🤝Community

Get to know the community philosophy we apply to Food Tech 3.0 by Milena Calvo Juarez, community expert at Fab Lab Barcelona

Our approach to identify, develop and implement community-led sustainable solutions in the Food Tech 3.0 acceleration program is reflected in the following questions: How can citizens and communities create and improve open technologies for inclusive food future systems? How can food technology makers include citizens and communities in the tech creation process in order to make interventions that empower them?

Food Tech 3.0 sees technology not only as application of scientific knowledge to the practical aims of human life, but as a source of power for people, allowing the inclusion of communities in an open dialogue to amplify their voices. Communities are increasingly the ones demanding change considering they are key players in identifying territorial needs in the food system and have already been working (many times without financial support) to respond to actual problems.

"Technologies without people are nothing"

-- Loïc Le Goueff of Green in Blue, Food Tech 3.0 Advisory Board member

Through community training at Food Tech 3.0, we worked to enhance sustainability, resilience and social inclusion in the development of community-based technologies. The related training included methodologies to develop strategic pathways to address the different interconnected challenges, both from the topics identified by participants, as well as from an understanding of Barcelona's current food ecosystem.

Accelerating this track was key to increasing an innovator’s Societal Readiness Level (SRL).

The Food Tech 3.0 internal team assisted by mapping potential communities open to contribute as test drivers of each initiative and providing methodologies to facilitate the connection between the innovators and communities. The approach with the community was made seeking the adaptation of the project to contribute to resolving real problems, at the same time ensuring that the information is digestible by people with no technological background.

Overall, the dedicated community sessions and mentoring sought to:

• Increase the initiative's SRL

• Provide a framework and tools for structuring dialogues aimed at enhancing community engagement and identifying the range of actors that should be involved

• Integrate analysis of the living local food system

• Assist in identifying intervention points for application of the technologies and collaboration with other partners

• Explore synergies already identified through citizens' lens to scale them up

• Provide communication tools and tips for generating and growing community