Agrifood Futures Expert Community

To join the Expert Community, you must meet specific criteria. We seek researchers, entrepreneurs, and industry professionals who are experts in the food sector capable of sharing their insights and experiences.

• Relevant expertise: Applicants should have demonstrated expertise in agrifood research and development. This can be through academic qualifications, professional experience, or a history of significant contributions.

• Professional experience: A minimum of 7 years of professional experience in the field is expected.

• Alignment with AFEC values: Applicants should share the values and mission of the AFEC community. This includes having an interest in professional exposure to foster new partnerships, participating in a database of suppliers for specific tasks or services, and being part of a networking system to address innovation challenges that can lead to new projects and business opportunities.

• Passion for food innovation: Prospective members should have a genuine passion for learning and innovation in the food industry. They should also be open to providing feedback and contributing new ideas within the community and to EIT Food.

• Active on social media: Ideally, applicants should be active on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. They should be willing to publicly comment on and share content related to the work of the AFEC community promoted by EIT Food.

Additional membership criteria:

In addition to the above criteria, there are two ways to become a member:

• Automatic entry for Partners: Some applicants receive automatic entry due to their Partner Status. EIT Food partners also include the Rising Food Stars.

• Recommendation by existing members: Existing members can recommend new members to join by asking them to fill in the application form and sending an email to foodexperts@eitfood.eu. Those applicants will enjoy fast track entry.

By joining our community, members get access to exclusive content to stay up-to-date with what’s going on in the agrifood industry. This content comes from members, as well as content curated with the group in mind by external experts.

Exciting opportunities are posted to the community, often by the organisers themselves. These opportunities include programmes for agrifood startups, as well as programmes for experts looking to become agrifood mentors.

Calls for collaboration bring members together from all over the globe to work on projects in the agrifood. Experts offer insights and share experiences to aid each other with every discussion having the chance to turn into something great.

As the world’s population looks to surpass 9.7 billion by 2050, the agrifood industry is looking for innovative ways to approach feeding people worldwide. As socio-demographic changes shift demand, and the scarcity of natural resources and climate change challenge the current processes within the agrifood industry, the need for change has become apparent to more than just the experts.

The key to unlocking the problems the agrifood industry is facing is increasing agricultural productivity- with innovative ideas and tech and the funding to back it up. The opportunity within the industry has not gone unnoticed- investment is up 600% since 2012 and more and more entrepreneurs and tech experts have joined the effort for more sustainable food practices.

Open collaboration between leading agrifood experts across the industry brings new insights and more impactful change to the industry. Project opportunities, mentorship programmes and roles and exclusive content make this the ideal place to stay up to date with everything in agrifood.

Researchers are able to share insights guided by their research and learnings, expanding the community’s knowledge and inspiring engaging discussions on their findings. Stay up to date with new findings and potentially find your next project partner.

Entrepreneurs in the agrifood industry are shaking things up with their novel approaches to traditional techniques and their groundbreaking innovations aiming to solve the issues faced by the industry.

Industry experts know everything there is to know about their field of expertise and have spent years working in the industry.

By connecting experts from all over the world, the group aims to encourage collaborative projects to tackle the issues facing the agrifood industry, such as feeding the growing population and innovating sustainable processes in agrifood.