Project Topic:
- In the application, teams should outline their project by
- identifying a specific problem or challenge in upscaling or downscaling a food supply chain to a national or regional level, and
- giving an outline of the solution they plan to develop.
- In this edition of the competition, team projects must be focused on strategies and actions aimed at Upscaling or downscaling a food supply chain to a national or regional level. Projects dealing with innovative production, processing or packaging; eco-preservation; innovations in distribution, logistics, and marketing are some examples.
- During the competition, teams design and develop a project consisting of ideas, tools, and actions to solve a real, FSC problem with a solution that is doable and has the potential to be applied to other FSCs.
- 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.
- The project does not require practical work in a lab and should instead 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.
- Teams have a maximum 3 pages to describe their project (incl. references, graphics etc.), to be submitted by 15 APRIL at 23H59 CEST by email to foodfactory4us@iseki-food.net.
- Teams have a maximum 10 minutes to present their project at the FoodFactory4Us Final Virtual Conference. The first minute of each team’s presentation must be an “elevator pitch”. Full instructions for presentations can be found under Important Dates.
Team evaluation:
The course facilitators and the Advisory Board will evaluate the teams and their projects and find the winning team based on:
- The Quality of the Project. (40% of final score) Includes the following equally weighted: i) Clear relationship between the problem identified and the strategy developed to address it, ii) Innovation and application to the food sector, iii) Impact (social, economic and/or environmental) and iv) the overall clarity and quality of the written report. The project report template can soon be downloaded here.
- The Oral Presentation. (40% of final score) Includes the following equally weighted: i) The overall clarity and quality of PowerPoint slides, ii) The 1-minute summary (elevator pitch), iii) The method of delivery and/or ability to convey message to audience (concise and clear) at the Final Conference and iv) Response to questions at the Final Conference.
- Participation. (20% of final score) which is a sum of completed “learner evaluation begin/end”, attendance at online trainings, and completed assignments (the more team members that do each, the more points for your team).
Why participate:
- Each team of students will work on a real, food sector-based problem in sustainability and therefore improve specific knowledge and competences.
- All students will improve group cooperation skills and awareness of the importance and benefits of teamwork in a competitive environment.
- Project evaluation will be ‘real’, that is carried out by food industry and/or food associations who, in collaboration with academics, will evaluate the projects based on the best professional abilities in problem-solving and teamwork.
- All students will participate in an action-oriented, participatory learning experience in which they will share knowledge and improve skills in a virtual environment.
- If accepted by the home university, students can earn university credit for their participation in the Competition Game.
Awards and certificates
The Winning Team of the FoodFactory-4-Us Edition 2024 will be offered:
- a certificate for winning the competition,
- an award of EUR 300 sponsored by the ISEKI-Food Association*.
Each team member of the competition will receive a Certificate of Participation in the FoodFactory-4-Us Sustainable Supply Chain Competition.
*Depending on the country, the transfer of €300 may be more or less difficult. It is the responsibility of the winning team to ensure that they have a bank account which can receive a transfer of Euros from Europe. If there are fees associated with this transfer, they will come from the €300 prize money.
