GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

The European Commission is particularly looking for solutions and technologies that are ready to be implemented in close-to-market conditions, at industrial or commercial scale, during the project duration. Project proposals should include an initial food waste diagnosis to understand the extent of the issue and should integrate food waste measurement as part of the assessment of the effectiveness of the food waste prevention initiatives proposed. Proposals should follow a Target-Measure-Act approach, by addressing and including the steps below:

• carrying out an initial food waste diagnosis to understand the extent of the issue and to identify the “hotspots” needing specific action (e.g., target audiences, situations where food waste arises). Such diagnosis should be undertaken either before the project start date or shortly thereafter and should be clearly described.
• setting food waste reduction targets with reference to a specific baseline. Project proposals should define SMART objectives and specific KPIs (ideally including reduction of food waste and/or other indicators such as changes in awareness and/or attitudes, results indicators such as outreach achieved etc.) to be utilised in monitoring progress made.
• based on the food waste diagnosis developing and implementing actions/interventions to tackle the hotspots identified during the initial food waste diagnosis.
• carrying out a final measurement at the end of the project, in order to evaluate the results achieved by implementing the actions, and to understand progress made towards the targets and KPIs set. Results of the intervention evaluation should be publicly available and accessible for key stakeholders.

A wide range of activities are eligible to be supported by the grants offered under this call for proposals, provided that they can be linked to the above objective. The grants would cover consumer food waste prevention interventions such as (non-exhaustive list):

• behavioural change interventions (e.g. nudges to prevent food waste at consumer level such as specific tools and prompts, coaching programs, etc.);
• education and training (e.g. school programs and staff training);
• information and awareness raising campaigns (e.g. local, regional or national scale);
• measurement and reporting tools and solutions for preventing food waste at consumption (e.g. mobile applications and other monitoring tools beyond selfreporting);
• studies, data collection and experimental actions widening the evidence base for consumer food waste prevention interventions (e.g. audience segmentation studies to better tailor and target interventions);
• solutions and technologies addressing consumer food waste prevention that are ready to be implemented in close-to-market conditions, at industrial or commercial scale, during the project duration.