In October 2015, the Agropolis, Cariplo and Carasso Foundations signed a Partnership Agreement expressing the common objective of contributing to address sustainability of agriculture and food systems issues by collectively supporting international scientific projects from developed and developing countries.
Under the overall theme of “sustainable agriculture and food systems,” the Thought for Food Initiative Open Call for Proposals (€2M) covers two strands, namely:
(a) Diverse agricultural production for more sustainable food systems and diets; and
(b) Sustainable food processing for more sustainable and healthy diets.
Under this collaboration, the three European foundations support five collaborative and multidisciplinary scientific research projects with a capacity building component in a common effort to contribute to the understanding and promotion of a holistic approach to sustainable food systems.
A third thematic strand “Towards sustainable urban food systems” is addressed through a commissioned project called "URBAL" (Urban-Driven Innovations for Sustainable Food Systems), an international project that uses participatory research in eight cities to develop and test a holistic methodology to map the impact pathways that go from urban innovations to all dimensions of food systems process sustainability.