Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU
Flagship Conference 2nd FOOD 2030 High Level Event
Research & Innovation for Food and Nutrition Security – Transforming our food systems
14-15 June 2018, Agricultural University – Plovdiv, Bulgaria
On June 14 and 15, 2018 the Agricultural University of Plovdiv will host a conference on the topic of “Food 2030 – Research and Innovation for Food Security and Improvement of Quality and Security of Food and Food Systems”. The conference is one of the flagship events for the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU. The event is organized by the Ministry of Education and Science with the support of the European Commission and Plovdiv Municipality.
The conference is dedicated to Research and Innovation (R&I) as a driver of sustainable food systems transformation. Such a transformation requires a new way of doing science, research and innovation that puts the food system at the centre. This is a means to ensure food and nutrition security in a changing world and the combined pressures of climate change, resource scarcity, biodiversity decline, malnutrition, shifting demographics and migration. The systemic approach, as called for by FOOD 2030, requires linking land and sea; connecting producers to consumers – and back, in order to achieve four overarching priorities: nutrition for healthy and sustainable diets, climate and environmental sustainability, circularity and resource efficiency, innovation and empowering communities.
Meetings and discussions between the 300+ expected participants, including policy makers, leading researchers and experts on the topic, will contribute to a fruitful analysis of opportunities to promote public-private partnerships and to facilitate the participatory processes involving organizations and companies from different sectors.
The European Commission will provide information on the status quo of research and innovation policy on the topic of the conference as well as its vision for shaping future sustainable food systems, healthy nutrition, coping with the negative effects of climate change, innovation, new business models and expected investments in this domain.
The ambition and goal of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU is to ensure a continuous political commitment to investment in R&I by organizing discussions on investing in long-term research in Europe and ways to increase return on investment.
In addition to the plenary and parallel sessions, the Food 2030 conference will have an open “Food Science and Innovation” exhibition demonstrating innovative research projects, networks, start-ups and sustainable food technologies.
More information about the event is available here.