GI-SMART Geographical Indications' contribution to smart territorial development and sustainability. Insights for GIs producers, policy makers, consumers and local communities.

CALL: HORIZON-CL6-2023-COMMUNITIES-01-4 Type of Action: HORIZON-RIA

TITLE: Geographical Indications' contribution to smart territorial development and sustainability. Insights for GIs producers, policy makers, consumers and local communities (acronym GI-SMART)

DURATION: 4 years from 01.06.2024 to 31.05.2028

RESPONSIBLE: prof. Filippo Arfini

COORDINATOR: INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement

SCIENTIFIC AREA: Global Challenges & European Industrial Competitiveness - Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture & Environment

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Website: https://www.gismart.eu/

The project aims to explore the impact of Geographical Indications (GIs) in terms of sustainability and their contribution to rural development and is a continuation of the H2020 project STRENGTH2FOOD. It will have a total budget of about 2 million 554 thousand euros of which almost 219 thousand euros will be allocated to the University of Parma - Department of Economics and Business Sciences.

The University is thus part of a Consortium that aims to assess the level of sustainability of the supply chains of all European GIs. The Consortium, led by the French Institute INRAE, is composed of 17 public and private entities from eight European Union states (France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain), the United Kingdom and Switzerland. In addition to several universities, institutions representing the world of GI, rural development and consumers at the European level such as AREPO, Euromontana, EFOW and SAFE participate. The University of Parma is participating in the project with three departments: Economics and Business Sciences, Food and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Chemical, Life and Environmental Sustainability Sciences.

The main objective of GI-Smart is to improve the design and implementation of the GI system to support sustainable agriculture, food and food systems, in line with the objectives of the Farm to Fork strategy.

The work will result in a set of policy recommendations and three strategic guides: for GI producer groups, for policy makers, and for better GI marketing.

A multi-actor platform will also be implemented with the intention of helping to create a knowledge exchange among different stakeholders across the EU and to gather feedback and input on project activities.