Open and participatory citizen research for sustainable nutrition

Programmme:

Horizon Europe

Duration:

December 2024 - November 2028

Financing:

5.022.917,50 EUR

SPOON is a European research and development project that seeks to transform the food system in various regions of Europe, promoting practices that guide citizens’ behavior towards sustainable and healthy diets, while combating food insecurity. Through an innovative approach, it integrates citizen science with the Living Labs methodology, placing people at the center of the process. To this end, citizen scientists, regional stakeholders and researchers will work in six Citizen Science Labs (CSLs), collaborative spaces designed to analyze food systems, empower citizens in their consumption habits and strengthen policymakers’ decision-making based on scientific data.

Project challenge

The SPOON project aims to solve three challenges linked to the European food system. Firstly, it aims to work to eradicate food insecurity, which affects a significant sector of the European population, especially in contexts of economic and social crisis. Secondly, given that the foods that are most affordable for the majority of the population are of lower nutritional quality, as they are often ultra-processed, the SPOON project aims to change consumers’ eating habits so that they adhere to healthier diets. Lastly, and bearing in mind that the food industry is considered to be highly polluting, efforts will be made to ensure that the key players in the food system apply good practices that promote the sustainability of the system, which will have an impact on the eating behavior of the public

Solutions

The SPOON project aims not only to study the European food system and citizens’ food practices, but also to initiate a change in consumer behavior through the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of behavioral change interventions, called Behaviour Change Interventions (BCI). These interventions will be co-designed in the CSLs between scientists and citizens with the aim of initiating a change in the system.

At SFC, we are in charge of creating the methodological framework that will be implemented in all CSLs. Our role, therefore, is to fit together the pieces that constitute citizen science and Living Labs to create a protocol that guarantees rigorous data collection by citizens so that the information can be interpreted with the objective of co-designing BCIs that can be implemented and measured. In this way we aim to maximize the positive social impact by guiding consumer behavior towards healthier and more sustainable diets that will then feed into new informed policies. In parallel, SFC will design the engagement strategy that best suits the needs of each CSL to motivate participants and ensure their commitment to the research. In this sense, the inclusion of citizens in the project promotes sensitization and awareness of the importance of the research.

Results

To achieve the proposed results, we will validate the data collected in real environments, involving stakeholders at key points in the chain of consumer behavior, with the aim of generating a lasting change in their habits related to healthy and sustainable eating. The project starts from internal and external factors of eating behavior in different European regions, not only to alter behavior from a personal approach, but also to promote public policies that remove general barriers and promote changes in the entire food system.

Project funded by the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation program. Grant agreement n. 101182299- Project belonging to the area “HORIZON-CL6-2024-FARM2FORK-01-6 - Citizens' science as an opportunity to foster the transition to sustainable food systems” of the work program “Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment” of the European Commission.