Madservice Aalborg, Dangrow and Meyers will host 12 fellows from the BioSustainability Design Fellowship Programme as they investigate new green solutions for food waste, plant-based foods and the use of side streams.

Over the next eight weeks, the first 12 fellows in the BioSustainability Design Fellowship Programme will do fieldwork three Danish food companies to identify solutions for food waste, plant-based foods and the use of side streams. Supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and run by the Danish Technological Institute, the new programme was launched on Wednesday [date month] at a kickoff event at the Danish Technological Institute in Aarhus.

Selected from among 115 applicants from Denmark and abroad, the fellows represent disciplines including food technology, anthropology, design, business development and agroecology.

At the kickoff event, the fellows were welcomed by Juan Farré, CEO of the Danish Technological Institute, the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the three host companies, Madservice Aalborg, Dangrow and Meyers, who will give the fellows access to their day-to-day operations over the coming weeks.

It’s about building the talent base we need to lead the necessary green transition. The goal is to supercharge the fellows so they can strengthen the value chain for plant-based foods, ensure that side streams are upcycled into greater value, and reduce food waste. At the Danish Technological Institute, we are making our facilities, expertise and capacity available to help make this happen, and we are pleased that the Novo Nordisk Foundation has chosen to pass the baton to us

–  Juan Farré, CEO of the Danish Technological Institute

A generation of change agents

The programme is based on the fundamental idea that the challenges facing the food system cannot be solved through isolated projects alone, but require an entire generation of change agents capable of driving long-term systemic change. The BioSustainability Design Programme is therefore built around the method of needs-driven innovation, where fellows must first understand the real needs in the food value chain before developing their proposals for new solutions.

This is a major and ambitious step. The biodesign method has previously delivered strong results in the healthcare sector through our Biomedical Design Programme, which has been running successfully for the last eight years. We will now seek to transfer the same needs-driven approach to the food sector and use it to create sustainable solutions to some of the most complex challenges in our food system

– Drishya Nair, Senior Scientific Manager, Novo Nordisk Foundation

Testing and realising new solutions

The BioSustainability Design Fellowship Programme is a 10-month talent and innovation programme in which experienced professionals work in interdisciplinary teams to design, test and realise solutions for the food sector. Over the next eight weeks, the fellows will observe everyday operations at the host companies to identify concrete needs before, in the months that follow, developing proposed solutions based on their new insights into the companies.

The problem is not a lack of willingness. It is that our food system is complex and closely interconnected: farmers cannot plant new crops without guaranteed buyers, and companies cannot scale up without stable supply and the right technologies. In Denmark, almost 900,000 tonnes of food are wasted every year, and with the programme we want to train change agents who can break down some of these systemic barriers and create solutions that can genuinely move the food system

– Louise Krogh Johnson,Programme Director

For us, food is about much more than production. It is about health, quality, quality of life and dignity – and about creating meals that people actually want to eat. There is an important debate in Denmark about how food for older people should be improved, and we want to help drive that change. That is why we are pleased to have fresh eyes on our work. It forces us to remain curious and to challenge the way we do things

– Lone Jørgensen, Madservice Aalborg

The programme is funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation with DKK 73 million over five years and will train a total of 64 fellows across four annual cohorts.

Press contact

Programme Director Louise Krogh Johnson, Danish Technological Institute

Mobile/ email: +45 7220 3553 / lkrj@dti.dk