Foresight Workshop of SKIN Project

The SKIN project is well under way with the 1^st year focusing on gathering data and creating a solid foundation. The 1^st Foresight Workshop was held in Vienna and Pyhra, Austria on 18^th and 19^th January 2018.

The role of Europe for Business Ltd. (EFB) is primarily focused on leading and delivering Work Package (WP) 5 in 3 areas:

Providing Internal Training to the coaching team;
Creating Regional Nodes;
Delivering coaching to emerging “change agents” and innovation groups.

This cannot be carried out in isolation of other work areas. EFB will be linked into WP3 (which carries out an analysis of the recurrent and emerging issues based on the good practices and other cases examined, and a foresight exercise, to draw future scenarios on how innovation in SFSCs could transform Europe’s agro-food sector) and WP4, (Innovation Challenge Workshops, which will gather experts, representatives of good practices and consortium partners around those emerging issues). Through this activity, EFB will both contribute to its development/delivery and also be in a strong position to develop the most suitable material and methodology to deliver the tasks shown above.

Day 1 – 18^th January 2018

Mr Christian Jochum of the Chamber of Agriculture in Vienna hosted the opening session with a very warm welcome. Christian set the scene for the intensive 2 day programme, which included a brilliant presentation from mag. Hanni Rutzler of futurefoodstudio on likely changes in eating habits, new business models for food production and new potential sources of food to meet the demands of a growing global population, which is estimated to reach 10 billion by 2050!

In addition, 4 business owners presented their innovative approaches to demonstrate how business could be successful by thinking “outside the box”. This included:

A business which uses coffee grounds to grow mushrooms virtually in the centre of Vienna. Manuel Bornbaum described how they acquire the used coffee grounds locally, grow their mushrooms and sell them locally, mostly delivered by using bicycles;
Josef Flow explaining that his restaurant, called Radius 66, sources all its produce within a 66 Km radius of its location, thereby adding strength to the local economy;
Gregor Hoffmann runs an Urban Hydroponic and Fish Farm in the middle of Vienna. This innovative approach uses the waste of fish farming to support the growing of vegetables;
Wolfgang Palme – researcher and activist explained their way of urban farming and gardening to produce food locally and improve the local environment.

After a quick lunch prepared by a farmer’s catering service, the delegation moved onto the Agricultural School in Pyhra. The students who all want to stay in farming spoke about their projects on food and drink production and their hopes for the future. The School includes a farm shop where students learn how to deal with customers and sell products including their “in-house” cheeses and produce from around the area. After this the partners discussed progress so far and the remaining activities. The day ended with an evening meal at a “rustic tavern” situated on a farm, which produced the food.

Day 2 – 19^th January 2018

The day started at 8.30 a.m. with Patrick Crehan (CKA) facilitating the day’s proceedings to cover the Analysis of Phase of the Case Study Collection, Initial discussions on scenarios, Implications for the key project tasks and a final plenary discussion reporting on an updated view of the 4 tasks.

John Hyland (TEAGASC) explained the process used to collect all the case studies of good practice and how the information collated has been analysed. This resulted in a robust discussion which aimed to agree a way to bring out the most meaningful use to support the delivery of the project.

Patrick lead 3 discussions starting with emerging ideas which included 1) Food yesterday, today and in 10 years, 2) Short Food Supply Chains are also about innovation in urban environments, 3) Short Food Supply Chains are embedded in enabling service eco-systems and 4) The entire food cycle is part of the circular bio-economy. The next discussion focused on key project tasks including Scenarios, Coaching, Innovation Challenge Workshops and Phase II of the Case Study Collection. The Final discussion focused on reporting on the 4 tasks.

The day ended with initial planning of the 3 day event in Belgium and Netherlands from 23^rd to 25^th April. Day 1 will involve project meeting to discuss progress and actions taken, Day 2 start at 07.00 hours, finishing at about 22.30 hours and will involve 6 site visits (in both Belgium and Netherlands) to a number of primary food producers using innovative techniques to enhance their businesses and performance. Day 3 will involve on-going project activity and performance and will end with the delivery of coaching to the designated partner coaches for delivery to local/regional actors.

Foresight Workshop of SKIN Project