1.6 million CHF awarded to five new projects through the World Food System Grants Platform

The ETH Zurich World Food System Center (WFSC) is pleased to announce five new cross-disciplinary, food system research projects funded through the Center’s WFS Grants Platform. The two research programs on this platform, the Mercator Research Program and the Coop Research Program, provide support for these projects totaling more than 1.6 million CHF.

The WFS Grants Platform supports new cross-disciplinary and solution oriented research to address food system challenges, with 27 projects funded to date. The five new projects, which will launch by summer, will tackle pressing issues such as improving food production and safety and assessing food system resilience. Investigators at ETH Zurich as well as partners in Africa, North and South America, and Europe will focus their new work on a range of foodstuffs, including chicken, algae, beans, cacao, and bananas. One project strives to improve the production of algae as a novel protein source, while another seeks to reduce food-borne disease in chickens. Another project focuses on breeding of climbing beans, which could help improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers in the tropics. In addition, the resilience of organic versus conventional farming of tropical and Swiss crops will be assessed and compared in two new studies. Interdisciplinary approaches applied in these projects include process innovation and resilience analysis of whole food value chains.

All projects were subject to a rigorous evaluation by an independent academic panel with additional external reviews and an assessment process that takes into account scientific excellence and relevance to the programs. The final funding decisions lie with the ETH Zurich VP for Research and Corporate Relations.