About us

Food‑scalEUp: a project for the European development of acceleration ecosystems in digital agri‑food

Who we are

The long-term vision of the project is to build the capacity of European regional agri‑food digital innovation ecosystems, especially in "emerging" and "moderate" innovative regions, to:

  • Be better connected among their regional stakeholders but also with other European regional ecosystems, thus moving towards a European accelerator ecosystem
  • Be more effective, in terms of fostering the successful acceleration of tech start-ups and SMEs
  • Have greater impact, in terms of fostering the digital and green transition of the food industry
  • Be more resilient and therefore remain effective in crisis and fast-changing conditions
  • Be widely recognised internationally and attractive to companies from other countries.

Partners

Food‑scalEUp gathers 10 European clusters from the agri‑food and digital sectors coming from 11 regions across EU:

1
Agrifood Capital (NL)
AgriFood Capital is a collaboration of industry, public authorities and knowledge institutes in North-East Brabant for fostering innovation and growth in agri-food. We are developing smart regional solutions for global agri-food challenges. Together we are creating a smarter, healthier and more sustainable world for tomorrow.
Website
2
CEIN : Centro Europeo de Empresas e Innovacion de Navarra (SP)
CEIN : Centro Europeo de Empresas e Innovacion de Navarra (SP)
CEIN is a company committed to equal opportunities between women and men and to the reconciliation of personal and professional life. A commitment that is manifested both in internal management and in the design and development of the services we make available to the entrepreneurial collective.
Website
3
Project coordinator : Clusaga (SP)
Project coordinator : Clusaga (SP)
The Galicia Food Cluster is a non-profit association established in 2010. It currently has more than 100 partners, among which are the main production and processing companies in the food sector in the region, as well as universities and technology centres. Its objective is to improve the competitivenes of enterprises, through collaboration and cooperation to grow in a more profitable and sustainable way.
Website
4
CTRIA (HU)
CTRIA (HU)
CTRIA (KDRIU in Hungarian) is a diverse innovation agency. Yet, it mostly write and win tenders, manage, implement and promote innovative projects at home and abroad, advise, stimulate innovation, shape knowledge, transfer technology, provide training and mentoring.
Website
5
Food-Processing Initiative (DE)
“Connecting competences for innovative solutions and thus strengthening the competitiveness of small and medium sized food companies” - this summarises best FPI's mission. 
Main objectives of the cluster organization are:

  • The facilitation and implementation of innovations and new solutions in the food sector
  • The creation of strategic alliances and co-operation projects and the establishment of regional, national and international networks
Website
6
Food Valley (NL)
Foodvalley NL is the international and independent platform for ground-breaking innovations that enable the transition to a sustainable food system. We set the agenda, keep the pace, guide and connect. Our member network is an international, diverse and active community of more than 200 organisations. This network is the core of our ecosystem. Our members cover the entire food value chain from seed to shelf and from start-ups to corporates, and associated sectors.
Website
7
Innov'Alliance (FR)
The cluster Innov'Alliance consists of a network of more than 350 members. It gathers companies, research and training organizations and more than 5000 academics and researchers. The mission of Innov'Alliance is to strengthen SMEs and support their development through open innovation.
Website
8
Valorial (FR)
Valorial (FR)
Valorial is a non-profit agri-food cluster since 2006, labelled "Pôle de compétitivité" by the french government and supported by 3 french regions located in the largest agri-food european area: Britanny, Pays de la Loire and Normandy.
Website
9
Technopole Quimper-Cornouaille (FR)
As an accelerations services provider, the Quimper-Cornouaille technopole is a dedicated team with a passion for innovation and an in-depth knowledge of the local players. It assure a tailor-made support at each stage of companies development.
Website
10
Normandie Incubation (FR)
Normandie incubation is an incubator based in Normandy (France), which provide different supports and accelerations services to help local startups launching.
Website

Context

The Food‑scalEUp project is developed in the frame of the Smart Sensors 4 AgriFood partnership.

Smart Sensors for Agrifood

Indeed, the consortium gathered in order to help European Agrifoods Start-ups and SMEs, providing a new kinds of accelerations services allowing an easier acceleration and digitalisation of agrifood value chains.

Activities

The Food‑scalEUp project has 4 objectives:

  • To map and analyse the agri‑food innovation and digital acceleration ecosystems on a European scale in order to identify best practices, strengths, areas for improvement, as well as tools and methods used
  • Strengthen, identify and build connections between the different partner regions of the project in order to foster continuous improvement of the acceleration ecosystem
  • Co-create and/or pilot acceleration services especially in emerging and moderated innovation ecosystems
  • Maximise the reach and impact of the results achieved through communication, dissemination and exploitation

Objectives

The overall objectives of the Food‑scalEUp project include:

  • To develop higher quality business acceleration services in agrifood digital innovation ecosystems in emerging and moderate innovative regions
  • To expand connections, knowledge sharing, collaboration at regional, European and international level, between key people representing the different actors of the agri‑food digital innovation ecosystems involved in the project
  • To balance the scaling up of start-ups and SMEs and the creation of high added value local jobs in the European regions involved in the project, balancing the capacity of the agri‑food digital innovation and acceleration ecosystems in those regions.

Food‑scalEUp project is part of the Horizon Europe programme. The project responds to the call “Expanding Acceleration Ecosystems”.

The call aims at establishing new links and joint programmes between business acceleration entities located in less connected innovation ecosystems and more developed ones located in regions with high innovation performance. Activities under this call will improve the quality of business acceleration services, their network outreach and scale-up support offered to start-ups.

Duration of the project: 01.09.2022 – 31.08.2024

EU programme: HORIZON EUROPE – CSA (Coordination and Support Actions)