Description:

European agrifood systems must remain globally competitive while accelerating the transition to sustainability and strengthening resilience. While these objectives are often presented as compatible, progress remains too slow and uneven to meet current challenges.

This opening session focuses on what is holding back transformation and what it will take to move from ambition to action. Bringing together different perspectives, it will examine where tensions arise in practice, why progress is not happening at the required pace, and why existing initiatives and solutions are not translating into coordinated action and large-scale impact.

The session sets the direction for the conference by identifying key bottlenecks, trade-offs, and priorities for accelerating the transformation of European agrifood systems.

Key questions: 

• Where do tensions between sustainability, resilience, and competitiveness arise in practice?
• What is currently holding back transformation—and what needs to be unlocked?
• Why are existing initiatives and solutions not translating into system-wide impact?
• What needs to change to accelerate progress in the coming decade?

Description:

New EU frameworks and initiatives such as FOOD 2040 and the Biotech Act- aim to strengthen Europe’s agrifood research and innovation landscape while supporting sustainability, resilience, and competitiveness.

This session presents how these ambitions are translated into frameworks, instruments, and priorities at EU level. It will explore how EU policy seeks to enable stronger coordination across research, industry, and value chains.

The discussion will also consider how these frameworks are experienced and applied in practice, and where further alignment is needed to ensure that ambitions translate into real impact.

Key questions: 

• What will EU frameworks change in practice for agrifood innovation and competitiveness?
• How do current initiatives support coordination across research, industry, and value chains?
• Where are the main gaps between EU ambitions and implementation?
• How can EU policy better enable impact in practice?

Description:

Climate change is intensifying pressure on water resources across Europe, with agrifood systems facing both increasing scarcity and more frequent flooding. These dynamics are reshaping the conditions for food production and challenging system resilience.

This session focuses on how agrifood systems can respond in practice—exploring how data, system understanding, and coordinated action can support better decisions under uncertainty.

Managing water as both a limiting and excess resource involves difficult trade-offs between environmental, economic, and social priorities. The session will examine how these trade-offs are navigated in practice, and what it takes to translate knowledge into action across policy, research, and value chains..

Key questions: 

• How can agrifood systems make better decisions under increasing climate and water uncertainty?
• Where are the main gaps between knowledge and action?
• What trade-offs arise between environmental, economic, and social priorities—and how are they addressed?
• What needs to change to strengthen resilience and competitiveness?Where do tensions between sustainability, resilience, and competitiveness arise in practice?

Description:

Regulatory frameworks are essential for ensuring safety and sustainability—but they also shape the speed and direction of innovation. As agrifood systems face urgent challenges, there is increasing pressure to ensure that regulation enables rather than delays the development and adoption of new solutions.

This session explores how regulatory frameworks can evolve to better support innovation, without compromising trust. It will focus on where current approaches slow progress, how timelines and incentives affect innovation pathways, and what needs to change to accelerate time-to-market for sustainable solutions.

Key questions: 

• Where do current regulatory frameworks slow down innovation - and why?
• How can regulation better support emerging solutions while maintaining trust?
• What are the consequences of long and uncertain development timelines?
• What needs to change to accelerate innovation in practice?Where do tensions between sustainability, resilience, and competitiveness arise in practice?

Description:

Europe is generating a strong pipeline of agrifood startups and university spinouts, translating research into new technologies and business models. These ventures are essential for addressing sustainability, resilience, and competitiveness challenges.

Yet, many promising solutions struggle to move beyond early-stage development and achieve large-scale impact.

This session explores how Europe can better unlock the potential of its innovation ecosystem. Bringing together perspectives from startups, investors, industry, and system actors, it will examine what it takes to move from innovation to adoption—and what is currently holding this back.

Key questions: 

• Why does strong agrifood innovation not translate into system-level impact?
• What are the main barriers to scaling—and where do they occur?
• What role should startups and spinouts play in driving transformation?
• What needs to change across policy, investment, and industry to enable scaling?

Description:

Across Europe, researchers, practitioners, and innovation actors are developing and implementing solutions that contribute to more sustainable and resilient agrifood systems.

This session highlights selected examples of what works in practice—focusing on how solutions have been developed, implemented, and scaled. It will also examine what made these initiatives successful, and why similar approaches are not more widely adopted

Key questions: 

• What has enabled these solutions to move from idea to implementation?
• What challenges had to be overcome—and how?
• Why are similar approaches not more widely adopted?
• What can others learn from these experiences?

Description:

This closing keynote reflects on the key insights from the conference and focuses on what needs to happen next. Drawing on global and European perspectives, it will highlight the most critical priorities, where action is most urgent, and how policy, research, and industry can better align to accelerate implementation and deliver impact at scale.

Key questions: 

• What are the most critical priorities for Europe going forward?
• Where is action most urgently needed?
• What is currently holding back implementation?
• What should Europe do differently to deliver impact at scale?Where do tensions between sustainability, resilience, and competitiveness arise in practice?