Accelerating Food Sustainability - through Household Dietary Shifts, Trust and Transparency, and Innovations in Circular Food Processing Systems
The European Partnership for a Sustainable Future of Food Systems - FutureFoodS has launched its Second Joint Transnational Co‑funded Call (FutureFoodS Call 2025): “Accelerating Food Sustainability through Household Dietary Shifts, Trust and Transparency, and Innovations in Circular Food Processing Systems.” This call will support transnational research and innovation projects that accelerate the transition to sustainable, healthy and fair food systems in Europe by transforming how we eat, process and supply food, connect with food systems, and govern food systems.
FutureFoodS is one of the co‑funded partnerships under Horizon Europe (Cluster 6) and aims to deliver environmentally friendly, socially fair, economically viable, healthy and safe food systems in Europe by 2050. The 2025 call funds two main project types - Exploratory Research Projects and Accelerating Innovation Projects – under three thematic topics:
- Domestic food practices for enhancing sustainable and healthy diets;
- Towards diverse, sustainable and circular food processing systems;
- Importance of trust and transparency in food systems.
Projects must adopt a food systems approach, be solution- and impact‑driven, and show inter‑ and transdisciplinarity as well as meaningful multi‑stakeholder engagement (science, policy, industry, and society). They should clearly articulate an Impact Plan with a theory of change describing how the project will contribute to food system transformation and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Successful consortia will typically include universities, research institutes, SMEs, larger companies, public bodies and civil society organisations working together across countries to deliver new knowledge, prototypes, tools, business models, and policy-relevant insights that can be implemented in real food environments.
Eligible countries
Funding is provided via participating national/regional Funding Organisations (FOs). Only partners from countries with a participating FO (and who meet national/regional rules) can receive funding.
According to Table 3 of the call, the countries with participating funding organisations in this call include:
- Austria
- Belgium (F.R.S.-FNRS, FWO, SPW, VLAIO)
- Bulgaria
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany (BLE, PtJ/BMFTR)
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Italy (Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano)
- Lithuania
- Norway
- Portugal
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Spain (several regional and national FOs)
- Sweden
- The Netherlands
- Türkiye
Key dates
From the call timeline:
- Deadline for pre‑proposals: 11 February 2026, 13:00 CET
- Invitation to submit full proposals: 01 June 2026
- Deadline for full proposals: 27 July 2026, 13:00 CEST
- National/regional contract negotiations and project start: December 2026 – April 2027 (approx.)
Maximum project duration: up to 36 months (according to FO rules).
Funding amounts and project types
The call is implemented via a virtual common pot, with FOs collectively allocating around EUR 39 million (including the EU co‑funding).
- Indicative total call budget: ~EUR 39 million (provisional).
- Funding per project: No single fixed maximum at call level; each FO sets its own maximum national/regional amount per project, typically in the range of EUR 100,000–750,000 per partner, depending on country, organisation type and project type.
- Projects must respect FO‑specific ceilings and eligible cost rules (see Annex I).
Two project types are funded (all three topics are open to both):
- Exploratory Research Projects (TRL 3–5)
- Focus: basic and/or applied research, advancing scientific knowledge and theory, proof‑of‑concept work.
- Outputs: academic publications, methods, datasets, tools, guidelines, e‑learning, etc.
- Aim: lay the groundwork for food system transformation.
- Accelerating Innovation Projects (TRL 6–8)
- Focus: up‑scaling and validating science‑based solutions in real‑life settings (industry, policy, society).
- Outputs: prototypes/pilots, digital tools, business models, market analyses, regulatory sandboxes, etc.
- Aim: deploy practical solutions for sustainable food practices, products, services and processes.
Eligibility criteria (high level)
Consortium-level eligibility
- Minimum consortium:
- At least 3 partners from 3 different countries with participating FOs in this call, and
- Each of these partners must be eligible for funding from their respective FO.
- One Project Coordinator, employed by an organisation eligible for funding in this call, must lead the consortium.
- Partners from additional countries may join as self‑funded (associated) partners, subject to a letter of commitment (they do not count towards the minimum 3 partners/3 countries and cannot coordinate).
- No single country (excluding self‑funded partners) may exceed 60% of total person‑months in the project.
- Maximum duration: up to 36 months.
- Proposals must be written in English, use the official templates, respect page limits, and be submitted via the online system by the deadlines.
- Submission is two‑step: a pre‑proposal is mandatory before a full proposal can be submitted.
Who can apply (organisation types)
Depending on national rules, the following may be eligible for funding:
- Universities and universities of applied sciences
- Public and private research organisations
- Non‑profit entities (NGOs, associations, cooperatives, etc.)
- SMEs and larger companies
- Public bodies (e.g. municipalities, regional/national authorities)
Each partner must check the national/regional eligibility rules (Annex I) and consult their National/Regional Contact Point (NCP/RCP).
Thematic / content eligibility
Each proposal must address one of the three call topics:
- Domestic food practices for enhancing sustainable and healthy diets
- Focus: household food practices, dietary shifts, nutrition, affordability, cultural dimensions, food waste, evidence-based information, vulnerable groups.
- Towards diverse, sustainable and circular food processing systems
- Focus: circularity, side streams and by‑products, novel processing, gentle/minimal processing, energy efficiency, waste reduction, new preservation schemes, biotechnologies, climate‑neutral value chains.
- Importance of trust and transparency
- Focus: transparency tools, labelling, sustainability and nutrition information, digital tools (apps, QR codes), data governance, combating “label washing”, improving consumer trust and engagement.
All projects must incorporate the FutureFoodS guiding elements: transformative perspective, inter‑ and transdisciplinarity, multi‑stakeholder engagement, and sustainability across environmental, economic, and social dimensions.
Application and evaluation
- Submission platform: https://futurefoods.ptj.de (pre‑proposals and full proposals).
- Support tools: partnering tool and applicant webinar (11 December 2025).
- Proposals undergo:
- General eligibility checks and national/regional eligibility checks;
- International Expert Panel (IEP) evaluation on excellence, impact, and quality/implementation;
- Ranking and final selection by the Call Board (CB), based on evaluation results and available national budgets.
Funded projects must sign national/regional contracts with their FOs and comply with monitoring and reporting requirements (mid‑term report, end‑term report, participation in joint kick‑off, mid‑term and final meetings).
Click HERE to visit the official website.