WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY  (WU)

Partner Description

Wageningen University and Research is an internationally renowned knowledge centre in the domains of agricultural, pastoral and water science. Amongst others, food production, processing and distribution, and sustainability are important pillars of educational- and research programs. Predominantly a technical university, there is a substantive Social Science group as well. The multi-disciplinary combination of natural sciences and social sciences enhances interdisciplinary and cutting edge research into the interaction between techniques and humans (individual, organizational (governments, NGO’s, companies, supply chains) in the fields of innovation and implementation. Besides fundamental research Wageningen University and Research engages in applied research, aiming at social impact. The University and related research institutes are a knowledge centre has a broad range of experiences in international and and European Union funded projects.

Main tasks

The main task of WU is leading WP3 addressed to Definition of business models and novel sustainable logistics systems tailored to SMEs. Specifically the Business Management and Organization (BMO) Group takes the coordination between the three pillars (1) Consumer, (2) Business model and (3) Logistic systems and Transparency looking at their research activities and outputs. The BMO department is also responsible for the development of the WP3 Business model. The aim of this part is to design business models fitting different objectives of the implementation of the novel mild processing technologies along the food value chain. WUR will also guide the implementation of the BMs at the pilot level in WP4.
The Rural Sociology Group (RSO) will play an active role in WP6, leading research on the Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) and feeding results back to the rest of the project.
WU will also contribute in terms of dissemination, knowledge transfer and training activities in WP7.