EIT Food Business Plan 2026-2028

Objective

EIT Food, Europe’s leading agrifood innovation ecosystem, brings together partners from industry, research, education, and entrepreneurship, creating the critical mass needed to drive systemic change. Our model of Knowledge Triangle Integration ensures that education, innovation, and business creation reinforce each other. Our objectives are to strengthen collaboration across Europe, accelerate innovation to impact, diversify revenues, and link education, entrepreneurship, and innovation into seamless pipelines. The thematic clusters deliver a large-scale transformation. Regenerative agriculture will restore soils and ecosystems while improving farm resilience. Biotechnology will enable sustainable, scalable food production through cutting-edge science. Protein diversification will give consumers healthier, climate-friendly choices and open new markets for European innovators. These clusters sit within our missions Food for Health, Food System Resilience, and Net Zero Food System. They provide concrete entry points for investment, policy alignment, and entrepreneurial activity, ensuring that today’s projects contribute to long-term systemic change. Through the Regional Innovation Scheme, we integrate emerging regions and ensure that talent, startups, and research from all corners of Europe are connected to major value chains. Inclusivity is embedded across our activities, with gender-sensitive research, open science, and citizen engagement ensuring that innovations meet diverse needs and achieve broad adoption. By the end of this Business Plan, EIT Food’s role as the European reference point for agrifood innovation is strengthened. Our ecosystem will be larger, more connected, and financially sustainable. Our thematic clusters will have delivered new pathways for healthier diets, resilient farming, and sustainable production. And our impact will be felt across society, from stronger startups and research institutions to more informed consumers and empowered farmers