"<< Background >>The food industry is a complex, collective of diverse businesses that supply our food in the context of great environmental challenge. COVID-19 has highlighted the frailties of the food sector & its supply chain & has upended local, national & global food systems & put the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) further out of reach . The world’s growing food demand & the need for ethical and sustainable practices have become a challenge that the EU & the UN are encouraging us all to tackle.The food & drink industry is the EU's biggest manufacturing sector in terms of jobs & value-added. The industry is dominated by SMEs, however, self-employment in the EU has not risen in decades. Potential entrepreneurs & SMEs have been slow to respond - because they lack professional capacity or skills to innovate/orchestrate change in business development, production & marketing of ethical food. We want to initiate a change in this regard with EFE & encourage/promote potential entrepreneurs to take that leap with support & knowledge.COVID-19 has created the opportunity to repurpose food entrepreneurship training to specialise in healthy foods & resilient, sustainable production. Current food entrepreneurship training in our partner countries is generic & has failed to keep pace with post-pandemic influences. The time is right for EFE. Ethical food production includes consideration of people (the consumer & employees), the planet (centred on environmental sustainability) & animals (mainly concerned with animal rights & welfare).EFE will allow our organisations to offer a relevant forward facing education programme & by so doing, we uplift the sustainability competencies of our educators. We also contribute to improving the reputation of the food sector in our countries. At EU level, there have been challenges & tarnishing of the food sector caused by a lack of ethical commitment. We put the word ethical into the food sector agenda in the EU.NEEDS TO ADRRESS:EFE will significantly contribute to the professional development of food HEI Educators by increasing their pedagogic skills to develop & teach new food entrepreneurship supports based on triple-bottom-line (People-planet-profit) businesses. We will empower a new generation of food entrepreneurs to start, grow & adapt new ethical food enterprises.TG1 EDUCATORS – PR1 ""Educators Guide to Drivers and Enablers for Innovation of Ethical Foods"" will meet the need of food innovation and technology educators who have little/no exposure to food entrepreneurship to date. Their understanding of the business opportunities arising from ethical/clean foods will be increased ensuring a more multidisciplined approach will benefit both the students and SMEs they support.TG2 STUDENTS and FUTURE ENTREPRENEURS:EFE will address the learning needs of students, future entrepreneurs and existing managers in food & drink SMEs. COVID-19 creates an opportunity to repurpose food entrepreneurship training to deliver healthier foods with a focus resilient, sustainable & ethical production and practices.TG3 EXISTING FOOD SECTOR SMES: Most EU food and beverage companies spend less than 3% on R&D, and, indeed, many spend less than 1%. Across the EU, food and drink SME R&D investment is reactionary with an over-reliance on me-too product development and minimal medium to long term planning. EFE will bring to the fore the huge innovation potential and teach entrepreneurship pathways to new planet friendly food and business models.OTHER BENEFICARIES: CONSUMERS are the indirect participants and beneficiaries of EFE. The project addresses their need for access to ethically produced and health-giving food.<< Objectives >>EFE will contribute to the professional development of food HEI Educators by increasing their pedagogic skills to develop and teach new food entrepreneurship supports based on triple-bottom-line businesses (planet, people, profit). We will empower a new generation of food entrepreneurs to start, grow & adapt new ethical food enterprises.The development of a programme of learning actions (PR1) & guidance (PR2) on how to grow an ethical food business will be in fulfilment of SDG 8 and SDG 10, enabling food producers to be drivers of equitable & sustainable growth, reducing inequalities & creating employment.By empowering HEI educators to commit to EFE innovative learning and teaching practices to tackle societal challenges, we consequently lead to the upskill of students as potential ethical food entrepreneurs and accelerate progress across key elements of the SDGs. When we empower SMEs and start-ups, we are directly helping to breed the innovative food concepts & thriving new businesses that the EU needs. Therefore, by creating a set of OERs (PR3) to be delivered via HEI/VET educators, we are empowering a new generation of food leaders with the tools to develop & sustain an ethical food business & the ability to apply ethical decision-making across a range of issues impacting the food industry.EFE is aligned to the SDG's which recognise & nurture the food producers' role in: a) promoting healthy nutrition (target 2.2), (role in enhancing nutritional diversity)b) prioritising sustainable food production systems (target 2.4), (role as custodians of land & natural resources) andc) maintaining agricultural biodiversity (target 2.5), (role in promoting diversity of food & nutrition production systems).<< Implementation >>Project Result 1: (M 2-10): The development of PR1 Educators Guide on Drivers and Enablers for Innovation of Ethical Foods will be co-led by ABU & IPB with the active participation of all partners. There are 5 main activity phases within the development of the PR. Playing to their respective strengths & knowledge networks, each partner will be involved in research & case studies, while MMS given their design competencies will take greater responsibility in the design and production phase.A1 – Research methodology & guide structure (ABU/IPB);A2 – Research & content development (ABU/IPB);A3 – User Testing & Feedback (BIA);A4 – Design & Production (MMS);A5 – Share and promote Phase (Led by MMS and all partners) Project Result 2: (M 5-13):The development of PR2 manual will be co-led by SUAS & BIA with the active input and participation of all other partners. It will be a thorough introduction to Ethical Food Enterprise for self-learning that will engage our students, potential entrepreneurs and existing entrepreneurs with entrepreneurial content, relevant to the opportunities and challenges they face. Given entrepreneurship education focuses on the development of skills/attributes that enable the realization of opportunity, there are 4 main activity phases within PR2: A1) EntreComp meets SDG methodology (SUAS & BIA)A2) Research & content development (SUAS & BIA researchers along with those of other HEI/ VET partners)A3) Design & Production (SUAS & BIA with support from MMS & EUEI)A4) Share & Promote phase (Led by MMS involving all partners) Project Result 3 (M 9-20):The development of the EFE Open Education Resources (OERs) will be led by food education specialists MMS with the active participation of all partners. PR3 delivers on Erasmus+ horizontal priority Supporting Educators as it develops educator skills in a new but very essential part of EU food sector. The OERs will be presented in different formats and will include: a) a course curriculum and modulesb) a facilitator’s guide, c) suggested learning activities andd) a set of integrated multimedia resources to complement the learning activities. There are 5 main activity phases within the development of the PR.A1) Curriculum development (MMS)A2) Content development Framework (MMS)A3) User testing & feedback (Guided by BIA)A4) Final Production (MMS)A5) Publishing (EUEI) Project Result 4: (M14-24):The development of an Ethical Food Entrepreneurship Sharing and Mentoring Platform. This is an innovative online collaboration zone for our three target groups where emerging ethical food students, entrepreneurs and start-ups can get guidance from peers, educators and experts across different areas of ethical food. The development of the EFE PR4 platform will be led by EUEI with input from all partners. There are 5 main activity phases.A1) Platform design (EUEI)A2) Programming & content (EUEI)A3) User testing & Improvements (BIA & EUEI)A4) Publication (EUEI)Implementation Facilitation: Regular communications will take place via email. For short messages and/or time sensitive communication, a Teams chat will be used. We will also use telephone calls and use online video conferencing calls on Teams for monthly meetings.The clear division of work within the partnership will assist cooperation, but to make sure these divisions are clear, the basis of our cooperation will be written documents. These will be created in the preparatory phase and updated throughout:All documents and files produced by the partners that are of use to other partners, will be stored on a filesharing platform (EFE Teams) In this way each partner has 24hr access to all key documents in all stages of the pipeline of production. This will assist productivity but also aid transparency and trust among partners.We will add a cloud-based project management tool to our Teams environment for the purposes of coordinating and tracking tasks relating to all activities<< Results >>EFE consortium will work closely as partners & with our target groups to generate high quality interrelated results & consequently invaluable outcomes. PHASE 1: This refers to the tangible or physical results produced by our partnershipPR1: Educators Guide to Drivers and Enablers for Innovation of Ethical Foods is an investigation, analysis & forward focused knowledge publication on the business opportunities arising from ethical/clean foods. It presents both policy and market/consumer trends, drawing conclusions about the opportunities, benefits and challenges of food SMEs developing innovative ethical foodsPR2: Innovating Ethical Foods, Entrepreneurship Manual is an Entrepreneurship Start-up Manual specifically to help students & potential food entrepreneurs to understand the steps involved in starting/ diversifying into an ethical food business. This is the first start-up resource that will be designed specifically for the ethical food sector. It will be very relevant for students, educators & SMEs founders whose primary discipline/qualification is food science. Without this manual, they may not be aware of the powerful market opportunity that ethical foods presentPR3: The 90-day Ethical Food Entrepreneurship programme is comprehensive set of OERs to enable HEI providers to deliver a 90-day Ethical Food Entrepreneurship course to their students/potential entrepreneurs of SMEs including curricula, learning objectives, evaluation techniques & recommended content for classroom-based courses. The development of an intuitive pedagogy & trainer resources will increase competencies in digital teaching approaches in line with EntreComp PR4: The development of an Ethical Food Entrepreneurship Sharing and Mentoring Platform is both a circular classroom & a peer-learning & knowledge sharing platform during & after the course has finished. Members can share new ideas, practices & business ideas with each other. PHASE 2 then refers to the Outcomes generated when the above results are used with the target groups as part of our testing activities, multiplier events & the wider promotion/exploitation process with following outcomes:50 HEI educators will be involved in the research & review of PR1 Educators Guide to Drivers & Enablers for Innovation of Ethical Foods. Over 500 educators will download & use it within the project lifespan. They will become more aware and motivated to cross fertilize ethical food entrepreneurship into their teaching practice.50 HEI students & food entrepreneurs will be involved in the research & review of PR2 Innovating Ethical Foods, Entrepreneurship Manual & will understand the steps involved in starting/ diversifying into an ethical food business. Over 500 students & food entrepreneurs will download and use it within the project lifespan. They will become empowered to respond to the increasing demand for ethical food product & create self-employment & employment opportunities in their regions. 50 lecturers will trial the PR3 OERS to teach the 90-day Ethical Food Entrepreneurship programme as part of a pilot test phase. A further 400 lecturers will download & use the OERs during the project lifespan & be motivated & empowered to teach Europe's first HEI led ethical food entrepreneurship programme. 50 HEI educators, students and entrepreneurs will join and engage in PR4 Ethical Food Entrepreneurship Sharing and Mentoring Platform where they will trial the collaboration power of exchange of learning between educators, entrepreneurs, and learners, to lead to synergies I'll stay progressed their ethical foods entrepreneurship journey13 lecturers (from 4 countries) will benefit from a LTT event which will see the first generation of ethical food entrepreneur educators immerse in all our project results at an inspiring learning event in month 20 in Portugal.All our impact numbers will continue to rise significantly after project completion thanks to the ongoing promotion."