EIT Food

EIT Food is a consortium of 50 partners from leading businesses, research centres and universities across 13 countries that has been selected by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT, https://eit.europa.eu) as the Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) in the agrifood sector. As one of the largest public funded initiatives in the EU agrifood innovation space, the EIT Food KIC will act as a people-centric and resource-smart transformer of the European food system, driving consumer confidence and improving global health.

EIT Food’s vision is to put Europe at the centre of a global revolution in food innovation and production, and its value in society. EIT Food will engage consumers in the change process, improve nutrition and make the food system more resource-efficient, secure, transparent and trusted. EIT Food has six strategic objectives: (1) Overcome low consumer trust, (2) Create consumer-valued food for healthier nutrition, (3) Build a consumer-centric connected food system, (4) Enhance sustainability, (5) Educate to engage, innovate and advance, and (6) Catalyse food entrepreneurship and innovation.

EIT Food will boost the skills and entrepreneurial spirit in the sector and unlock the potential of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), which in turn will accelerate innovation, create jobs, benefit businesses and increase Europe’s competitiveness. It aims to, amongst others: (1) Support the creation of 350 start-ups within seven years, (2) Train over 10 000 graduates via its EIT-labelled Master and other programmes over seven years, (3) Develop 290 new or improved products, services, processes and business models by 2024, and (4) Decrease greenhouse-gas emissions in the European food system by 40% by 2030.

The pan-European EIT Food KIC is headquartered in Belgium and its partnership brings together change makers in all relevant sectors and fields. EIT Food is well positioned to achieve the maximum impact on the challenges outlined above. The highly committed partnership will conceive, develop, evaluate and adopt new market-oriented approaches to innovation. It is structured around five Co-Location Centres (CLCs), i.e. in Reading (CLC North-West with partners from the UK, Ireland and Iceland), Warsaw (CLC North-East with partners from Eastern Europe and Nordic countries), Madrid (CLC South with partners from Spain, Italy and Israel), Leuven (CLC West with partners from Belgium, France and Switzerland) and Munich (CLC Central with partners from Germany and The Netherlands).

EIT Food has formed five Co-location Centres across Europe:

• Leuven – CLC West (Belgium, France, Switzerland)
• London – CLC North-West (UK, Ireland, Iceland)
• Madrid – CLC South (Spain, Italy, Israel)
• Munich – CLC Central (Germany, The Netherlands)
• Warsaw – CLC North-East (Poland, Finland)