On the first day, the consortium took part in the first review meeting which was attended by the European Commission and external expert reviewers. The review meeting provided an opportunity to report on the progress of the project during the first 18 months and to discuss how to further the impact of FOODRUS’ innovative solutions. Here Geonardo had the opportunity to showcase the current state and progress of the FOODRUS e-learning platform and its modules.
On the second day, the consortium held a progress update meeting, with a series of workshops organised to foster collaboration within the consortium partners and determine the next steps of the project. This discussions included a session organised by BCC on the implementation of the citizen science activities at the pilot sites. There was also a dedicated session to discuss the progress of the associated regions who are currently implementing some of the FOODRUS solutions.
The final day of the meeting saw partners discuss a number of solutions to be developed within the FOODRUS project that will ultimately feed into the FOODRUS Suite – an online dashboard that users can access in order to monitor the impact of the initiatives targeted to reduce food waste and losses.
FOODRUS coordinator Dr. Ainhoa Alonso (University of Deusto) believes that the proposed solutions will enable the training and involvement of all the actors in the local food system from the countryside to final consumers, as well as the public administration, waste managers, SMEs and financial organisations.
“The FOODRUS solutions will create a sense of community and alliance between actors to help address the challenge of food loss and waste", she added.
FOODRUS is a European project made up of 29 partners from 10 different EU countries and from different types of organisations, including companies, academic and research institutions.
For more information on the FOODRUS project, please see here.