S+T+ARTS Hungry EcoCities ○ Open Call 2 / Phase 1 > call for SMEs in the agri-food sector
Hungry EcoCities is launching the second Open Call. The 1st phase of this Open Call is for European SMEs in the agri-food sector interested in exploring the potential of technology and art in tackling aspects such as reduced food waste, and more ethical food consumption in the EU. We are seeking applications from SMEs to identify and select the most relevant test sites in the food and agriculture sectors, demonstrating a potential to experiment with digital technologies.
Second HUNGRY ECOCITIES Open Call ○ Call for Art-Driven Experiments
The second Open Call (Call for Art-Driven Experiments) consists of two phases:
PHASE 1
February 15, 9am
to May 15, 5pm
(Brussels Time)
2024
Open Call for applications from SMEs from the agri-food sector interested in exploring art-technology experimentation to improve their product/services design and/or production processes in the agri-food value chain.
The Hungry EcoCities consortium will select up to 10 SMEs to enable a matchmaking process with an Artist partner (2nd Phase of this Open Call) to form the team and prepare an artistic prototyping proposal for collaboration in the PPE support programme.
Applications can be submitted between the 15th of February 2024 at 9h (CET) and the 15th of May 2024 at 17h (CEST)
- Maximum funding per SME: up to 45 000 EUR
(Artists will receive separate funding up to € 36,000, Maximum funding for two entities up to € 81,000) - Duration of the support programme for SMEs: 14 months
- Number of selected applicants: up to 10 SMEs from the agri-food sector.
PHASE 2
Opens July 11th, 2024
Applications from individual Artists, interested in collaborating on the intersection of technology, art, and the possibility of experimenting with a real-test environment in the food industry to address the challenges presented by the selected SMEs.
More details about this phase will be announced in the spring of 2024 on this webpage, our social media and at the Hungry EcoCities Community Space, so sign up and stay up to date. The Open Call for Artists will be launched during the summer of 2024.
About HUNGRY ECOCITIES
Hungry EcoCities, a Horizon Europe project, aims to transform the European agricultural and food sector into a healthier, more sustainable, and responsible system enabled by digitalisation (AI). Are you interested in exploring a mix of technology and art and seeing how art-driven experimentation can impact the future of food? Have you wondered how would the European agri-food chain be transformed if local challenges were at the core of experimentation? Would you like to be part of that change by collaborating with artists to create innovative outcomes for a sustainable and ethical AI-enabled agri-food sector? This project will give you this opportunity, and your SME may become one to ignite such transformation!
We are looking forward to receiving applications from European SMEs, keen on experimenting with digital technologies and pursuing new paths for innovation. Through the Hungry EcoCities selection process, we will identify the most relevant test sites in the food and agriculture sector to engage in collaborations with Artists. Worth to mention is also the consortium of the project as the vast majority of its members are organisations and individuals that work with art and digital tools on their daily basis.
How will it work?
The Hungry EcoCities consortium will select up to 10 SMEs to enable a matchmaking process with an Artist partner (2nd Phase of this Open Call) to form the team and prepare an artistic prototyping proposal for collaboration in the PPE support programme (Paths to Progress Experiments). In this call for art-driven experimentation, artists and SMEs will join forces to address specific local challenges for artist-driven experiments conducted in local test sites.
They will work together on a proposal to tackle a challenge in a concrete test site provided by the SME to explore limitless possibilities of merging technology and art and improving European agri-food system.
Join Hungry EcoCities, and be a driving force in redefining the European agri-food chain. Apply today and shape a more resilient and innovative agri-food landscape!
The S+T+ARTS residencies and the Paths to Progress experiments
Hungry EcoCities is a groundbreaking initiative that seeks to develop responsible, art-driven solutions for the agri-food industry using AI-enabled technologies. This program will host up to 20 S+T+ARTS residencies aimed at prototyping these solutions for end-users. These “experiments” give an opportunity to think differently, to bridge perspectives, and to give a voice to unheard actors.
To select up to the 20 art-driven experiments, two open calls will be launched with specific themes in mind. The first call, “Humanizing Technology Experiments within AI Breakthrough Technology Domains,” is already closed and has selected 9 artists who will use artistic means to explore and prototype AI applications in the agri-food sector, which can be accessed and tested within the Paths-to-Progress experiments.
The second call, for Art-Driven Experiments, will select up to 10 duos, each composed of one industrial end-user/SME from the agri-food sector and one artist, who will work together to prototype AI-enabled applications for specific use cases while raising awareness of the topic through artistic outputs.
The Paths to Progress Experiments (PPEs) is a 14-month support programme to unravel and test the identified issue/problem by the End-User to contribute to a future food system that is more healthy, sustainable, and/or responsible in a concrete test site (e.g., supermarket, bio farm, community garden, production facility, restaurant). It follows a multi-disciplinary art-driven innovation collaboration approach, in which the End-User firstly collaborates with the consortium and selected Creative Studio, based on the Hungry EcoCities direction (Mega Scale, Local Conditions or City+Farming Synergies) and through a matchmaking process is linked to an Artist, that will experiment in collaboration with the End-User on its test site.
Meet our Creative Studios
CRA-CARLO RATTI ASSOCIATI ► City+Farming Synergies
The urban population is projected to grow consistently over the coming decades. For this reason, the urgency has never been greater for cities to establish more efficient and sustainable agricultural practices to keep their residents fed and healthy.
Fortunately, the contours of a functional and sustainable urban agriculture system are beginning to emerge. Stakeholders from different fields are engaging in various forms of experimentation to bring our vision closer to reality. For instance, rooftops, basements and other under-utilized spaces – including ones made redundant by the COVID pandemic – have been converted into hotspots for crop cultivation; Experiments take place in controlled environments to imagine what it would take for farms to be placed vertically on building facades; Forward-looking prototypes have been unveiled at design weeks to involve diverse communities in the conversation.
Among most of these novel endeavors, CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati believes in the use of sensors, artificial intelligence and other digital devices to realize what had not been feasible. Over the years, our studio has undertaken various projects to harness the power of automation with intention and adequate planning, with the goal to help contemporary urban farmers do more with fewer resources. As part of the Hungry EcoCities consortium, CRA will offer its expertise in architectural design and technological innovation and its collaboration with the selected SMEs to make agriculture an integral element of the urban landscape, in turn exploring the possibilities of territorial regeneration in urban and peri-urban areas.
STUDIO OTHER SPACES ►Local Conditions
Studio Other Spaces (SOS), an office for architecture and art founded by artist Olafur Eliasson and architect Sebastian Behmann, offers a holistic approach to projects. This includes developing spatial and digital concepts, merging design innovation with craftsmanship and new technologies, conducting extensive research into sites and their human and nonhuman inhabitants and users, generating new identities, and operating as a general contractor. The studio works across a broad range of sectors and maintains a strong focus on sustainability and responsible design.
Within the context of the Hungry EcoCities project, Studio Other Spaces’ focus lies on food cultures, and investigating how they reflect the needs of our bodies, of our communities, of the planet, and the agri-food sector’s role in shaping sustainable futures. The act of cooking and sharing food as an important aspect of food cultures can have the ability to tie habitats, communities, individuals, and agricultural methods together. Throughout this phase of the project, and by way of food cultures, SOS aims at developing ways to restore soil, foster biodiversity and reduce energy consumption in agricultural food production. By transforming food cultures, a more sustainable and resilient food system practice can be achieved.
How will local solutions in agriculture and food cultures shape what we grow, what we eat, when and with whom we eat? Can learning about our food systems and telling new stories lead to innovation in, development of, and scaling up regenerative and integrative agricultural practices? How do we scale smaller, experimental projects of this kind that value regeneration, resilience, and fairness in the agri-food sector?
In the second open call, European businesses (SMEs) from the agri-food sector that work closely with SOS, will concentrate on developing design-technology integrations for raising awareness that shall aim at making the food chain more transparent, inclusive, and sustainable, at building connections between different stakeholders of the food chain, and at promoting more informed and sustainable consumption patterns.
EATTHIS ► Mega Scale
This direction explores the relative spatial and cultural distance we built between food production and the city: society considered food production as something that didn’t require serious cultural attention, while it prioritized cheaper and easier access. How and where it was made or grown wasn’t of great interest. This left production in the hands of a purely industrial rationale, a relentless yet arguably successful form of modernism, and transformed it into a black box not to be seen by society. The role of society was mainly the consumption of its output. Food marketers were tasked to make up the space in between with faux-idyllic romanticism which were accepted against one’s better judgement. We want to explore these challenges by trying to find an interface where ‘our’ intelligence matters and can provoke new considerations and thoughts. At a planetary level, we are interested in the logic of production site locations (Where to grow?), including how the urban level seeks to address the opposition between the scale of production needed and urban space available (Gigafactory for Food). On a cultural level, we are interested in exploring how trying to fuse hi-tech and alternative food growing cultures can lead to alternative futures. In each one the role of a specific form of growing, e.g. Controlled Environmental Agriculture (CEA), can be taken as a starting point.
Where do we grow the additional food we need with respect for nature, humans, and culture? What would it mean if a city is to sustain itself? Would it require a giga factory for food production? How will such an integrated system look like? What will it grow? How could technological scaling be combined with alternative growing techniques? Where should we grow in a warming world?
WHO CAN APPLY?
European SMEs active in the agri-food sector. To know more see Guide for Applicants (available from 15th February 2024) in which you will get to know about eligibility criteria to apply for this Open Call.
Only applications submitted before the deadline (May 15th, 5pm CEST) through the online application form will be considered for further evaluation!
PHASE 1 ○ TIMELINE
The 2nd phase will be launched on 1st of June.
WEBINARS
The Hungry EcoCities consortium partners planned two online webinars about this first Open Call to clear doubts and answer questions live. The webinars will be recorded and shared online.
Webinar 1
The first Webinar took place on the 29th of February 2024 4pm CET
Webinar 2
The second Webinar took place on the 2nd of April 2024 10am CEST
COMMUNITY SPACE / HELPDESK / CONTACT
Helpdesk of Hungry EcoCities is a dedicated support tailored to ensure a smooth and efficient journey through project’s Open Calls. Have a question, concern, or need clarification on a application related matter? Simply write a question and our team will reach out to you.
For any doubts or questions, you can also reach us by email at hungryecocities@fundingbox.com.
The Hungry EcoCities project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement 101069990.
