FoodMAPP Project

 

About

FoodMAPP - Local Food supply communicated through a transactional searchable MAP-based APPlication to promote short food supply chains, food security, business development and reduction in food waste.

Call: HORIZON-MSCA-2021-SE-01
Grant Agreement number: 101086115
Duration: 1.3.2023. - 28.2.2027.
EC Website: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101086115
Technical Lead: Jeffery Bray, Associate Professor at Bournemouth University Business School
Principal Investigator: Vinko Lesic, Associate Professor at University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing

 

Summary

Interconnected challenges of climate change, food supply resilience, food miles, food waste and supporting the next generation of producers and operators with a fair income are all highlighted in the EU Strategic Plan. Foundational redesign of our food supply systems is required, with urgency, to address these challenges and accelerate the twin green and digital transitions.

Current industrial scale food producers and processors lead to complex supply chains that are disconnected from local communities and a rebalancing toward more local supply is sought to address these challenges. The objective of FoodMAPP is to lead this transformation of food supply by enabling and promoting transparent local provision from local producers, including small scale family farmers, and processors direct to consumers. FoodMAPP will, for the first time, gather extensive market intelligence from all stakeholders including producers, processors, consumers to understand market demand and preferences towards localised food supply transparency. This underpinning research will inform the development of a dynamic searchable map-based platform enabling local providers to supply and sell produce directly to consumers. Food supply from small scale family farmers, local processors and food service operators will be included. The platform will be trialled with local communities and refined prior to full exploitation and comprehensive dissemination to stakeholders and policy makers. 

The project brings together a consortium of leading experts in the fields of agri-food economics, technology development, food supply chains, psychology and consumer behaviour. Five academic beneficiaries will be partnered with two industry partners with extensive networks and experience in food supply systems. Exchange between these partners will be optimised to deliver strong personal development of individuals, collective development of all beneficiaries and capacity building in this critical R&I area.

 

Objectives

RO1. Optimisation of the work programme and consortium to deliver strong intersectoral, interdisciplinary and international knowledge transfer and personal, institutional and consortium development.

RO2. Develop a critical understanding of the key barriers and opportunities to localised food supply across Europe and across all stages of the food supply chain.

RO3. Map consumer information preferences toward localised food supply (both content and presentational/delivery method).

RO4. Distil stakeholder insight into MoSCoW7 solution specification.

RO5. Design of user-friendly real-time food supply database (supplier focus).

RO6. Development of smart customisable and accessible interface (e.g. smartphone application) delivering personalised local food supply information to consumers supporting business and more sustainable consumption practices.

RO7. Proof of concept testing (TRL 7) utilising System Usability Scale (SUS) to assess and benchmark solution performance both from supplier and consumer perspectives (Belgium, France, Spain, Hungary & UK).

RO8. Optimise communication of project context, developments and solutions to promote, inform and educate publics and industry. Supporting European industry competitiveness including Small Scale Family Farming and facilitating both more sustainable consumption practices and a reduction in Food Waste.