UFoSystem: Urban Food Systems for urban supply

The aim of the project is to establish a stable multilateral partnership in the field of “Urban Farming/ Sustainable Urban Food Production“ in order to intensify research cooperation in Central and Southeast European countries. The research focuses on citizen-driven activities and “Citizen Science“ approaches around the sensitization of nutritional concepts in urban areas. The aim of the network is to bundle technical, social and ecological ideas and projects throughout Europe, to make them visible and replicable. This should also lead to European projects in the future, which optimize different approaches to the EU strategy “Food 2030“, make them sustainable and social.

According to current estimates by the United Nations, more than two thirds of the population will live in cities from 2050. The demand for clean, but also locally produced food is already growing dramatically. At the same time, the "urban system" itself is an extraordinarily large resource (waste heat, land, sewage, rainwater, etc.), the potential of which is currently being used far too little. The trend towards urban agriculture and sustainable food production in the city is a driver of innovation that allows room for a wide range of ideas, possibilities and opportunities in the technical area of the urban environment.

The city develops into a city laboratory: mushrooms can be grown in high bunkers / cellars, roofs become farm areas, strawberries can be harvested on walls in vertical gardens, etc. Often, innovative solutions (e.g. sensory irrigation, additional lighting, use of synergies) can be tested for limited resources (area, water, energy). The originality is inherent in these projects, but at the same time they are in many cases unknown and are implemented only sporadically and isolated in the European area. The systemic embedding of these technology solutions together with citizenship is increasingly desired also on a municipal level and at the same time requires a municipal rethink, which challenges the excellence of the consortium to be formed and the projects to be developed.

International cooperation

The project partners are the Warsaw University of Applied Sciences in Poland, the municipality of Vaslui in Romania and the company Strategic Design Scenarios in Belgium. This composition results in a multifaceted network that deals with the four priorities of the EU strategy “Food 2030“ in the long term: sustainable and healthy food, climate-friendly and ecologically sustainable food systems, recycling management and resource efficiency of food systems, innovation in and strengthening of communities.

• Strategic Design Scenarios s.p.r.l.  
• Warsaw University of Life Sciences  
• Vaslui City Administration