SmartFood: Engaging citizens in food diversity in cities

About this project

<p>SmartFood integrates state of the art interdisciplinary research of urban food consumption and production, with a novel approach to co-creation of insect- and vege-based, nutritious foods, without using any soil or land, while exploiting the locally available rainwater and solar energy for all year long sustainable and safe food production in corridors of urban blocks of flats. SmartFood aims to make a significant contribution towards fulfilling the long-term vision of cities of the future, where switching to sustainable food consumption and production patterns increases healthy eating habits, reduces reliance on food retailing, reduces food waste and strengthens communal connection in urban buildings. As outcome of these activities, home food production reduces environmental footprint by lowering greenhouse gas emissions for food production and transportation. Relative to the prior work on reduction of food waste and sustainable community development that primarily rely on selfreported survey measures which have low predictive reliability, we use state of the art controlled experiment that implements actual sustainable food self-production facilities and measures real environmental, behavioral and attitudinal outcomes and therefore provides evidence-based policy recommendations.<br> Work package:<br> 1. Co-design of environmental innovation<br> 2. Co-design of social innovation<br> 3. Co-design of the IT enablers' contents<br> 4. Development and lab-scale tests of SmartFood solutions for environmental innovation<br> 5. Development and tests of lab-scale prototypes, experimental protocols and tools for SmartFood IT enablers<br> 6. Urban Living Labs implementation of Smart Food innovation<br> 7. Measuring impacts, scaling-up and drawing lessons learnt from SmartFood innovation for Cities of the Future</p>

Bilateral cooperation results

The SmartFood consortium united Polish and Norwegian experts in complementary disciplines, including food production perspective (RIC), modelling of the environmental requirements of water and energy solutions (CUT, RIC), ICT and environmental outcomes (NILU) and understanding of the food consumption motivations, psychological prerequisites, incentivizing for citizen engagement and nudging through informational and social nudges (BI, MGU, WNRI). The collaboration between Polish and Norwegian partners significantly enhanced the project's scope and impact. By integrating expertise from both countries, the project benefited from a rich exchange of knowledge and innovative practices. The Norwegian partners brought IT capabilities, strong emphasis on sustainability, and deep understanding of socio-economic and psychological fundamentals of the SmartFood innovation. This was complemented by the Polish partners' knowledge on food production in urban environment, technological abilities, and deep understanding of local food production systems and consumer behaviour. This synergy was instrumental in developing and implementing the SmartFood solutions effectively. In particular, the Norwegian-Polish collaboration on understanding food consumption motivations and psychological prerequisites facilitated the design of targeted nudges and engagement strategies that effectively encouraged sustainable food practices among diverse populations.

Project partners

• Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) Donor project partner· Norway
• BI Norwegian Business School Donor project partner· Norway
• Western Norway Research Institute Donor project partner· Norway
• Cracow University of Technology Project partner· Poland
• The Maria Grzegorzewska University Project partner· Poland