Agrifood Lab — Cultivating Innovation for the Future of Food
Client
EIT FoodThe background:
The agri-food sector continues to face serious challenges as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Mined fields, contaminated soil and water, and disrupted supply chains have made growing and harvesting crops increasingly difficult.
EIT Food invests in people, organizations and projects that drive positive change in the food system. Through inclusive systems innovation, they ensure all regions and stakeholders can actively participate in and benefit from this transformation.
The organization focuses on four key areas:
- Soil and water treatment;
- Robots and process automation;
- Sustainable energy and energy efficiency;
- Food of the future.
To help address these challenges, EIT Food partnered with Civitta, Radar Tech, INSCIENCE, and Innov8 to deliver a dynamic innovation program combining workshops and a hackathon.
Aim of the project:
Civitta, together with the partner companies designed and implemented three online workshops followed by a 7-day offline hackathon. The program was based on the Stanford School of Design Thinking model.
Thirteen interdisciplinary teams participated – bringing together small business and startup representatives, scientists, developers, engineers, farmers, designers, and marketers. The hackathon also involved experts, jury members, and representatives of the target audience, including agricultural workers and entrepreneurs.
Services provided:
The Agrifood Lab Hackathon provided a hands-on environment for addressing real-world agri-food challenges:
- 7 innovation cases;
- 55 participants;
- 13 diverse teams;
- 3 winning teams awarded cash prizes;
- 4 teams received tickets to the New Food Summit.
Participants developed scalable solutions in key innovation areas such as soil and water treatment, automation, and sustainable energy with practical outcomes ready for further development.
Project result:
All participants joined the Agrifood Lab alumni club, where they continue to receive updates and opportunities for growth. Several teams are now actively exploring how to further develop and scale their hackathon concepts with support from the network.
The program demonstrated that innovation doesn’t happen by chance – it happens when the right minds come together to solve real, complex problems. With practical outcomes emerging from the hackathon, including cash prize winners and teams gaining visibility at the New Food Summit, the Agrifood Lab laid the foundation for real-world impact in the agri-food space.
If you’re looking to build meaningful solutions and drive change in your sector, we’re here to help you take the next step.
