The role of Nordic research in transition to sustainable agro-marine food systems
Coordinator: Silvia Gaiani, University of Helsinki, silvia.gaiani@helsinki.fi
Upcoming: webinar January 24 (click for more information)
“How do Nordic research institutions approach sustainability in the food systems? Experiences from research and education”
The project “The role of Nordic research in transition to sustainable agro-marine food systems” mainly aims to start an interdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder dialogue among the eight partner universities and other relevant institutions on the role of Nordic research in transition to sustainable agro-marine food systems and to establish a series of three webinars.
The specificities of the Nordic food ecosystem (both at national and regional level) will be kept into consideration and long-term research collaboration among the project partners and with external stakeholders (public/private institutions, civil society organizations, youth movements) will be promoted so to more easily bridge the gap between research and practice.
Specific outcomes will be the creation of policy guidelines on sustainable Nordic food, the support of early career researchers and the establishment of a network of “Nordic Countries 4 Sustainable Food Systems” whose main aim will be to exchange information and data among Nordic countries on practices, researches and initiatives on sustainable agro-marine food systems.
The network is made up of University of Helsinki, Oslo Metropolitan University, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, University of Greenland, University of Aarhus, Agricultural University of Iceland, University of Iceland and University of Faroe Islands which have never collaborated before but have shown a deep interest in the topic of sustainable food systems and in establishing a Nordic network of research institutions working on it.
Since training, curricula and expertise on sustainable food systems are scattered across different departments and universities in the Nordics and since the topic of sustainable food systems is multi-disciplinary per se (as it covers the three dimensions of sustainability – environmental, economic and social – the entire food supply chain from production to consumption, agro ecological issues, social well-being, diets, policy measures, etc) the consortium is multidisciplinary and with a rich expertise in all the major areas entrenched in the definition of sustainable food systems.