11 October 2023
YAS-member and ERC-Starting Grant recipient Janina Seubert was invited to Brussels to speak about how research and innovation are helping drive the transition to sustainable, healthy, and inclusive food systems. Janina reports on her visit.
From the left: Sander Thomaes, Janina Seubert and Pierre Girard on the thematic session 1: Adopting sustainable choices and consumer behaviour.
ERC: Programme and filmed sessions
The European Research Council organized the event together with the European Parliament’s Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) at the European Parliament in Brussels on 10–11 October. The event was arranged in the context of a publication on sustainable food consumption by the Chief Scientific Advisors providing independent scientific advice to the European Commission, as well as policy discussions about the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy which aims to move towards more healthy and sustainable food systems. A key part of this strategy is the creation of a healthy food environment to help people make healthy and sustainable food choices. A session was dedicated to consumer behaviour and the role of education and campaigns on nutrition.
Janina spoke about her Starting Grant, OLFLINK, alongside ERC President, Maria Leptin, other ERC grantees, members of the European Parliament and representatives from the European Commission. It meant a wonderful opportunity to showcase her excellent research on flavour preferences and food choice and to demonstrate the importance of fundamental research for sustainable food production and consumption in the lead-up to next year’s European Parliament elections.
I was very impressed to meet other ERC-funded researchers at the EU Parliament and to hear about their creative and innovative research projects that try to improve food production and consumption in different ways, said Janina Seubert. The meeting clearly showed that curiosity-driven, researcher-initiated research can contribute solutions to the challenges of the future, and I was so happy to hear that the Commissioner for Innovation and Research, Iliana Ivanova, who expressed strong support for the ERC’s mission. The questions and views we received from the politicians such as Dr Christian Ehler, member of the EU-parliament, was inspiring and showed the importance of understanding each other’s point of view and contribution to solutions for the challenges of the future.
Janina Seubert Photo: Erik Thor/SUA
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