200 applications Food Trails Call for Solution Sustainable Food Systems

The Food Trails Call for Solutions “Sustainable Food Systems” generated a strong interest: 200 innovative startups (78%) and SMEs (22%) applied from all over Europe and EMEA Countries (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) for the opportunity to develop a pilot project within Food Trails.

The Initiative

The Call for Solution Sustainable Food Systems was launched on 2 November 2022 and closed on 16 February 2023. It was dedicated to find solutions, services and products in 7 strategic areas for future-proof sustainable food systems, defined with the contribution of the 11 Food Trails partner cities:

1) Education and training;

2) Communication and engagement;

3) Food waste management and reduction, distribution, delivery and logistics; 4) Data collection;

5) access to healthier food and food processing;

6) Urban farming and gardening;

7) Food packaging.

Read more https://www.cariplofactory.it/en/call-for-solutions-sustainable-food-system/ 

The next steps

Start-ups and SMEs, whose applications have been deemed eligible, will be evaluated by a Technical Committee composed by Cariplo Factory, the Municipality of Milan, Wageningen University and Research (WUR), and the 11 Food Trails partner cities, according to the following criteria: 

1) Fulfilment of the cities’ needs in relation to the challenges (25%)
2) Value proposition and solution’s maturity level (20%)
3) Scalability/replicability of the solution (20%)
4) Innovativeness of the solution (15%)
5) Expertise, technical and managerial skills of the team (10%)
6) Market opportunity, market maturity and market metrics (10%) 

The evaluation results will be published by the 17 April 2023 on the official landing page www.cariplofactory.it/en/food-trails-call-for-solutions/

The Match-Making Day

The 22 start-ups receiving the best score will advance to the next stage and will then be invited to participate in the Match-Making Day taking place on 9 May 2023 in Milan, as part of Milan week dedicated to Urban Food Policy and in concomitance with the Food Trails Mid-Year 3 Partner Meeting.  

During the event, the 20 finalists will have the opportunity to publicly present their proposed solution to the Food Trails consortium, potential investors and some of the most important stakeholders of the European food system. The 20 realities will meet representatives of the Food Trails partner cities in one-to-one meetings. The cities will present the activities of their Living Lab and the potential for effective collaboration; while the start-ups and companies will explain the advantages and opportunities of their solutions. 

The very best luck to all participants, we look forward to seeing you in Milan on the Match-Making Day!