GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

This call for proposals implements one of the objectives in the food area within the Single Market Programme, aiming to support sustainable food production and consumption by preventing and reducing food waste, including through information sharing and awareness raising activities.

Proposals shall describe how the Target-Measure-Act approach is applied in the 4 steps below:

• carrying out an initial food waste diagnosis to understand the extent of the issue and to identify the “hotspots” needing specific action (e.g., target audiences, situations where food waste arises). This could be based on a previously made diagnosis. This process should be clearly described in the proposal.
• setting food waste reduction targets with reference to a specific baseline. Project proposals should define SMART objectives and specific KPIs (ideally including reduction of food waste and/or other indicators such as changes in awareness and/or attitudes, results indicators such as outreach achieved etc.) to be utilised in monitoring progress made.
• developing and implementing actions to tackle the hotspots identified during the initial food waste diagnosis.
• carrying out a final evaluation at the end of the project, in order to understand the results achieved by implementing the actions, and progress made towards the targets and KPIs set. The results of the evaluation should be publicly available and accessible for key stakeholders (see Expected impacts section for further information). Information on projections concerning the food waste reduction trend in the long term, or for how long the action(s) proposed by the project is/are expected to bring food waste reductions, is welcome.

A wide range of activities are eligible to be supported by the grants offered under this call for proposals, provided that they can be linked to the above objective. The grants would cover consumer food waste prevention interventions such as (non-exhaustive list):

• behavioural change interventions (e.g. nudges to prevent food waste at consumer level such as specific tools and prompts for households and in food services, coaching programmes, etc.);
• education and training (e.g. school programmes, staff training and actions in school canteens); – awareness raising campaigns (e.g. local, regional or national scale); – measurement and reporting tools and solutions for preventing food waste at consumption level (e.g. mobile applications and other monitoring tools beyond selfreporting);
• studies, data collection and experimental actions widening the evidence base for consumer food waste prevention interventions (e.g. audience segmentation studies to better tailor and target actions).

Actions proposed should go beyond the provision of information to consumers and focus on supporting consumer behavioural change to reduce food waste. Initiatives should be evidence-based, using an appropriate behavioural change model wherever possible. They may combine awareness raising together with practical tips and tools to help consumers reduce food waste.