EIT Climate-KIC and PANNON Pro organized its Catapult education program with the topic of Food supply chains. The first week of the program took place in Hungary, while the second week was organized in Spain. A total of 20 PhD students and researchers had the opportunity to participate in site visits, expert sessions, presentations and professional workshops with the guidance of their two coaches.
During the first week, the researchers listened to several presentations about the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), about various food related movements and it’s legal background. They participated in design thinking and communication workshops, two farmers introduced them to their farm and livestock breeding, and they visited the biogarden in Zsámbok (Zsámbok Biokert) and the Kisdiófa Community Garden.
After travelling together to Valencia on Sunday, during the second week of the Catapult the participants visited the La Albufera national park and the food market in Mercavaléncia. They participated in trainings of business modelling, storytelling and pitching.
Besides the professional education content that the participants received, they developed a food related innovative idea in small groups. To highlight a few of them, the students developed a consultancy enterprise offering LEAN management services to small and medium sized farms for their more efficient development. Another idea suggested a food labelling system based on the environmental impacts and the nutrient contents, while a third one focused on data science, applying climate change and production (supply) and population growth and consumption (demand) data to prepare predictions in the agricultural sector.
The programme closed with the pitch presentations of the team ideas to an expert jury on Friday. After they received feedback, they finalized and handed in their written summaries that will be assessed by EIT Climate-KIC experts.
