Nine Food 2.0 RDI projects funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry selected

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has selected nine research and development consortia for funding in the Food 2.0 call. The projects will start in the autumn of 2025 and their maximum duration is four years. A total of approximately EUR 5 million has been earmarked for the period 2025–2029. The list of selected projects can be found below.

The Ministry’s call for proposals opened on 12 April 2025 received 28 project entities by the deadline, which applied for funding totalling almost EUR 17 million.

Food 2.0 program and the quest for a nature-smart food system

The search was based on the Food 2.0 programme funded by Business Finland and compiled by Valio as a Leading Company (Veturi), which aims to bring together actors and research institutes in the food system to work together towards a future nature-smart food system. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s RDI project search supports especially the themes of the Food 2.0 locomotive project’s objectives three (Regenerative production) and four (Circular economy and resource efficiency).

“Valio’s Food 2.0 program has made great progress and we have got even more organizations involved in the ecosystem than anticipated. Programs funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry provide excellent support for the ecosystem’s most important RDI topics, regenerative production and circular economy themes. We thank the Ministry for its excellent cooperation and funding for important joint projects,” says SVP Juha Nousiainen, Director of Valio’s Climate Programme.

Applications were received in abundance for all four priority areas: Farms’ risks in a changing operating environment, enhancing nutrient cycling at system and farm level, making efficient use of new technologies in plant breeding, and increasing field diversity, growth condition and crop security, as well as biodiversity.

Selected projects

Priority 1: Farms’ risks in a changing operating environment

• MARHA – Agricultural policy, market and financial risks and the means to manage them (PTT, REINU econ Oy)
• SOMA – Changing world, adaptable farm (Natural Resources Institute Finland, University of Helsinki)
• Vesilienssi – Water management as a resilience solution for garden production (Natural Resources Institute Finland, Vocational College Livia, Regional Council of Southwest Finland)

Priority 2: Enhancing nutrient cycling at system and farm level

• FoVi – Phosphorus smart farming (University of Tampere, Natural Resources Institute Finland, Finnish Meteorological Institute)
• NutrientEffect – Effects of nutrient cycle at regional, value chain and farm level (Syke, Pyhäjärvi Institute, JAMK)
• SCiLF – Smart circular economy on livestock farms (Natural Resources Institute Finland, University of Helsinki)

Priority 3: Effective use of new technologies in plant breeding

• GENOA – Genome-based solutions for variety breeding (Natural Resources Institute Finland, University of Helsinki)

Priority 4: Increasing field biodiversity, growth condition and crop security, as well as biodiversity

• Multipurpose Grazing – Effects of dry cow grazing on animal welfare and biodiversity (University of Helsinki, Natural Resources Institute Finland)
• UUSTILA – Farm level transition to regenerative farming (Syke, University of Helsinki, Living Baltic Sea Foundation, Finnish Meteorological Institute)

”The final result is the sum of many factors and the differences between the projects were small, “says Research Director Mikko Peltonen from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. “Unfortunately, within the framework of the financial framework, it is necessary to make a cut, and there will always be projects that are, in principle, eligible for funding without funding.”

More information on the selected projects can be found in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry information page (in Finnish)