COCOREADO has participated in the 2nd Joint Webinar with agroBRIDGES, COACH and SISTERS Projects on November 24th. More than 60 participants from the projects’ teams gathered to exchange insights and experiences about the methodologies, tools and approaches each project employs to support the development of new and improved food systems and supply chains. It was our pleasure to have our COCOREADO Ambassadors as special guests at this event! At the end of the webinar, participants exchanged opinions and brainstormed areas of meaningful collaboration.
This online webinar was hosted by Eirini Efthymiadou and George Malliopoulos (Q-PLAN INTERNATIONAL) the agroBRIDGES coordination team, also leading the Clustering activities of the agroBRIDGES project with contributions from the three projects.
Lisa Van Den Bossche and Rani Van Gompel of the COCOREADO project presented the approach and tools used to train the Ambassadors (young food lovers and change makers) to create and develop new concepts and ideas for the agri-food sector using co-creation approaches and a series of trainings. COCOREADO closely supports 6 promising ideas at a seed stage to reach the market, including funding that will be used by the teams to engage their end-users in the creation process.
Luke Owen from the COACH project team presented the design, principles and work done for the Mentoring programme that supports small-scale agrifood producers to develop their businesses and overcome various challenges and barriers limiting their growth, by forming trust-based and mutually beneficial mentor-mentee relationships. The International Knowledge Exchange event organized by COACH in September in France was a great opportunity for the producers to meet their mentors face-to-face after many months of COVID distancing and revitalize their relationships.
Kaisa Vehmas presented the agroBRIDGES Toolbox. This platform aims to support producers, consumers and agri-food actors to develop and evolve Short Food Supply Chains. The platform encompasses 12 tools (digital tools, communication materials, training programmes and event organization materials) available in 12 European languages that were developed and tested involving the members of local agri-food ecosystems.
Finally, Federica Grassi, representing the “younger” project of the group, SISTERS, introduced participants to the solutions the project aims to develop for the mitigation of food waste and loss, at multiple levels of the food chain (production, logistics, processing, marketing and consumption). Among others, SISTERS aim to develop intelligent containers for storage and transportation, dynamic labelling for food products, and home-compostable bio-based food packaging.
A great thanks to all presenters and participants that made this webinar a great opportunity for learning, inspiration and collaboration!