Exchanging thoughts on business model development for novel agri-food technologies

Between the 8th and the 10th of May, the first RUSTICA cross-visit took place in Ghent, Belgium. This not only allowed regional stakeholders to learn more about the RUSTICA pilot plants, but it also provided an opportunity for the project partners to have some additional face-to-face meetings.

Federica Cisilino from the Italian Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA) visited the colleagues from the KU Leuven, Erika De Keyser and Tessa Avermaete, on Thursday the 11^th and Friday the 12^th of May. They managed to have some insightful discussions on the progress of our business model development work, and at the same time exchange thoughts on challenges to business model development for novel agri-food technologies.

The visit of Federica also allowed to enhance collaboration with other projects. In this context, a meeting was set up with junior researcher and PhD student Lorenzo Giacomella, who is involved in the Food processing in a bOX (FOX) project. The FOX project stimulates short food supply chains for fruit and vegetables by applying innovative mild processing technologies in a mobile setting. The approach creates business opportunities for regional hubs and provides qualitative processed foods to be indulged by the local community. The project will have its final conference in September 2023.

Both the FOX and the RUSTICA project aim at developing business models and robustness checks as well as technological developments. This exchange between researchers of different projects helps to share struggles, and identify opportunities to overcome them.

And of course, the KU Leuven team also showed Federica some of the most beautiful spots in Leuven and took the time to enjoy a local beer and fine chocolates.