News
Second cohort selected for 2024 Youth Food Lab Incubator programme (WUR, FAO WFF, IAAS)
After a successful year with the first cohort of the Youth Food Lab Incubator programme, newly selected teams have started the second edition of the Youth Food Lab Incubator Programme in early March this year. In this second year, the programme is expanded with an additional Research Track, focusing on Global One Health alongside the Entrepreneur Track in the Incubator programme.
Youth Food Lab accelerates global agri-food systems transformation
The Youth Food Lab Incubator Programme was established by Wageningen University & Research (WUR), the World Food Forum (WFF) of the FAO, and the International Association of Students in Agricultural and Related Sciences (IAAS) in 2023. Since then, the programme has empowered 10 local youth-led project teams around the world and supported over 40 young people working on transforming agri-food systems.
Bringing idea to implementation
The aim of the Youth Food Lab programme is to provide young innovators, researchers and entrepreneurs with the opportunity to make food systems in their local community more sustainable with their innovative projects. The programme was created to bring idea-stage solutions to implementation and scale up existing projects by providing hands-on mentorship, expert workshops, access to a large network, and visibility on the annual global World Food Forum (WFF) stage in October.
The 11 selected teams of the 2024 Entrepreneur track
This year, the YFL Entrepreneur Track comprises eleven teams from eight countries working on various challenges in the agri-food systems. These challenges include using underutilized indigenous crops to produce nutritious baby food, creating awareness around food waste, using azolla ferns as catfish feed and biofilter for polluted water, and upscaling agricultural waste products to create indigenous products.
Many of the teams have previously participated in the FAO Transformative Research Challenge, WUR ReThink Waste Challenge, or the IAAS Global Project Competition, where they developed their ideas. During this incubation period, from March to October 2024, they will continue to implement and scale up their projects, as well as develop the necessary communication skills to pitch their ideas to external investors and supporters.
The selected teams for the 2024 YFL Entrepreneur cohort are: Beautiful Harvest (Honduras), Earth Nourish Blends (Uganda), Eco Craft (India), EcoLiving (Indonesia), Food Loss and Waste Preventers Team (Rwanda), Green Harmony (Indonesia), Remixx Nutrition (Nigeria), Trash to Treasure (Nepal), Veterinary Guardians for Disease Control and Eradication (VetGuards) (Kenya), and YANSORG Group (Kenya).
Research track of the 2024 Youth Food Lab
The ten winners of the 2023 Global One Health Special Prize within the WFF Transformative Research Challenge, which was funded by ERRAZE@WUR, have been invited to join the 2024 Youth Food Lab Research Track. This year, these teams will follow a tailored Youth Food Lab research program consisting of live webinar sessions focusing on global one health-related topics, besides receiving additional mentorship guidance.
The ten research topics of the teams invited to join the YFL Research Track are: “Connecting People and Landscapes through Agroecological Agroforestry Systems”, “One Health Connects: Intergration of Knowledges in Disease Management for Kenya's Livestock Systems”, “Zoonotic schistosomiasis in Africa”, “Mitigating Leptospirosis Risks in Kisantu”, “One Health Lex-hub”, “ICT enabled Avian Influenza Awareness”, “Cuba One Health Surveillance System”, “Campylobacteriosis through One Health Approach”, “Promoting One Health for Agrifood Systems” and “Palm Waste as Prebiotics to Prevent Avian Influenza”.
Opening of the first Youth Food Lab Physical Hub in Wageningen
On 30 September 2024, the first physical hub of the Youth Food Lab Incubator Programme will be opened at Wageningen University & Research campus. This follows the announcement by Dr. ir. Sjoukje Heimovaara, President of the Executive Board of Wageningen University & Research, during the 2023 World Food Forum in Rome to open the first physical hub for the Youth Food Lab at WUR. The festive opening of the first YFL hub will be combined with the Grand Finals of the WUR Food Systems Innovation Challenge and accompanied by the other two partners of the Youth Food Lab Incubator programme in Wageningen.