WINN-ORGANIC

Widening INNovations for ORGANIC food

Funder

WINN-ORGANIC receives funding from the European Union and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI)

Value to Coventry University

€ 493,000

Total Value of Project

€ 7,800,000

Duration of Project

September 2025 - August 2029

Project Team

Ulrich Schmutz, Adrain Evans, Moya Kneafsey, Leonardo Faedo, Julia Stew, Judith Conroy 

Collaborators

CIHEAM Bari (Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes), Italy - Lead

Evholo, Italy

Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy

IFOAM Organics Europe, Sweden

European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL), Belgium

Institut De Recerca I Tecnologia Agroalimentaries (IRTA), Catalonia, Spain

Benviro, Spain

Mas La Coromina, Spain

ID Partner, France

Coventry University, UK

Open Food Network UK, UK

DIL German Institute of Food Technologies, Germany

Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação (SPI), Portugal

Nimble, Netherlands

Amico Bio, Italy

Hungarian Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (ÖMKi), Hungary

Bio-Distretto Delle Lame, Italy

Agroscope, Switzerland

Cogiterre Sàrl, Switzerland

Project Overview

WINN-ORGANIC is a Horizon Europe Innovation Action comprising 19 partners from 9 countries. The project addresses systemic imbalances in the organic food value chain and is working to improve access to and procurement of organic food. By bringing together farmers, communities, researchers, policymakers and the environment, WINN-ORGANIC is facilitating change to build community driven organic food systems.

There is a dedicated WINN-ORGANIC website to follow the project’s progress here.

Project Objectives

The project is establishing Organic Food Innovation Hubs in 8 countries, as spaces for collaboration and co-creation. Researchers, small producers, enterprises, policymakers and citizens will work together to design and disseminate innovative solutions. These will include:

• Novel small-scale processing technologies (e.g. fermentations, lower temperature pasteurisation)
• Sustainable packaging from compostable materials and biodegradable plastics
• Open digital platforms for short supply chains
• Innovative business models supporting organic production.

Within the WINN-ORGANIC team, Coventry University leads work on:

• Assessing the sustainability of innovations
• Science society dialogue to ensure new technological solutions are right for users and acceptable to consumers
• Business and financial models which support the adoption of innovations
• Alongside fellow UK partner Open Food Network UK, the facilitation of a ‘frontrunner’ Organic Food Innovation Hub.