Grants to boost Trust, Transparency & Responsibility in Food System through Digital Solutions

Deadline Date: June 21, 2024

Donor Name: DRG4FOOD

Grant Size: $100,000 to $500,000

DRG4Food Open Call #2 welcomes multidisciplinary consortia of 2-3 entities, including startups, SMEs, research organizations, universities, technology adopters, and users in the food sector, particularly NGOs and consumer associations.

The main objective of DRG4Food Open Call #2 is to enable the development and testing of responsible data-driven solutions in the food sector’s key areas: food tracking, targeted nutrition, and enhancing consumers‘ food decisions.

Open Calls resonate with DRG4Food’s core objectives: 

• Objective 1: Creating a roadmap for a novel data-driven food system grounded in principles of openness, sovereignty, fairness, and trust. 
• Objective 2: Pioneering a new paradigm for successful data-driven food applications rooted in principles of openness, user-centricity, sovereignty, and trust, spanning from ideation to operation. 
• Objective 3: Crafting human-centric, decentralized, and trustworthy electronic food system technology enablers, consisting of baseline technologies. 
• Objective 4: Demonstrating innovative services and applications within a virtual food system.

DRG4Food Open Call #2 Challenge Areas

These areas are described to specify the expectations for DRG4Food Open Call #2, along with illustrative examples. It’s important to note that these examples serve as clarifications rather than limitations, offering guidance to better understand the expectations without confining the scope to just those aspects or technologies.

• Food Tracking
  • This challenge area places its emphasis on digital solutions related to food traceability, encompassing the entirety of the food system, from farm to fork. Technological proposals within this context should consider both environmental aspects such as CO2 emissions, waste generation, and water and land use, as well as societal considerations, such as fair income for farmers.
• Targeted Nutrition
  • This challenge area is centred around some enablers aimed at shaping and providing targeted dietary and nutrition recommendations through a personalised approach towards more healthy diets. This approach considers various personal variables, including behavioural and emotional factors associated with food consumption, individual dietary preferences and limitations, lifestyle choices, and more.
• Consumers’ Food Choices
  • This challenge area places its focus on baseline enablers that can enhance consumers’ literacy and knowledge about the consequences of their food choices. The aim is to empower consumers to make healthier and more sustainable dietary selections, while also ensuring that these options remain affordable and delicious.

Funding Information

• The total funding pool for DRG4Food Open Calls consists of €1,900,000, provided on an equity-free basis.
• The budget set aside for Open Call #2 totals €973,134.50.
• The minimum budget that applicants can request is €150,000, with a maximum limit of €300,000, at a financing rate of 100%.

Eligible Countries

Eligibility is limited to applicants legally established in the following countries, collectively referred to as “Eligible Countries”: 

• The Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU), including their outermost regions. 
• The Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) linked to the Member States; 
• Countries that were associated with Horizon Europe at the time DRG4Food signed the Grant Agreement with the European Research Executive Agency (REA) (December 2022): Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Türkiye.
• Participants (other third countries) from the low- to middle-income countries are automatically eligible for funding, according to the List of Participating Countries in Horizon Europe, as of January 2023.

Types of Applicants

• DRG4Food Open Call #2 invites submissions from consortia comprising 2 to 3 partners, each led by a designated Coordinator. The partners within the consortium must be legally established in at least two different countries, including at least one partner from an EU member state and others from any eligible countries.
• The following types of entities can apply together in a consortium:
  • Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including startups.
  • Research and technology organisations (RTOs) and universities, and other non-profit research organizations: Open to both public and private entities focusing on conducting research and advancing technology, while addressing significant challenges related to openness, user-centricity, sovereignty, and trust.
  • Technology adopters/users in the food sector: Includes civil society institutions such as NGOs and consumer associations interested in testing and validating innovative solutions that align with their needs and digital responsibility objectives.
• Consortium Requirements
  • To be eligible, consortia must comprise 2 to 3 legally established entities. The partners within the consortium must be legally established in at least two different countries, including at least one partner from an EU member state and others from any eligible countries.
  • Together, they must demonstrate their ability to engage users and contribute to the mission of advancing digital transformation and data-driven innovation, with a particular emphasis on data rights and Digital Responsibility Goals. When there are 3 partners, the third partner may be an SME (or startup), an NGO, or a consumer association (but three SMEs are not eligible).
  • Individual natural persons or entities applying alone are not eligible.

For more information, visit DRG4FOOD.