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International research project involving Newcastle academics lands €6m funding boost

An international research project focusing on food sustainability, which is set to involve leading Newcastle-based academics, has been awarded €6 million under the EU Horizon 2020 programme.

Beginning in April, the VALUMICS project will see 19 partners from across Europe, China and Vietnam work together to establish the current climate of food value chains, look into profitability within the chains, and provide recommendations for how best to improve the process.

Involving a number of leading academics from Newcastle University Business School, which is one of only two UK partners working on the project and will receive £225,000 of the funding, the research will be carried out over the next four years and will first look to develop frameworks on which to measure sustainability, before taking into account a number of case studies across Europe.

Headed in Iceland, VALUMICS consists of both academic and non-academic partners in 14 countries and will deliver comparative assessments at the European level and beyond through whole chain analysis.

Matthew Gorton, Professor of Marketing at Newcastle University Business School, said: “VALUMICS is still in the very early stages but we’re thrilled to have secured funding from Horizon 2020 – the largest ever EU research and innovation programme.

“The main concerns around food value chains come in the form of issues around fairness, and this project will aim to analyse profitability in each area of chain – from production to transport to retail.

“Over the next four years we hope to gain an in depth knowledge of every element of the food journey, eventually producing recommendations which will help improve and shape the industry.”

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