Last January, 10 partners met in Geel, Belgium for the kick-off meeting of the Interreg ValuSect project. The team got to know each other, discussed the work ahead and visited the project leader’s campus, Thomas More, where research on insects is taking place.
At a time of rising population and decreasing resources, especially in a very densely populated area like North-West Europe, sustainable alternatives for resources for food are needed. Insects could also be one of them. Funded by the Interreg North-West Europe, the ValuSect project aims to strengthen the transnational cooperation and exploitation of research on insects as resources for the development of (semi) finished food products.
The partners of this transnational project, gathering researchers, experts, associations, clusters and SMEs, met in Flanders to discuss the main innovative goal for ValuSect which is to develop an accelerator program for insect-based food products. In the form of various amounts of vouchers for SMEs, this program will transfer knowledge to enterprises and actors from the whole supply chain. Such knowledge transfers between stakeholders will be key for the development of this market.
Improving insect production as well as consumers’ attitude are at the heart of the project which aspires to make insects a crucial part of the tomorrow’s more sustainable diet of North-West Europe.
The fruitful two-day meeting brought great insights but also the first deadlines in terms of deliverables.
