment, Development Cooperation and Disability; speaker at various meetings and conferences. He has been a visiting professor at the Master of Social Economy at the University of València and speaker at two meetings on social innovation organized by the Mexican government.

Creator and director of the NGO Humania that launched a technological platform with more than 65,000 news and documents from civil society from more than 25 countries. Thousands of news directly published by entities of Civil Society on Human Rights, Environment, Disability, Gender, Sustainable Development, Fair Trade etc. In 2016, the Valencia City Council appointed him Commissioner for the World Food Capital and organized the Summit of Cities signatories of the Milan Pact in Valencia. Since its creation in April 2019, he is the Director of the World Sustainable Urban Food Centre of València, CEMAS.

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“ Researchers and innovators in Europe are struggling to find better solutions for our food system transformation. However, some of those are still focusing on incremental innovations. How can we help different stakeholders to co-design more transformative solutions through system thinking? How can we facilitate experimental multi–stakeholder spaces for the deep transition we need?”

Marina Pino Cebrián

Living Lab for Health at IrsiCaixa, Barcelona “la Caixa” Living Lab

Marina Pino has a degree in Food Science and Technology and Master in Food Ethics and Law, both from the University of Barcelona. She has been working in the Living Lab for Health for almost three years where she has contributed to pursue the objectives of the Living Lab. During this period, she has been working on the local transformation of the food system through the EC funded project Fit4Food2030, and she has also been working with InSPIRES, another EC funded project that aims to co-design, jointly pilot, implement and roll out innovative models for Science Shops, where she has been coordinating training activities and performing research management. Furthermore, she has collaborated in the organization of RRI courses, reflection workshops, science education events and outreach activities, where she has participated as a facilitator.

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“We need a shift in our individual and collective mental models in order to foster transformative change within society. During this collaborative session, after a brief summary of the lessons learnt from the work of the Budapest City Lab, we will explore how we might encourage embodied food systems thinking among citizens, where learning inspires participants to take actions towards food system sustainability.”

Dr. Afton Halloran

Independent Consultant in Sustainable Food Systems Transitions

As an independent consultant in sustainable food systems transitions and a transdisciplinary scientist, Dr. Afton Halloran advises on issues related to food and agriculture. She works with such organizations as the World Bank, World Health Organization, Food Planet Prize Secretariat, and the Nordic Council of Ministers. She has written and co-authored multiple books and research papers on food policy and security, underutilized foods, urban agriculture, and gastronomy. Afton also holds a research position at the University of Copenhagen and is the host of the Nordic Talks podcast. Although originally from Canada, Afton now calls Denmark her home base.

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“A coherent local food strategy is a valuable tool in the empowerment of citizens for a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle. Targets within a food strategy should be based on facts, not on beliefs or feelings. And finally, the involvement of youngsters – both in urban and rural areas – cannot be underestimated. In this regard, the voice of youngsters is a crucial element in the dialogue on a future proof food strategy.”

Trond Einar Pedersen

Special adviser, Research Council Norway (RCN), Norwegian Policy Lab

Trond is working in the RCN, as a special adviser within the domain of bioeconomy research and innovation. He has extensive experience as team leader and programme coordinator for bioeconomy research and innovation programmes in RCN. He has gained several years of experience from international collaborative projects and processes, e.g. in EC framework programmes, in SCAR, and during the last 3 years in the Horizon 2020 CSA Fit4Food2030 project.

Trond Einar Pedersen was an innovation researcher within the interdisciplinary domain of science, technology and society studies (STS). He has 16 years of experience from research and innovation policy evaluation, and from doing research projects with an emphasis on innovation and technological innovation as a systemic phenomenon in firms, industries, regions, and nations. He has performed a great number of case studies, firm visits and interviews, which have fed into his competence that has an emphasis on innovation in non-research-intensive industrial activity and innovation as (driven by) something else (and more) than research. Before going to the Research Council of Norway, he did several projects on the food industry, the energy sector and other industry sectors.