27 April 2021, Brussels — ValuSect, a European project, has attributed €410.000 worth in services to 17 SMEs located in North-West Europe to help them develop their insect-based food business. The services proposed include technological, food development and innovation, consumer acceptance and strategic business services.
The ValuSect vouchers call, launched in December 2020, was very successful, with 60 applications received from 50 SMEs[1]. After three months of careful consideration, the ValuSect consortium selected the 17 SMEs with the highest ranking in their evaluation. “We considered different criteria to evaluate the applications: formulation of the problem, innovation, intended results, applicability to the North-West Europe region, as well as the capacity of the consortium to answer the questions of the SMEs. We are overall very satisfied with the quality of the applications.” explains Sonja Floto-Stammen, Researcher at Fontys University of Applied Sciences, in charge of the vouchers call.
The 17 selected SMEs are located in the UK (6), the Netherlands (6), Germany (2), Belgium (1), Switzerland (1) and France (1). Each SME will receive services from ValuSect partners, worth €10k, €20k or €40k, depending on the type of requested service. The vouchers cover a large range of services, from the development of new cricket based products, the study of the product safety of insect snacks, consumer acceptance, to the analysis of the European insect companies market.
“The vouchers are a great opportunity to help the development of the insect-based food sector in the North-West Europe area. For example, the analysis of the consumer acceptance depending on the type of product could help the sector adapt to the demand”, underlines Sabine van Miert, Project Leader, Thomas More University of Applied Sciences.
A second vouchers call will be launched at the end of 2021, proposing the same menu of services to SMEs in the edible insects sector.
The list of selected applicants, the menu of services and the explanations on the vouchers selection are available on our website.
Contact: helene.herman@alienoreu.com
Website: https://www.nweurope.eu/projects/project-search/valusect/#tab-6
Social accounts: @ValuSect (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)
[1] SMEs were allowed to introduce different applications if they were interested in more than one service.
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