<< Background >>Because foods are complex products consisting of a large number of ingredients of very diverse origins, it is not surprising that their safety may be compromised, which may create the ground for adverse effects of the health of citizens. In addition, it constitutes massive challenges for the survival of our regional agriculture. In order to strengthen the sustainable decentralized “farm-to-fork” food chains, a rethinking and a shift in mindset is required to shorten existing food supply chains. Such changes should be strongly supported by an innovative, cross-disciplinary toolbox of relevant courses, offering students the opportunity for the self-creation of applied knowledge, which is the core of the SafeFood4EU project idea. While the necessary change in mindset has begun to take place in practice, it is still not fast enough to respond to the demand, and the demand creation will be strengthened by generating adequatelyeducated experts, who will later become part of the industries and policy making, thus positively influencingthe carbon neutral and decentralized agri-food production chains. The elaboration and implementation of the European strategy for the promotion of protein crops is a good example of a political initiative focusing on part of the challenge, emphasized by SafeFood4EU. The awareness of students of this initiative, as well as the Farm-to-Fork Strategy and other relevant strategic EU undertakings, surely being part of the Green Deal, shall be focused in an accessible manner on the principles of sustainable local agri-food industries, so these same students would be able to implement these into the practice very soon. At the same time, the food independence of many EU countries, including the project partner countries, is seriously endangered, mainly because of the current work and product pricing conditions, as well as inconsistent relevantfunding schemes. Therefore, transferring applied knowledge on food safety and smart decentralized and zero-carbon agri-food supply chain design and management to students is the only effective method to reaching this goal. The local value generation and increase principles regarding the agri-food industries are key factors for the envisaged EU-wide agri-food industries development and therefore these will be professionally performed by the SafeFood4EU curriculum graduates. Another crucial project objective, considering the current challenging developments, is the preparation of the highly needed transdisciplinary knowledge transfer platform, as close as possible in its principles and contents to the practice and policy making, considering fundamental issues such as food authenticity, fair production, food toxicology, agri-foodbasics and supply chain management. Because the challenges in terms of food authenticity, green agri-food life cycle, as well as a successful overall food quality management from the farm to the fork, are to be addressed and solved by the future experts, generated on the project curriculum basis. The rethinking of consumption needs with regards to regionality, quality and needed daily amount of food, often based on subconscious perception factors and respectively the product quality, but also the overall sustainability aspects, is another objective for the project team, which will be pursued by elaborating and testing a cutting-edge, multidisciplinary English language workshop learning format and content. The project will target another crucial objective – the process and design thinking ability creation among students, withregards to the following formula A. decentralized agriculture + B. local food processing & production + C. regional distribution and consumption = D. high added value for all stakeholders + E. healthier life + F. sustainably developing regions. Thereby the project team is going to deliver to the students in an interactive and international manner the answers to the questions WHAT , WHY (D, E, F) and HOW (A, B, C).<< Objectives >>The project team aims to set the foundation for a wide range future educational activities with applied research relation by elaborating and test-implementing a toolkit of around 10 strongly interdisciplinary teaching courses in the field of decentralized sustainable agri and food supply chains, by integrating cutting-edge know-how on practical, theoretical and political level, in order to prepare future experts for the challenging tasks in the agri-food business in all of its forms.By addressing in a systematic collborative didactic manner firstly the understanding of the basics of agri-food supply chains management, combined with the food raw materials foundations, and strengthened by a deep understanding of the negative sides of globalized agri-food supply chains in terms of quality and safety of the food components, finally the project consortium will offer the opportunity to university students with applied science and practice interest to collaboratively test-design innovative decentralized supply chains in the agri and food industries. The desired portfolio of abilities to be reached among the learners through implementing the 3 project results will support the efficient and adequate integration of the students in the practice, by making these well prepared for the challenges of the current and future trends for decentralising agri-food systems towards achieving the goals set by the Farm-to-Fork Strategy, as well as another strategic paths of the EU and EC in particular. Finally, well understood decentralised agri-food life cycle management systems emerging and being sustainably operated in the long term perspective by involving the future SafeFood4EU courses portfolio graduates, including the envisaged professional thematic language and collaboration guidance, are aimed. And the learners a thet SafeFood4EU scope will be the ones to be in charge of this in mid and long term perspective. The project team therefore understands its responsibility to assure the quality and sufficiently broad spectrum of learning environment and contents it needs to generate and deliver to teachers, learners and finally the society, since the project results in long term will positively influence the life quality of the EU citizens.By collaboratively involving the outspoken expertise of UFT on the food safety governance and policy side, with the outstanding expertise of the UNIB team in the field of food chemistry and technology, and building up on those by implementing the cutting-edge agri-food supply chains 4.0 expertise of AERES, the project team will generate a long-term applicable design-thinking based curriculum, mainly for Master students, which will be offered at a common online platform regularly, for all interested students from the 3 universities simultaneously, in form of interdisciplinary workshops incl. theoretical and practical part, which will enable the early optimal intercultural and professional exchange, a crucial element of the Life Long Learning concept. Also, academic exchange is foreseen.In the long term perspective, the project team expects through completing successfully the direct project goals to set the foundations for a future Joint Master Degree Programme on the broad and highly societally relevant area of creating and managing the decentralised agri-food systems of the future, which will systematically enable learners and teachers in near future at the three involved partner organisations to experience the full range of a shered knowledge platform, by also havving the chance to become part of all three higher education organisation's worlds for some time and thereby gain a unique academic and practical experience in all fields of the wide range of the envisaged SafeFood4EU expertise porftolio.<< Implementation >>The current project aims at fostering interdisciplinary and innovative education, as well promoting of collaboration and sharing best practices in the higher education. An education that leads to better understanding of regional and global food-related problems may be the answer to bringing out those transformative changes that enable create a healthier environment and sustainable food systems. The socio-economic rationale is therefore the transformation of young people into professionals and scientists who are able to tackle with the future challenges related to the global food security and nutrition. The transition to sustainability and circular management of resources is of paramount importance and is the only way to increase the resilience of our food systems and “future-proof” next generations’ nutrition, well-being and climate neutrality. A particular attention will be given to innovative and emerging technologies for food processing and preservation , safety and nutrition of raw materials, sustainability in terms of short food chains and waste management by side-streams valorisation and utilization.The food supply chains currently existing on the global market are a source of serious issues from various respects. First and foremost, the delivery of foods or raw materials from the site of production to the site of processing is energy intensive and causes the formation of large amounts of greenhouse gases. Second, the history of food trade has always been also a history of food fraud, which is not only an economic crime but may even cause fatalities. In addition, processing of raw materials inevitably leads to the occurrence of huge quantities of side streams, which are an environmental and an economic issue. For these reasons, future generations of students need to be made aware of the complexity of international food trade, which ranges from environmental aspects to food safety issues that may directly affect their everyday life. They also need to be taught how food sciences and allied areas may respond to the challenges.Courses, such as the Sustainable Food Production course, will address the processing of selected plant-derived and animal-derived raw materials into value-added products with a focus on the concomitant occurrence of side streams. Particular attention will be paid to fruit and vegetable products, potatoes, legumes, oilseeds, and cereals as well as milk. The characteristics of the by-products will be introduced in detail, and subsequently technological strategies for the recovery of valuable compounds will be discussed. For this purpose, both conventional and emerging technologies will be presented, for example, supercritical fluid extraction, pulsed electric fields, and others. The final part of the course will be dedicated to potential applications of the fractions or components obtained from side streams either as biofunctional ingredients or as technologically valuable compounds that may have the potential to replace synthetic food additives.Another crucial learning course to be elaborated and test implemented during the project runtime is Introduction to Food Safety and Toxicology. This course will initially provide an overview of the European regulatory and organizational framework pertaining to food safety along the value chain. Because food safety is inextricably linked with toxicology, the main part of this module will be dedicated to selected aspects of food toxicology. A substantial part of the course will be used to address process-induced contaminants.The project team is gong to focus its activities mainly on the elaboration of following three project results and their practical implementation:1. Elaboration of a professional glossary and collaborative learning and working guidance for learners and teachers2. Elaboration and test implementation of a transdisciplinary collaborative learning based curriculum3. Elaboration and deployment of a transdisciplinary E-learning platform<< Results >>The necessary rethinking and mindset shift, in order to strengthen the sustainable decentralised “farm to fork” food chains, respectively to shorten the food supply chains, is to be strongly supported by an innovative transdisciplinary toolbox of relevant courses, offering students the opportunity for applied knowledge self-creation, which is the core of the SafeFood4EU project idea. The necessary rethinking has begun to take place in practice, but still not fast enough in order to respond to the demand. And the demand creation will be strengthened by generating adequately educated experts, who will later on become part of the industries and policy making, and by this will positively influence the carbon neutral and decentralised agri-food production chains. The paradigm shift necessary in order to achieve decentralised agri-food supply systems and respectively sustainable regional development and better life quality for all relevant citizen groups is in sight, its added value is already becoming known to more and more citizens, and only by applying the SafeFood4EU educational strategy it can happen optimally efficiently for all relevant stakeholders. And this surely will need the policy making support, which will also happen by involving the expertise of future SafeFood4EU learners and teachers.One of the main goals of the Farm to Fork Strategy is ensuring sustainable food production by reducing the use of chemical pesticides, integrated pest management and promoting greater use of safe alternative ways of protecting harvests. The excess of nutrients, which leads to a decrease in biodiversity especially in rivers, lakes, wetlands. By decentralizing agriculture, shortening food supply chains, implementing eco-schemes, the negative impact of current food systems will be reduced. It will also stimulate sustainable food processing, wholesale, retail, hospitality and food services practices. This will also reduce food loss and waste and food fraud in the food supply chain. Activating the transition can only be done by improving citizens' awareness, training more professionals in this field and through research, innovation, technological development and investment. And through such multidisciplinary training and knowledge sharing, both the SafeFood4EU objectives and those of the Farm to Fork Strategy will be achieved.By elaborating and demonstrating the 3 envisaged project results - 1. Professional glossary and collaboration guidance, 2. Learning curriculum and contents, 3. E-learn platform, the project team will target and pursue the process and design thinking ability creation and strengthening among students, basing the envisaged systemic approach on the following formula: A. decentralised agriculture + B. local food processing & production + C. regional distribution and consumption = D. high added value for all stakeholders + E. healthier life + F. sustainably developing regions. Thereby the project team is going to deliver to the students in an interactive and international manner the answers of the questions WHAT (should be changed), WHY (D, E, F) and HOW (A, B, C) with regards to achieving high added local value creation and life quality increase, in the context of our sustainable agri-food systems of the future. In addition to this, the SafeFood4EU learners and teachers will become well prepared for future collaborations and co-working on international level, in English language, by optimally utilizing the professional glossary and co-working guidance contents into the daily practice.In long term perspective, the project team expects through completing successfully the direct project goals to set the foundations for a future Joint Master Degree Programme on the broad and highly societally relevant area of creating and managing the decentralised agri-food systems of the future, which will systematically enable learners and teachers to experience the full range the shared knowledge platform in person, and its elements.

The vision of FutureFoodS is to collectively achieve environmentally-friendly, socially secure, fair and economically viable healthy and safe Food Systems (FS) for Europe. FutureFoodS gather 87 partners from 22 EU Member States, 6 Associated Countries and 1 third country. FutureFoodS includes public and private actors, policy makers, foundations, locally, sub-nationally, nationally, EU-widely. All these FutureFoodS partners are fully aligned on the vision for the Partnership and the methodology for its implementation in line with SDG17 and EU Green Deal components. This vision has been broken down into general (GO), specific (SO) and operational (OO) objectives applying across the 4 R&I areas and 4 transversal activities identified by the FutureFoods consortium in its stable draft Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) which constitutes the strategic backbone of the project. The four GO cover: GO1 - Functioning of FS; GO2 - System approaches; GO3 - Inclusive government; GO4 - Co-creation cases. These GO have then been translated into SO prioritised in line with the timescale and resources of the Partnership: SO1 - Change the way we eat; SO2- Change the way we process and supply food, SO3 - Change the way we connect with FSs and SO4 - Change the way we govern FS. In addition, 6 interconnected OO have been set: OO1- Pooling R&I resources and programming; OO2 - Operational FS Observatory; OO3 - Active FS knowledge Hub of FS Labs; OO4 - Functioning knowledge sharing and scaling mechanisms; OO5- Revisiting the SRIA; OO6 - Promoting, supporting, widening & gathering FS various communities. The objectives implemented in the 8 WPs of FutureFoodS will exert impact directly or indirectly in most of the destinations of Horizon Europe’s Cluster 6 2023-2024 work programme and particularly for the topic destination ‘Fair, healthy and environment-friendly FS from primary production to consumption’ echoing to the main EU and World FS policies & strategies.

European education system is facing reinventing education. There is a new imperative to add innovation in education, based on using digital and online media combined with practical work to obtain skills. Another challenge for Europe is to reinvent the notion of industrial innovation by coupling the three components of the Knowledge Triangle: the HIGH EDUCATION as knowledge producer, the academic RESEARCH as creativity source, and BUSINESS, with its entrepreneurial spirit.The project KNOWinFOOD is offering a solution for these European challenges. In a new educational approach, students solve tasks given by industry by developing new sustainable foods based on traditional ones. The needed knowledge is systematised by the researcher. The acquiring and enriching of this knowledge by the students is facilitated by the trainers in training sessions. Their innovative skills are perfected in the practical trainings for product development. Positive attitudes relative to own development and future job are enhanced by the appreciation of the industry at the final product contest, which judges the products. This complex educational process was made possible through a collaborative environment developed during the project.