Opendata.ch launches food data innovation programme with Engagement Migros
You are what you eat, what you measure: in nutrition, too, more and more data is being generated. Production, distribution and consumption continuously produce data streams in which there is dormant potential for great progress. Which food is exactly right for me right now? Is what’s on my plate climate-friendly, kosher, vegan, fair, compatible with my allergy?
The three-year programme «Business Innovation food.opendata.ch», launched today, supports creative, entrepreneurial and scientific projects in the field of food data on their way from the first idea to market readiness, with new open data, intensive mentoring and financial support.
New business models thanks to open data
The programme aims to provide a publicly available base of food data, to develop new, innovative and value-creating solutions and, with scientific support, to further develop the use of publicly available data for entrepreneurial purposes.
Florian Wieser, the programme’s community manager, says: «Food is incredibly important, socially as well as economically, and here too digitalisation is a huge issue. The food.opendata.ch innovation programme creates a large open laboratory for new applications and new value-creation and business models.»
The three-year programme can be launched thanks to support from the Engagement Migros development fund, which enables pioneering projects in the field of digital value creation. Sylvie Reinhard of Engagement Migros: «With this programme we are exploring Switzerland’s potential and opportunities in digitalisation and building an innovation and entrepreneurial community around food data. Switzerland needs communities like this if it wants to play a leading role in the entrepreneurial implementation of innovations.»
Preparations for food.opendata.ch’s first major event are already in full swing. On 10 and 11 February 2017, the «Open Food Data Hackdays» will bring together big data specialists and food experts, software developers, farmers, chefs and app designers, students, entrepreneurs and many others. For two days they will devote themselves to so-called rapid prototyping around food data, simultaneously at the two venues Zurich and Lausanne. Various data sources are currently being prepared, not least via the openfood.ch platform of project partner Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).
More information at http://food.opendata.ch and on Twitter at @OpendataCH.
About Opendata.ch: Opendata.ch is part of the Open Knowledge Foundation and thus of a global movement that advances transparency and innovation, efficiency and participation by opening up data. Open data gives new players new opportunities and is increasingly used by companies as a catalyst for open innovation processes. Opendata.ch is led by its President André Golliez, together with a board drawn from media, technology and science.
About Engagement Migros: The Engagement Migros development fund enables pioneering projects in social change that break new ground and test forward-looking solutions. In the field of business, Engagement Migros supports numerous innovation programmes and collaboration platforms such as the Kickstart Accelerator, Impact Hub Zürich or the Basel coworking programme Fluxdock. Its impact-oriented funding approach combines financial support with coaching-style services in the Pionierlab. Engagement Migros is made possible by the companies of the Migros Group with around ten million francs a year and has complemented the Migros Culture Percentage since 2012.
Contact:
Florian Wieser,
Community Manager Opendata.ch,
Mobile +41 79 290 86 52,
florian.wieser@opendata.ch
Sylvie Reinhard,
Engagement Migros, Culture and Social Affairs Directorate Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund,
Mobile +41 44 277 22 70,
sylvie.reinhard@mgb.ch