ALID Research programme "Sustainable Food Systems"

The ALID programme (Sustainable Food Systems) aims to build sustainable systems for production, processing, distribution and consumption of food products, taking into account consumer demand, competitiveness of enterprises, protection of ecosystems in the context of global changes.

The topics have been modified for this edition. The programme is organised around two main topics (axes 1 and 2) in which project proposals have to answer to a sustainability issue with a trans-disciplinary approach, and a secondary axis (axis 3) for proposals which aims to do the proof of new concepts.

1. “Sustainable food systems”

This topic is mainly focused on the environmental dimension of sustainable food systems. Project proposals will have to take clearly into account this dimension and another dimension of sustainability as nutrition, health, well-being, fairness, economic performance and resilience by an integrated approach.

2. “Design of more sustainable technologies, products and markets”

This topic aims to develop an integrated approach with at least two dimensions of sustainability to design products, processes or retailing systems more sustainable. Project proposals should offer alternative solutions or breakthrough innovation to reach this goal.

3. “Proof of concept on a strategic point”
In this axis, the 2013 ALID call for proposals encourages the submission of innovative projects which would demonstrate an idea or a method feasibility to provide new solutions to the strategic issues of sustainable food systems.

The ALID programme aims to:

• promote cooperation between different actors in the agro-food sector and participation of food industries mainly SME is strongly recommended;
• reinforce scientific and technical collaborations to improve the sustainability in its three dimensions, with a high scientific level as recommended by ANR.