Feeding the Future 2021: a new hybrid call for projects

Encouraging innovations and emerging solutions to accelerate the transition to sustainable food: this is the leitmotif of this call for projects, which is extending its scope of action by opening up to companies this year as well. With Feeding the Future, we invite those who dare to look at and build the world differently to apply before January 31, 2021.

Tomorrow’s Challenges Are Ready Now

Certain forms of our agriculture and our food continue to degrade biodiversity, disrupt the climate, generate massive diseases, marginalize some farmers and empty the countryside, while economic power is concentrated and inequalities widen.

But more and more of us, from all walks of life, are taking action to change the situation: our food practices have never evolved so much from one generation to the next, citizens’ demands for sustainable food accessible to all are intensifying, the demand for information and transparency is increasing, new forms of market and non-market exchange are emerging, Digital technology is transforming our lives.

In this powerful wake, our foundation has been acting for 10 years at all levels, from seed to compost, by supporting actors in the field and in research, by accompanying them and by disseminating their experiences. Convinced that a sustainable future is necessarily democratic, solidarity-based and agroecological, our goal is to accelerate with them the transition to agriculture and food that respects people and ecosystems.

Projects on emerging topics or proposing innovative solutions

In line with the previous two years, we are looking for projects with Feeding the Future that address emerging issues, which are currently secondary or exploratory, weak signals, but which we can think will gain in importance and, in the long term, become structuring of our agriculture (including livestock and fishing) and our food. For example, projects to economically take into account the hidden social and environmental costs of food, financial engineering, data transparency, collaborative logistics and economic models, use of new ecological functions of living organisms in agroecology, green chemistry, bioeconomy and circular economy, open source digital technology, etc.: we are open to all proposals as long as they are supported by a solid prospective analysis.

We are also looking for innovative projects that create new knowledge, services or products for the greatest number of people, possibly risky and/or at odds with the solutions usually developed, whether organizational, economic, technological or conceptual.

In all cases, the projects presented must have a strong social and/or environmental impact and offer a leverage effect through evaluation, capitalization of experience with a view to a change of scale and a massification of innovation.

New in 2021: companies are also invited to apply

For the first time since the creation of the programme 3 years ago, this call for projects crosses the lever of subsidies for projects eligible for sponsorship, and that of impact investment to support young companies that contribute to the agroecological and food transition. It reflects our ambition to contribute to a greener and more inclusive society and economy by supporting stakeholders, through donations or investments.

This strategy is made possible by the financial management policy put in place for several years, which saw the creation of our impact investment fund “Sustainable Food Systems” (FDNC SFS) in partnership with Quadia to encourage these companies and facilitate their development.

In this way, we want to “feed the future” by acting both at the start-up stage of innovations for structures eligible for sponsorship, and at the scale-up stage for companies:

• The grant component is intended for early-stage projects with a solid conceptual foundation and requiring field testing.
• The investment component is intended for VSEs and SMEs (mainly SA, SAS, SCOP, SCIC and SARL with participating securities) for projects benefiting from a minimum of maturity, based on a proven concept and products and/or services on the market with a certain commercial traction.

This call for projects aims to open the horizon towards sustainable food systems, from seed to compost, taking into account the environmental, economic, social, cultural and nutritional dimensions, in the light of our entire Sustainable Food axis.

Deadline for submission of Notes of Intent: January 31, 2021

Contact: ad_france@fondationcarasso.org with the subject line “AP Feeding the Future – name of your structure”.