Creating Entrepreneurs in Food, an EU-funded project worth over €220,000, aims to build food innovation and entrepreneurship-focused rural communities and economies across Europe.
The university’s Business and Management Research Institute will work with the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology in Ireland, the European Council of Young Farmers in Belgium and the Polish Beef Association in Poland.
BMRI project leader Prof Yanqing Duan said: “It is a privilege to be part of this unique project and be able to make important contributions to the creation of a new generation of food entrepreneurs for the short food supply chain through products, processes and services innovation.”
The project aims to boost innovation and entrepreneurship in rural communities by examining current food supply chains in Europe to identify innovative methods and help to deliver short food supply processes, cutting costs for small producers and encouraging collaboration with other food entrepreneurs.
The project will create a training course for food producers aimed at providing ‘soft’ skills that will empower them to keep control of their business, promote innovation, create employment and move them up the value chain.
The project will also develop an online web portal to encourage the sharing of knowledge and best practice between education and enterprises, allowing food producers to connect and collaborate with one another.
Prof Duan said: “We look forward to working with our European partners and making an impact on the economic development of the rural food enterprises and communities in the UK and across Europe.”
