FOOD FACTORY-4-US 2023:
INCREASING INNOVATION IN EXISTING SFSCs TO MAKE THEM STRONGER AND MORE COMPETITIVE
For students in a food study program eager to find solutions to improving short food supply chains.
The Winning Team of FF4Us 2023:
Projects identified a specific challenge/problem in an existing short food supply chain (SFSC) and developed an exploitable solution to that challenge/problem. The aim was to improve the competitiveness of the SFSC in a way that maintains or improves resource efficiency and is climate-friendly, while also leading to the growth of the SFSC towards an intermediate food supply chain. The innovative and exploitable solution that teams proposed addressed an economic, social, organizational or technological challenge in the existing SFSC and were potentially applicable to other SFSCs in other regions. Examples could be anywhere in the value chain including raw materials through processing, packaging, logistics and marketing.
On 01 June 2023, at the Final Conference of FoodFactory-4-Us student competition, organised by ISEKI-Food Association within the FAIRCHAIN project, teams presented their projects in response to the competition challenge: increasing innovation in existing SFSCs to make them stronger and more competetive. The winning project, submitted by team “MiHiPo” from the Chulalongkorn University (Thailand), promotes vertical farming in urban communities that are connected by a digital platform. See the LinkedIn post about the winners here. The winners received a cash prize sponsored by ISEKI and will join the FAIRCHAIN Food Hack 2023, organised by the Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE), another FAIRCHAIN partner.
INFORMATION
The FoodFactory-4-Us competition takes place in an online learner-centric environment based on active, action-oriented learning. Student teams develop a project which identifies a specific problem/challenge and includes a specific solution exploitable at the industry level and with the aim of contributing to innovative food value chains. The ISEKI-Food Association, under the umbrella of the FoodFactory-4-Us competitions, is organizing this competition supported by the FAIRCHAIN project. You may read about previous FoodFactory-4-Us competitions here.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
Teams must be made of 3-to-5 (min-to-max) students registered in any food-related program anywhere in the world. Teams may have a mentor from academia or from industry if they desire, though this is not required. If a team has a mentor, that person works with the team members on their project and will also be invited to the online sessions. Mentors do not have any official responsibilities during the competition.
Team members understand that in addition to independently preparing their project, they are expected to:
- actively participate in up to 5 online trainings of approximately 2 hours each in April and May 2023,
- complete a 5-minute reflection document after each online training,
- complete a 10-minute pre- and post-competition learner evaluation, and
- attend the competition Final Virtual Conference (online) on 1 June 2023.
Performance of the above tasks are considered in evaluation of the winning project.
Team projects should be focused on finding the best solution to meet food company expectations in terms of health and safety risks, improvement of economic value, quality enhancement of products, improved sustainability, etc. Practical work in a lab is not required.
APPLICATION
You must indicate the title of your project in no more than 100 characters (including spaces) and the description of the problem/solution in no more than 1000 characters (including spaces).
You should describe the problem/solution by:
- identifying a specific problem or challenge in an existing SFSC, and
- giving an outline of the solution you plan to develop.
You should include the first and last name and the email of each team member.
Project proposals will be evaluated based on the matching of the title and problem/solution to the main topic of the competition. Proposals with content not matching the competition topic will not be accepted.
CONTACT
For any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at foodfactory4us@iseki-food.net.
