Understanding food value chains and network dynamics (VALUMICS)

Research Project, 2017 – 2020

The overall objective of the VALUMICS project is to provide decision makers throughout food value chains with a comprehensive suite of approaches and tools that will enable them to evaluate the impact of strategic and operational policies, and enhance the resilience, integrity and sustainability of food value chains for European countries. The consortium driving this proposal has a core of 19 European partners from 14 countries, and two Asian partners.
Given the complexity and diversity of food value chains, and the contexts within which they operate, the VALUMICS project offers a comprehensive and multi-dimensional scope that will go beyond the current state of art to provide new approaches and tools for stakeholders on several fronts. This includes new modelling approaches, consumer research, foresight analysis and synthesis into policy options, adding new perspectives for policy makers, both in government and within the food industry sector. The dynamics within the food systems will be modelled using a causal loop analysis framework, covering the interconnected value, supply, and decision chains. The causality dynamics framework for the VALUMICS project methodological approach will be implemented as a key driver of the project work through workshops involving stakeholders. The causal loop framework will be built with involvement of all participants in the project in order to construct a shared vision of the overall system.
VALUMICS will challenge and go beyond previous research limitations and boundaries through a highly cross-functional project design that will provide a bridging analysis across the economic, environmental and social dimensions previously kept separate. This whole chain analysis perspective will deliver comparative assessments at the European level and beyond. The case studies will cover short supply chains, with local and national analysis, as well as reaching global food chains relevant for sustainable food and nutrition security in Europe.