Innovation for Sustainable Food Systems: Drivers and Challenges

Achieving a sustainable development is a very difficult task, for its relation with the concept of “wicked problem”. Mediterranean food systems, in particular, are under strong pressure due to climate change, unsustainable agricultural practices, changes in dietary habits and a huge coastal urbanisation. To deal with such crisis, technological innovation is crucial. Addressing sustainability challenges means for Universities to be engaged in place-based, multi-stakeholder partnerships to solve real-world issues. A major policy approach that the EU implemented to boost sustainable development through Multi-stakeholders Partnerships is the Smart Specialization Strategy. The core idea of such strategy is that a limited number of promising priorities has to be selected to stimulate regional growth, job creation and collaboration among research and knowledge institutions, businesses, and the investors.