Funding Programme

The Single Market Programme is the EU's programme covering competitiveness of enterprises, including small and medium-sized enterprises, the area of plants, animals, food and feed, and European statistics.

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Call overview

This call for proposals aims to support stakeholders in taking actions to address consumer food waste (both in- and out-of-home.

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Call detail

This call for proposals aims to support stakeholders in taking actions to address consumer food waste (both in- and out-of-home), covering types of actions such as behavioural change interventions, education and training, the elaboration and implementation of food waste prevention guidelines, food waste monitoring programs, awareness raising campaigns and communication materials, and development of new business models.

The European Commission is particularly looking for solutions and technologies that are ready to be implemented in close-to-market conditions, at industrial or commercial scale, during the project duration. Project proposals should include an initial food waste diagnosis to understand the extent of the issue and should integrate food waste measurement as part of the assessment of the effectiveness of the food waste prevention initiatives proposed.

Proposals should follow a Target-Measure-Act approach, by addressing and including the 4 steps below:

- carrying out an initial food waste diagnosis to understand the extent of the issueand to identify the “hotspots” needing specific action (e.g., target audiences, situations where food waste arises). Such diagnosis should be undertaken either before the project start date or shortly thereafter and should be clearly described.

- 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.

- based on the food waste diagnosis developing and implementing actions/interventions to tackle the hotspots identified during the initial food waste diagnosis.

- carrying out a final measurement at the end of the project, in order to evaluate the results achieved by implementing the actions, and to understand progress made towards the targets and KPIs set. Results of the intervention 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.

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Activities funded

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 abovementioned 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, coaching programs, etc.);
• education and training (e.g. school programs and staff training);
• information and awareness raising campaigns (e.g. local, regional or national scale);
• measurement and reporting tools and solutions for preventing food waste at consumption (e.g. mobile applications and other monitoring tools beyond self-reporting);
• 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 interventions);
• solutions and technologies addressing consumer food waste prevention that are ready to be implemented in close-to-market conditions, at industrial or commercial scale, during the project duration.

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Eligibility

In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must be legal entities (public or private bodies) and be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:

• EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
• non-EU countries:− listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Single Market Programme (associated countries) or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature.

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Consortium composition

Only applications by consortium are allowed (multi-beneficiaries); affiliated entities and other participants are allowed, if needed. Multi-stakeholder consortia can be private or public-private collaborations.

This call targets mainly multi-stakeholder collaborations or partnerships across the food supply chain including key actors such as farmers, manufacturers, retailers, food services as well as researchers, NGOs and public entities (e.g. local, regional or national authorities, educational establishments etc.).

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Duration

Projects should normally range between 18 and 24 months. Extensions are possible, if duly justified and through an amendment.

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Budget

Project budgets (maximum grant amount) are expected to range between EUR 100.000and EUR 300.000 per project. This does not however preclude the submission/selection of proposals requesting other amounts. The grant awarded may be lower than the amount requested.

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