ExpectedOutcome:
The successful proposal will be in line with the European Green Deal priorities and the farm to fork strategy for a fair healthy and environmentally friendly food system, as well as with the EU's climate ambition for 2030 and 2050. It will support R&I to foster advances in research related to integrated approaches along the food system for detecting, assessing, and mitigating food safety risks influenced by climate change. This is along with contributing to the transformation of food systems to deliver co-benefits for climate (mitigation and adaptation), biodiversity, environmental sustainability and circularity, dietary shift, sustainable healthy nutrition and safe food, food poverty reduction and empowerment of communities, and thriving businesses.
Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
- Improved understanding of the medium to longer-term climate change impacts in relation to food safety, and the effect these could have on food systems actors from farm to fork;
- Identification, development and widespread dissemination of mitigation and adaptation measures to reduce/prevent climate change-related food safety risks (individual and cumulative risks). Contribution to the farm to fork strategy objectives, in particular the contingency plan for ensuring food supply and food security and deliver co-benefits on each of the Food 2030 priorities as well as contributing to policy and food safety risk assessment needs and priorities, in particular regulatory control and enforcement aspects.
Scope:
Proposals should contribute to all of the following aspects:
- Proposals must implement the 'multi-actor approach' and ensure adequate involvement of academia, research-technology organizations, food businesses and other relevant actors of the value chain.
- Anticipate, including through modelling, how climate change may affect food safety in Europe and in particular by increasing the potential for the emergence/re-emergence of new hazards and the changes in exposures and risks;
- Propose methods to monitor the impact of climate change on food safety across food systems and their main critical areas. Explore how climate change could impact risk assessment methods and understand how risk assessment methodologies may need to evolve to meet new climate changed related challenges;
- Analyse the effect of climate change (extreme temperatures, etc.) and its impact with respect to: existing food safety hazards throughout the entire food supply chain (from farm to fork), and risk factors including the appearance of (re)emerging hazards.
- European regions should participate as "demonstrators" areas facilitating research and innovation under different climate conditions;
- Proposals should include a dedicated task, appropriate resources and a plan on how they will collaborate with other projects funded under this topic or other topics such as the HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-01-11 and HORIZON-CL6-2021-FARM2FORK-01-16 and ensure synergies with relevant activities carried out under other initiatives such as the One Health European joint programme and the LIFE programme ("Strategic Integrated Projects") due to their regional and climate approach.
- Proposals should also foresee the involvement of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) as part of the future action once the project starts.
In addition proposals are encouraged to:
- Increase the use of big data and/or artificial intelligence to elucidate the complex interactions between climate change and food safety. Proposals are expected to develop models to understand these interactions experimented and analysed for their replication potential. Proposals might build on existing and new knowledge, data, and models exploiting the full potential of big data and/or artificial intelligence;
- Explore, map and propose funding synergies strategies among European, national and regional programmes and instruments under this scope in a long-term vision;
- Connect research and innovation activities in this topic with start-ups ecosystems.
