EU FUSIONS (Food Use for Social Innovation by Optimising Waste Prevention Strategies)

EU FUSIONS (Food Use for Social Innovation by Optimising Waste Prevention Strategies) is a project about working towards a more resource efficient Europe by significantly reducing food waste. The project runs for 4 years, from August 2012 to July 2016. It is funded by the European Commission Framework Programme 7. FUSIONS has 21 project partners from 13 countries, bringing together universities, knowledge institutes, consumer organisations and businesses. The project will establish a European Multi-Stakeholder Platform to generate a shared vision and strategy to prevent food loss and waste across the whole supply chain through social innovation. Already more than 200 leading European organisations have pledged their support. The project will contribute towards: • the harmonisation of food waste monitoring; • improved understanding of the extent to which social innovation can reduce food waste; • and the development of guidelines for a common Food Waste policy for EU-27. Through delivery of the key objectives, FUSIONS will support: • the delivery of the Roadmap towards a Resource Efficient Europe; • the European Commission's target of a 50% reduction of food waste; • and a 20% reduction in the food chain's resource inputs by 2020.

FUSIONS deliverables are devided in five work packages (WP) between the project team as follows: • WP 1 Reliable data and information sources trends and assessment criteria • WP 2 FUSIONS Multi-stakeholder Platform • WP 3 Recommendations for a Common EU Policy • WP 4 Feasibility Studies • WP 5 Dissemination WP1: • Review of EUROSTAT's methodology for reporting food waste • Documentation of key methodologies for food waste reporting • Recommendations on standard approaches to be used to estimate food waste levels across the different stages of the food chain • Developed of a definitional framework for food waste • Identified food waste drivers and opportunities to reduce these. WP2: Fifteen regional platform meetings and two European platform meetings were organised in 2013-2015, The Final European Platform Meeting will be held in March 2016 in Brussels. WP3: • A social innovation camp was organised in Bologna on April 8 2014 • A report on how to stimulate social innovation through policy measures. WP4: • A report on how can social innovation help reduce food waste • An inventory of selected socially innovative food waste prevention and food waste management activities has been developed and updated • 7 feasibility studies have been launched at the second Regional Platform Meeting • Activity reports of the 7 feasibility studies that have been produced. WP5: • A project website was created • Social media tools were created: Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. • Seven newsletters have been distributed to ~200 members and subscribers • FUSIONS partners have participated and presented at over 100 events and generated diverse media coverage • FUSIONS awareness raising events were organised.