Innovation Fund Denmark funds the first green research mission, AgriFoodTure
Innovation Fund Denmark has granted DKK 201 million to the research and innovation partnership Agri-FoodTure. Climate, sustainable agriculture and food production will thereby be the first of the four mission-driven green research and innovation partnerships launched by Innovation Fund Denmark.
In 2021, the Danish government and parliament earmarked DKK 700 million for investments in mission-driven, green research and innovation partnerships in order to meet the country’s ambitious climate targets of a 70% reduction by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050. Innovation Fund Denmark will allocate the funds to four partnerships, of which AgriFoodTure is the first.
"It's crucial that we speed up the green transition of the agriculture sector. The need for food will only increase as the global population grows. In Denmark, we already have a very good basis for propelling sustainable agriculture, but if we’re really going to achieve the ambitious and necessary CO2 reductions that have been set politically, then we need to think innovatively and develop new, ground-breaking, green technologies. This will require bringing together the strongest players in the field. Both to adapt our own agricultural sector and to inspire the rest of the world by exporting Danish green solutions," says Jesper Petersen, Minister for Higher Education and Science.
Denmark as a world leader
AgriFoodTure is a broad-based partnership that unites universities, knowledge and innovation institutions, SME’s, large national and international companies, civil society stakeholders and authorities around a shared vision for Danish food and agriculture production.
The vision is for Denmark to become the world leader in the innovative and disruptive green transition of food and agriculture production. This will be achieved by developing new, ground-breaking solutions and technologies that, in addition to contributing to meeting Denmark's climate targets, need to be disseminated globally as well. The goal of the green transition of Danish agriculture is to create new export opportunities and more jobs at home without compromising food production in Denmark.
"Uniting so many industry stakeholders around a shared vision of really transforming the food and agriculture sector is a great achievement. The initial focus is on research, but with a great emphasis on implementing new knowledge and new solutions, for example by involving both small and large companies. Both they and the authorities will play a role in fulfilling Denmark’s ambitions. Innovation Fund Denmark has great expectations for the mission and will follow it closely,” says Anders Eldrup, chairperson of Innovation Fund Denmark.
Accelerating the green transition through partnerships
The food and agriculture sector aims to reduce the equivalent of 35% of Denmark's total greenhouse gas emissions in order to become climate neutral by 2050. The green transition of food and agriculture production is a very large and complex task, which can only be solved through partnerships and broad societal support.
AgriFoodTure will be the platform that creates the framework that will bolster even more partnerships and interdisciplinary collaborations with stakeholders from the entire value chain, and thereby accelerate the green transition. So far, more than 40 partners are involved in the mission.
"AgriFoodTure is a very strong partnership because we’ve brought together industry, academia, civil society and government agencies and institutions around a shared vision. Our assessment is that the green transition of food and agriculture production in Denmark will require research and innovation investments of around DKK 300 million a year up to 2030. We’ll therefore need even more partners and funding in order to reach our common goals, and we therefore invite all interested parties to participate in the partnership," says Peder Tuborgh, chair of the board for AgriFoodTure and CEO of Arla Foods Amba.
Eleven projects ready to launch
AgriFoodTure already has eleven projects ready to launch. Projects that will generate new knowledge and new solutions for the food and agriculture sector. The projects include reducing greenhouse gases from plant production with focus on using fertilisers and manure, the development of processes and cultures to produce plant-based foods, and the development of completely new types of feed additives to reduce methane emissions from cows. The second round of applications for the partnership will be announced during the summer of 2022 in the hope of launching even more projects.
Contact
Lisbeth Henricksen, interim mission director of AgriFoodTure at tel.: +45 61 28 44 35 for more information about AgriFoodTure.
For press enquiries, contact Peder Tuborgh, chair of the board for AgriFoodTure and CEO of Arla Foods Amba at tel.: +45 89 38 18 96
Fact Sheet
- AgriFoodTure is a broad-based partnership that unites universities, knowledge and innovation institutions, SME’s, large national and international companies, civil society stakeholders and authorities around a shared vision for the green transition of the Danish food and agriculture sector. In April 2022, Innovation Fund Denmark granted DKK 201 million to the AgriFoodTure partnership.
- AgriFoodTure is the result of a joint Roadmap written and submitted by approx. 300 researchers and experts from all Danish universities and several development organisations within the Danish food cluster in connection with Innovation Fund Denmark's Innomission 3 call in April 2021.
- The objective of AgriFoodTure is to deliver and implement knowledge and results generated by the partnership's projects and activities aimed at contributing to the green transition of the food and agriculture and Denmark’s ambitious climate targets.
- AgriFoodTure currently has 41 partners comprised of companies, organisations, universities and knowledge institutions. The goal is to continuously expand the number of partners, and to increase the partnership’s overall budget via additional funding from national and international foundations, private sources of funding, etc.
- AgriFoodTure is headed by an interim board of directors and its chairman is Peder Tuborgh, CEO of Arla Foods Amba. At the end of May 2022, AgriFoodTure will hold an extraordinary general meeting to elect its permanent board of directors.
- A permanent mission director will be appointed during 2022. The interim mission director is Lisbeth Henricksen, director of innovation at SEGES Innovation.
