• Title: Creating Entrepreneurs in Food (CEF)
• Funding Programme: Erasmus +
• Duration of the Project: 26 months
• EC Co-financing: 220,545 EUR
• Start Date: 31st December 2016

Aim and objectives

The ‘Creating Entrepreneurs in Food’ project addresses the flagship initiatives of the Europe 2020 strategy namely ‘Innovation Union’ and ‘An Agenda for New Skills and Jobs’. The project's aim is to boost innovation and entrepreneurship in vocational education, and ultimately in business and in the broader socio-economic environment by:

• Jointly developing and implementing entrepreneurship training aimed at those in short food supply chains in participating programme countries
• Creating a short food supply chain entrepreneurship mind-set that will empower food producers to gain control of their business models and move up the value chain
• Cultivating transversal skill sets developed in cooperation with food entrepreneurs thus strengthening employability, creativity and new professional paths
• Providing a web platform that stimulates the flow and exchange of knowledge between education and enterprises, embedding entrepreneurship and innovation as core themes

The aim of the curriculum and web portal to be developed as part of this project will be:

‘To develop entrepreneurial skill sets in early stage food entrepreneurs and to facilitate innovative thinking that will develop the potential for participants to recognise and critically analyse opportunities within the sector and in turn create employment in their local regions throughout Europe.’

Target audience

The main target of the resultant vocational education and training package will be local/regional food producers, the wider agricultural community, rural farmers and food entrepreneurs across Europe.

A number of participants involved in the project will benefit from the various activities. The groups will include:

• In Ireland: Teagasc, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Department of social Protection, Education and Training Boards (ETBs), VET colleges, Local Enterprise Offices, Industry leaders;
• In the UK: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA); FARMA (A not-for-profit association of the best real farm shops and genuine farmers markets from across the UK), Community Food Enterprise Limited, The farmers’ network;
• In Poland: Ministry of Agriculture and Development, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Education, Wide network of Beef Farmers, Agricultural Market Agency, Educators and training centres.

Outputs

The project’s main outputs will be:

• Core teaching materials and guidelines for Level 4 curriculum ‘Creating Entrepreneurs in Food’
• Online learning course ‘Creating Entrepreneurs in Food’
• Web portal as an all-in-one online support tool for food entrepreneurs. It will serve as a knowledge repository for food entrepreneurs to access information, forums, social media community, knowledge base, and training materials.

Project website

www.creatingentrepreneursinfood.eu

Project news

• University part of European project to give food entrepreneurs a helping hand
• University staff visited Ireland for training material development week
• Transnational meeting for the CEF project hosted in Luton (UK)
• Creating Entrepreneurs in Food (CEF) Roadshow at the Luton campus
• Intensive training course for Food Entrepreneurs
• Transnational CEF project meeting in Warsaw (Poland)
• Creating Entrepreneurs in Food (CEF) Roadshow in Warsaw (Poland)
• Final Transnational CEF project meeting in Dublin (Ireland)
• Creating Entrepreneurs in Food (CEF) International Conference in Dublin (Ireland)

Contact Information

Professor Yanqing Duan
E: yanqing.duan@beds.ac.uk
T: +44 (0)1582 743134