The food & drink industry is the EU largest manufacturing sector in terms of turnover, value added and employment, contributing for more than 1,3% to the overall EU added value (FDE, 2015). Despite of financial and market turmoils, it remains stable, resilient, robust, and dominates the EU external trade, with increased exports (+ 13,1% compared to 2011). Moreover, it is connected to a series of other economic sectors. Food tourism, (growing trend, 68% of global tourism operators (UNWTO, 2015), packaging, circular economy, nanotech and nanomaterials, ICT & drones, smart sensoring and augmented reality, logistics, pharma & wellness sectors have impressive F&D-related applications and are affected by the emerging trends in consumption styles, regulatory frameworks, environmental sustainability standards and health concerns are related to F&D production, processing, distribution and safety. A better coordination among these sectors is necessary to tackle emerging challenges, to catch common opportunities in the job market to graduates in HE food studies, to lead innovation in the food production chain especially to SMEs. The Alliance for Skills and Knowledge to Widen Food Sector-related Open Innovation, Optimization and Development – ASKFOOD will focus the overall ensemble of the economic sectors that depend on and influence the evolution of F&D industry, putting together different actors, sectors and points of view in order to: (a)implement an interactive platform and dynamic networking for multisector knowledge sharing and co-creation; (b) early discovery and anticipate trends and related emerging skills; (c) unzip innovation and take off the straitjacket of consolidated training models, by launching disruptive, learner-led and cross-industry training schemes, in connection with other KAs and EU supported initiatives; (d)set up common tools and organizational frame that will guarantee the sustainability of the network and of the project activities in the long term.
The ASKFOOD main aim was to create a permanent knowledge sharing alliance between businesses, business associated organisations and Universities in the food and food-related sectors. Establishing such an alliance, the ASKFOOD consortium: (1) created the necessary frame for collaboration, (2) converted innovative concepts into new tools to be provided within this frame(3)tested and applied innovative training methodologies(4)ensured sustainability by establishing a permanent alliance
The Food & Drink industry is the EU largest manufacturing sector in terms of turnover, value added and employment. Despite of market turmoils also due to Covid-19, it remains stable and dominates the EU external trade. Higher Education and training activities in the food sectors are growing in the EU largely dominated by conventional study programmes and teaching methodologies that in general do not allow the achievement of competences and skills needed by the current and future job market.
<< Background >> The Food & Drink industry is the EU largest manufacturing sector in terms of turnover, value added and employment. Despite of market turmoils also due to Covid-19, it remains stable and dominates the EU external trade. Higher Education and training activities in the food sectors are growing in the EU largely dominated by conventional study programmes and teaching methodologies that in general do not allow the achievement of competences and skills needed by the current and future job market. << Objectives >> The ASKFOOD main aim was to create a permanent knowledge sharing alliance between businesses, business associated organisations and Universities in the food and food-related sectors. Establishing such an alliance, the ASKFOOD consortium: (1) created the necessary frame for collaboration, (2) converted innovative concepts into new tools to be provided within this frame(3)tested and applied innovative training methodologies(4)ensured sustainability by establishing a permanent alliance << Implementation >> The project has:-implemented a series of virtual tools to early discovery and anticipate trends and related emerging skills-implemented an interactive platform and dynamic networking for multisector knowledge sharing and co-creation-improve training models, by launching disruptive, learner-led and cross-industry training schemes, i.e. Reverse incubator -set up common tools and organizational frame that will guarantee the sustainability of the network: the permanent Observatory. << Results >> •Cross-industry knowledge platforms (Knowledge and Training Hub and Clusters) •Open Innovation framework to modernize education/training (ASKFOOD DBTE)•Interactive repository of emerging skills and professional profiles in the food sector in a forward-looking perspective (Interactive Atlas) so to forecast future skill needs (Forecast Aggregator) •Acceleration and growth hacking solutions (Reversed Incubator, ASKFOOD Garage Labs)•Permanent ASKFOOD Observatory