A year of action: Building strong #FoodSystem networks in 2025

Person holding a globe with vegetables showing on the background

It's that time of year when you start to reflect on progress made and start to look ahead to what is to come. At the Food Systems Institute we are doing just that, especially as it is a season of change with Jack heading off to UCLA and myself stepping into the Director role. So let's reflect on a year of new beginnings and establishment of some new foundations.

2024: A year of transformation

This has been the first full calendar year for the FSI and we started the year with the relaunch of the Food Innovation Centre. We welcomed over 80 people from food and drink businesses to hear about the work the Centre has been doing and see our facilities. The FIC has been running for over 7 years now, providing technical and innovation support for over 300 Food and Drink SMEs, but last summer saw the end of the ERDF funding that had supported its activities. Under FSI we have moved to a new commercial/grant funding hybrid model of cost recovery, winning 4 grants to support the Centre the activities and engaged with over 200 businesses in the last year alone.

In April, we launched the Centre for Food Policy and Foresight (CFPF), led by Professor Paul Wilson which involves over 50 academics from across the university that publish food and agriculture research with policy implications. This is one of the largest collections of food policy relevant research groups in the UK and we have brought them together for the first time to accelerate the translation of their research into policy recommendations and facilitate engagement with key stakeholders. The Centre has already seen some successes with grants, new papers, new policy briefs, engagement activities with local policymakers and at COP29, as well as a new partnership with UCLA.

Collaborating for stronger food system networks 

Throughout the year we also supported more than 20 engagement events utilising our campus, this included three that were particularly successful and worth highlighting.

Starting in May, our Nottingham University Business School hosted the Future Food Symposium 2024, and the FSI co-sponsored the event. This was a 2 day conference, coordinated by Associate Professor John Harvey and a small organising committee, with around 300 attendees, 2 keynote speakers, 13 different topic tracks covering "Consumer Food Waste", "Nutritional Food Security", "Diet-related Disease", "Impact of Food on the Environment", "Social Eating and Canteen Culture" amongst others. The event demonstrated the diversity of interests across the community and sparked a number of new collaborations that have developed into new research projects.

In July, we hosted the InnovateUK Business Connect team for the Food Sector Group Meeting, with over 40 leaders from food manufacturing and the day included tours of our Sutton Bonnington Campus as well as a lunchtime showcase event for 5 innovative Food SME businesses, including product sample tasting.Finally, in October we hosted the inaugural Nottinghamshire Food Summit at the Great Hall in the Trent building on University Park. Organised by Nottinghamshire County Council Public Health team, led by Kathy Holmes, with the Nottinghamshire Sustainable Food Network and the FSI team, this event brought together over 140 local activists for food system change from the Nottinghamshire area. The was great coverage of food surplus redistribution organisations, community growing initiatives, education programmes, local foraging businesses, community canteen programmes, food security researchers, local policymakers and much more. A report from the event should be published soon and there are a number of planned follow up activities including a draft Food Plan that was co-developed on the day. This was a brilliant showcase for how local community action is working together to shape a more sustainable food system.

Strengthening our commitment to an equitable food future

To close out the year we also launched the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture Systems (CSAS), led by co-Directors and Assistant Professors Nick Girkin and Hannah Cooper, this Translational Centre focuses on applied research activities across three themes - regenerative farming systems, climate smart crops and future agricultural technologies. Over 50 academic staff have engaged with the Centre from the Schools of Biosciences, Geography, Business School, Computer Sciences, Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences bringing together one of the largest interdisciplinary groupings dedicated to sustainable agricultural systems in the UK. Our launch workshop brought industry from across the country, and despite disruption from early winter snow, the successfully went ahead and started the development of the Centres industry relevant research strands. 

2025 promises to bring more exciting developments for FSI as we further roll out activities across our Translational Centres. Early in the year we will kick off with our inaugural Food Futures seminar by Deputy Director General for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Professor Beth Bechdol, which will start our Food Policy Month at UoN. This will culminate in the start of CFPF's Food Policy Internship Programme, which will run through to the summer. There will also be a series of workshops with industry coordinated by the CSAS and more engagement events throughout the year. We can't wait to get going and we're looking forward to seeing you all in the new year.

If you'd like to stay in the loop and be part of our food systems community, you can sign up to receive our quaterly newsletter which includes our research highlights and engagement opportunities.