SKIN is an ambitious initiative of 20 partners in 14 countries in the area of Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs). It intends to systematise and bring knowledge to practitioners, promote collaboration within a demand-driven innovation logic and provide inputs to policymaking through links to the EIP-AGRI. SKIN will build and animate a community of about 500 stakeholders, with the strategic objective of setting up, at the conclusion of the project, a European association permanently working for the improvement of SFSCs efficiency and for the benefit of stakeholders and growth in the sector. The community will be built and animated around the identification of good practices in short supply chains across Europe. Partners will scout, analyse and classify a significant number of cases in different countries. “Best practices” (at least 100) will be systematised, processed into highly usable formats (including video and page-flows) and made accessible to stakeholders via the web (following the EIP AGRI formats) and through the set-up of regional nodes, to allow a deeper penetration of existing knowledge into practice. The work on good practices will also allow identifying key issues (hindrances or opportunities) around SFSCs. Such issues will be the main themes of 6 “innovation challenges workshops” the purpose of which is to stimulate stakeholders to propose new ideas for innovation based research or innovation uptake. These will be supported in a coaching phase where consortium partners deliver guidance to stakeholders for the full development of those innovative ideas. SKIN puts significant efforts in dissemination, to reach as many stakeholders as possible, and exploitation, to plan post projects developments in the form of a permanent association that would give continuity to the activities launched with the project (community expansion, circulation of good practices, promotion of research based innovation and linkages with the EIP and policy making instances).

Food Losses and and wastes issue is one of the most important problems that the world is dealing with. Approximately 30 % of the food produced annually is lost or wasted. The main objective of the project is to take measures and improve new processes to minimise losses and wastes occured mainly during production process, and moreover to develop value added products from those wastes that might have a contribution to the economy and society. The Foodward - The Food Recovery and Waste Reduction project aims to create an awareness in the food industry about this significant issue and encourage the companies to focus on developing innovative products that might have sustainable and meaningful contribution to the efforts for minimising food losses and wastes. For this purpose Dairy,Meat and Canned Food sectors have been selected as the pilot sectors. The participants of the project are from Turkey, Germany, Italy and Slovakia. TUGİS (Turkish Food Industry Employers Association, Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, METU (Middle East Technical University Food Engineering Department), and MKV Consultancy. University of Niederrhein Monchengladbach-Germany, Federalimentare and Spes from Italy, and Cassovia Life Sciences from Slovakia are the project partners from Europe. Multinational partnership is a very useful application since it gives an opportunity to share best practices and experiences from different geographies. we can say that there was a a good cooperation and teamwork between the partners to fullfill the responsibility that has been undertaken. As a result of the project training modules were being prepared for Dairy,meat, and Canned Food Industry employers. Training seminars and site visits are organised for the project partners and selected industry representatives for exchanging experiences and best practises as well as Foodward Web Site for online training purposes. Dissemination actvities in cooperation with the Universities, NGOs and sectoral associations, chambers of industries and sectoral media had played and important role for creating awareness, consciousness about food waste and actions to be taken for recovery.