Past Events
City Lab Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Type of event: Visioning workshop with the leaders of the working groups of the “Food Connects” network set up by the Province of North Holland and other partners
Title: ‘Food Connects’ – working session cluster coordinators
Date: 21 January 2019 (1h15min)
Location: Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA)
Number and profile of participants: 9 (workgroup leaders of the 7 workgroups, with the following profiles: 2 knowledge/research institute; 2 policy; 1 citizen organization; 1 public organization, 1 farmer organization; 2 innovation organisation)
Gender distribution: 67% female, 33% male
Brief description: The workshop was organised in the context of the MRA network Food Connects (a partnership between Province of North-Holland, Province of Flevoland, Rabobank Amsterdam, LTO Noord, municipality of Zaanstad, Almere Food Council MRA). Visioning using project methodology led to the identification of several clusters (namely cooperatives/new ways of collaboration, locally produced, strengthening connection producer-consumer, data and transparency, true pricing, logistics, rest streams, awareness and education, protein transition, equity and social sustainability, time, convenience, packaging) that can act as useful starting points for the development of pathways in the different working groups.
Type of event: Visioning workshop with predominantly homogenous stakeholder group
Title: Imagining Change: Visions for the Food System and R&I
Date: 25 June 2018
Location: University of Amsterdam
Number and profile of participants: 15 (13 knowledge/research; 2 policy; 1 NGO)
Gender distribution of participants: 62% female, 38% male
Brief description: Held as part of academic conference ‘Critical Perspectives on the Governance of Sustainable Development Goals conference’ at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), this visioning workshop used FIT4FOOD2030 visioning methodology to ask what a future-proof food system should look like. Participants first reflected individually, then discussed in groups of 4-5 participants their characteristics, similarities and differences. Prioritisation and clustering of visions also took place, followed by a plenary discussion.
City Lab Athens, Greece
Type of event: System understanding workshop #3
Title: FIT4FOOD2030 Workshop: Future-proofing the European food systems through Research & Innovation
Date: 19 December 2018, 9:30-13:00
Location: Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Greece
Number and profile of participants: 19 (4 policy makers, 6 knowledge/research; 4 NGO; 2 business; 3 students)
Gender distribution: 79% female, 21% male
Brief description: After presentations on the project and Food 2030 as well as the vision of the City Lab Athens as developed in part workshops, the event used FIT4FOOD2030 methodology to bring insight into the multi-level perspective of transition theory, namely trends, showcases and breakthroughs. Participants brought to the table locally relevant practices and their showcase potential. Based on this exploration, participants reflected on the WP3 criteria that are important for showcase potential. As education towards behavioural change emerged as a key concern in the lab, the potential breakthrough area of ‘Education and New Methods’ was proposed the subject around which breakthroughs would be explored. The discussion focused on how participants saw this being realised, and what barriers and enablers would it have to face. Regarding future pathways to impact for the Lab, collaboration was stressed, and a combination of policy-driven and locally-sourced approaches was considered necessary in achieving change.
Type of event: System understanding workshop #2
Title: ‘FIT4FOOD2030 workshop: Future-proofing the European food systems through Research & Innovation’
Date: 17 October 2018, 9:30-14:30
Location: Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Greece
Number and profile of participants: 12 (10 knowledge/research; 2 NGO)
Gender distribution: 75% female, 25% male
Brief description: The workshop used FIT4FOOD2030 visioning methodology to ask what a future-proof food system should look like: first by working with pictures and illustrations to build an overview and further understanding of the food system and then by gathering, clustering and discussing key characteristics of a future-proof food system. Project working concepts such as the multi-level perspective, trends, showcases and breakthroughs were presented as an introduction to an exercise on trends: looking at whether the trends identified by WP2 support or hamper the implementation of the key characteristics of their desired future-proof food system.
Type of event: Visioning workshop with homogenous stakeholder group (educators and education advisor)
Title: FIT4FOOD2030 Workshop: Future-proofing the European food systems through Research & Innovation
Date: 22-27 June 2018 (whole course); 25 June 2018, 10:00-13:00 (3 hours): the visioning workshop
Location: Rethymno, Crete, Greece
Number and profile of participants: 13 science and environmental education teachers
Gender distribution: 62% female, 38% male
Brief description: The 5-days teachers training course (summer school) “School Gardens 2018” took place after the Educational Scenario Contest that took place in collaboration of EA with the Institute of Educational Policy, under the Ministry of Education Greece. The whole activity was organised in the context of the EU-funded Open Schools for Open Societies (Open Schooling supporting RRI principles) project. In particular, a visioning workshop took place in the context of “School Gardens: One Cross-curricular Approach for the Greek Schools”. According to the FIT4FOOD2030 visioning methodology, participants were asked to think about key characteristics of a future-proof food system should look like, resulting in capturing teachers’ particular vision.
Type of event: System understanding workshop #1
Title: ‘FIT4FOOD2030 Workshop: Future-proofing the European food systems through Research & Innovation’
Date: 12 June 2018, 11:45-14:30
Location: Organization Earth, Parko Tritsi, Athens
Number and profile of participants: 26 (7 knowledge/research; 7 business; 7 NGO; 5 citizen org)
Gender distribution: 59% female, 41% male
Brief description: Held as part of a daily event and in collaboration with the EU-funded citizen science project Scie-Citizens, the workshop used FIT4FOOD2030 visioning methodology to ask what a future-proof food system should look like. Participants first completed an elaborate description in writing and drawing, after which they wrote down characteristics or keywords that were presented in a plenary setting and clustered. 15 of the participants came from 5 other European countries (Germany, Italy, Sweden, Romania and Poland).
City Lab Sofia, Bulgaria
Type of event: Prototyping workshop
Title: FOOD 2030 and Nutrition – what should we know
Date: 05 March 2019 (3 hours)
Location: Arena di Serdica Hotel, Sofia
Number and profile of participants: 13 (8 knowledge/research institute, including 2 secondary school teachers and 1 secondary school director; 2 NGO, 1 other) Please note, that we contacted individually a policy maker and a business representative and received some comments from the Deputy Minister of Education and Science.
Gender distribution: not available
Brief description: The meeting started with short introduction about the goals of the modules, Food 2030 priorities and possible ways to test the modules. After that a secondary school teacher shared her experience establishing a club at school, which aim was to help students built healthier eating habits. A discussion about what should students know about nutrition followed. Different ways of presenting the information were commented as well as various tasks that would engage students better in the topic. In the second part of the meeting main issues concerning journalism related to food and food system in Bulgaria were debated. After the session informal exchange of ideas continued.
Type of event: System understanding workshop #3
Title: Potential Breakthroughs – How will they improve our food system
Date: 16 January 2019 (2.5 hours)
Location: Joint Innovation Center, Sofia
Number and profile of participants: 11 (9 knowledge/research institute, including 5 secondary school teachers and 1 secondary school director; 2 NGO); a member of the EU Think Tank, Ms Zoya Damianova, Applied Research and Communications Fund, also took part in this event.
Gender distribution: 73% female, 27% male
Brief description: The workshop focused on breakthroughs, discussing factors that act as challenges and incentives in three potential future breakthrough areas of smart farming, urban farming and vertical agriculture and novel approaches to biotechnology. Participants identified breakthrough examples which the group found interesting, discussed the importance of making the public aware of them and related topics, thinking especially about how younger people could be engaged with learning more about the food system.
Type of event: System understanding workshop #2
Title: FIT4FOOD2030 project: Identifying showcases in Sofia City Lab
Date: 4 September 2018 (3 hours)
Location: Conference Center, Bulgarian Academy of Science, Sofia
Number and profile of participants: 14 (12 research/knowledge, including 5 secondary school teachers and 1 secondary school director; 1 business; 1 NGO)
Gender distribution: 71% female, 29% male
Brief description: The workshop started with introductions about the FIT4FOOD 2030 project and FOOD 2030 strategy, as well as Sofia City Lab’s vision for future-proof food system (as developed in the previous workshop) for all newcomers to the Lab. After this moment, the rest of the stakeholders joined. A short warm-up discussion of different trends in the food system (using material developed by WP2) was followed by an in-depth exercise on showcases (promising cases brought by participants and cases proposed by WP3, followed by criteria generation and prioritisation). The next steps of the Sofia City Lab were discussed, such as gathering topic suggestions and identifying additional activities to popularise the project and the work of the lab.
Type of event: System understanding workshop #1
Title: FIT4FOOD2030 – the future of the Bulgarian food system
Date: 20 June 2018 (3 hours)
Location: Conference Center, Bulgarian Academy of Science, Sofia
Number and profile of participants: 11 (7 research/knowledge; 1 policy maker; 1 NGO; 1 end user; 1 other)
Gender distribution: 55% female, 45% male
Brief description: After an initial tour de table, the City Lab coordinator presented the FIT4FOOD2030 project and FOOD2030 strategy and facilitated a lively open discussion where initial comments and recommendations could be considered. A visioning exercise was carried out using FIT4FOOD2030 methodology, followed by a discussion. The second half of the workshop was dedicated to exchanges around the topic of RRI (although no specific exercise on this was prepared), existing educational activities and the role of stakeholders in helping the City Lab work. Identification of target groups who could benefit from education in the field of food systems was identified, with thematic areas and subject prioritisation for each group strongly recommended to take place in future meetings.
City Lab Tartu, Estonia
Type of event: System understanding workshop #3 & educational module workshop
Title: FIT4FOOD2030 seminar – What kind of educational activities does the world of food need?
Date: 29 November 2018, 11:00-15:00 (4 hours)
Location: Hektor Design Hostel, Tartu
Number of participants: 6 (2 knowledge; 2 policy; 2 NGO)
Gender distribution: 83% female, 17% male
Brief description: The workshop touched upon the issue of breakthroughs with an exercise related to the potential breakthrough of sustainable packaging (‘smart best-before labels on all food items, with time and/or temperature sensitive or other technologies’), inspired both by WP4 and by the results of previous workshops held in the lab. Two exercises on co-creation were linked to this future outlook of breakthrough innovation: one on competences and the other seeking to make a first attempt at brainstorming for educational modules ideas.
Type of event: System understanding workshop #2
Title: FIT4FOOD2030 Showcases Workshop
Date: 25 October 2018, 10:00-15:00 (5 hours)
Location: Food Academy (Toiduakadeemia), Tartu
Number of participants: 7 (2 business; 2 knowledge/research institute; 3 citizen organisation)
Gender distribution: 57% female, 43% male
Brief description: Participants from different backgrounds including businesses, research institutes and citizen organisations came together for a special City Lab workshop dedicated to showcases, held at the Food Academy (Toiduakadeemia) in Tartu, Estonia. Members of the City Lab in Tartu got to have their say on what is important to them, enhancing their awareness of very different kinds of innovative ideas in the food work, what these cases mean, the kind of motivations that are at heart of each initiative and how impact toward making food systems ready for the future can be assessed. An important outcome of their exploration of cases is the desire to organise a panel discussion about food waste in supermarkets. Participants want to get to the bottom of this issue (why certain norms are currently the way they are) and, as they have identified innovative showcases that could improve the situation, they really want to make a change, either in Tartu or the whole of Estonia, or starting with a future-thinking supermarket chain.
Type of event: Testing existing food-related educational materials
Title: Food Day at Science Centre AHHAA
Date: 20 October 2018 (10:15-15:15) (5 hours)
Location: AHHAA Science Centre, Tartu
Number of participants: 3 teachers and specialists from knowledge and research centres, 7 children
Gender distribution: 60% female, 40% male
Brief description: City Lab members were invited to join a food-focused family day. The aim was to experience the food-related workshops and educational activities that AHHAA currently offers visitors (hands-on food-related workshops, tasks with science centre exhibits and food science theatre show) as a base for future discussions on educational module development. This was followed by a small discussion about the quality of these workshops and other workshops of other organizations that the participants had experienced in the past.
Type of event: System understanding workshop #1
Title: Tartu food network “City Lab” opening event (Tartu toiduteemalise võrgustiku “City Lab” avaüritus)
Date: 14 June 2018, (12:00-16:00) (4 hours)
Location: SIP craft beer and wine shop’s Seminar Room, Kastani 42, 50410 Tartu (Aparaaditehas)
Number of participants: 18 (11 knowledge/research institute; 2 NGO; 2 citizen organisation; 2 businesses; 1 group of local tourism businesses, organisations and citizens)
Gender distribution: 78% female, 22% male
Brief description: The event started with an introduction round, followed by a pre-prepared flipchart presentation that explained FOOD 2030, FIT4FOOD2030, the role of the City Lab, the concept of Responsible Research and Innovation, the purpose behind the current event and series of City Lab events, their outline and expected outcomes. The group was divided into three smaller working groups for the purposes of the group assignments: 1) visualizing the food system and its components parts; 2) visioning a future-proof food system; 3) trends exercise.