The Project FoodCIRCUS Launched!

Since June this year (2024), the multidisciplinary international project “Circular solutions for keeping food waste out of Central Europe’s schools”, abbreviated foodCIRCUS, has started to be tackled at the Department of International Business of the Faculty of International Relations of the University of Economics in Prague.

This project is 80% financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) within the Interreg Central Europe program and is planned until November 2026. The research team consists of Ing. Alena Filipová, Ph.D., Ing. Veronika Mokrejšová, Ph.D., Ing. M.Sc. Tomáš Sadílek, Ph.D. (team leader) and Ing. Jiří Zeman, Ph.D.

The project is focused on the issue of food waste in school canteens with the aim of preventing this waste. In the follow-up stages, the amount of waste and wasted food will first be measured, then interventions will take place in the form of education for pupils, students and canteen staff, in the final stages the effectiveness of previous measures will be measured and recommendations will be formulated for all interested parties, including canteen organizers. At the same time, transnational groups will be created to enable the sharing of best practices.

10 partners from 5 countries are involved in the project. The participating universities are the BOKU – University of Natual Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, Czech universities: Prague University of Economics and Business and VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava, the Italian Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, Budapest’s Állatorvostudományi Egyetem (University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest), Polish Politechnika Wrocławska (Wrocław University of Science and Technology) and Uniwersytet Przyrodniczy we Wrocławiu (Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences (UPWr)); the Czech organization Save Food, the Polish city of Wrocław and the Austrian organization Reploid Value Solutions GmbH are also involved.

On June 6-7, a kick-off meeting took place in Vienna on which the goals for the individual stages, the expected results of the project and its timetable were specified. The steps taken by individual partners during the first six months of the project were discussed in detail. Prague University of Economics was represented by Ing. M.Sc. Tomáš Sadílek, Ph.D. from the Department of International Business.