Companies from the agrifood and nutrition sectors play a vital role in our food systems: they must ensure high-quality, tasty, and competitive production whilst meeting consumer demands, all under constant pressure from costs and disruptions in global value chains.
Biotechnology, as a key enabling technology, can stimulate and accelerate innovation in the agrifood and nutrition sectors to address these challenges and help companies become more sustainable and resilient.
For the past two years, Innov’Alliance has been involved in the European project Biotech4Food, which aims to facilitate investment to promote, adopt, and implement biotechnologies in the agri-food and nutraceutical sectors. In this framework, Innov’Alliance will host a project delegation for a study visit, bringing together innovation clusters, agri-food technology & transfer centres, and companies from five European countries.
In this context, Innov’Alliance is launching the symposium :
“Shaping the Future of Food: Biotechnology for Sustainable Nutrition and Sovereign Food Systems”, on April 22nd, in the premises of the Conseil régional Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in Clermont-Ferrand
Come and discover regional stakeholders and expertise, exchange ideas with members of the European delegation, discover financing opportunities, find your future collaboration partner to develop innovations that contribute to more sustainable, local, and resilient food and nutrition.
9:30 –10:00 : Sign-in and Welcome
10:00 – 10:15 : Welcome and Presentation of the European project Biotech4Food
10:15 – 10:30: Agrifood biotechnology ecosystems in Europe and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes: comparison of expertise
10:30 – 11:00: Roundtable N°1 – Rethinking Food with Biotechnology: innovation, consumer demand and paths to sustainable nutrition
This first roundtable explores innovations which are already transforming our current food systems and practices. This round table brings together innovators, scientists, and industry stakeholders to explore how biotechnology is already transforming our diets — from reducing food waste and improving nutritional quality to rethinking production processes. The discussion will also tackle a key question: can new biotech-based foods meet modern sustainability challenges while respecting traditional culinary cultures and consumer values?
Keynote speakers:
Facilitator: Natanael Viñegra de la Torre, PhD | EU R&D Project Manager at the National Center for Food Technology and Safety in Spain
11:00 – 11:30: Roundtable N°2 – Building Food Sovereignty with Biotechnology
This second roundtable aims to highlight the role that biotechnology plays in reinforcing the sovereignty of food systems, in improving their resilience and in the consolidation of their local roots. Keynote speakers will share insights into the role of public actors in supporting multi-actor projects in the sector, and how these projects serve as levers for territorial development.
Keynote speakers:
Facilitator: Sara Botti | Innov’Alliance
11:30 – 11:45: Funding & collaboration opportunities for agri-food innovators: GRAPPA open call for innovation projects and the European network “Ingredients for the Bioeconomy”
11:45 – 12:00: Conclusion and closing remarks
12:00 – 13:30: Networking buffet
This event aimed at stakeholders in the regional agrifood, nutrition and biotechnology innovation ecosystem:
This event will be held in English, and is hosted in the context of the Clermont Innovation Week 2026 :
Ingredients for the Bioeconomy
Please contact the Established office
Wagralim
(the Agri-Food Innovation Cluster of Wallonia)
All right reserved to I4BE © 2026 This partnership is recognized by the EU as one of the thematic partnership of the S3 agri-food platform
