FutureFoodS Webinar Series:

“Principles and practices of research-based advice to policy for food systems transformation.”

Towards agreement on conceptual guidelines for SPI across European countries

Three interactive webinars | Online | 10:00–12:00 CET

Participate in the development of best practices for Science–Policy Interfaces (SPI) and Science–Policy–Society Interfaces (SPSI) through a series of three highly interactive webinars. Together, these webinars form a coherent process leading to a joint outcome: shared conceptual guidelines, a practical typology, and the foundations for future SPI/SPSI training under FutureFoodS.

The webinars:

• Webinar 1, February 24:  Principles and practices of SPI in different contexts 

• Webinar 2, March 19:  Science–policy-society interface in food policy: Towards institutional and territorial coherence 

• Webinar 3, April 22:  Development of widely shared typology and practice-oriented guidelines for SPI in FutureFoodS 

Webinar 1, February 24 – Principles and practices of SPI in different contexts

Context

Science–Policy Interfaces (SPI) are widely used in food policy, but their formal principles, governance structures and practices differ strongly across countries and policy contexts. Despite frequent use of scientific advice, there is limited shared understanding of what constitutes good SPI practice.

This first webinar sets the conceptual foundation of the FutureFoodS webinar series. It focuses on how SPI currently operates in different institutional and national contexts, and where the main challenges lie.

Objectives

• Map different types of SPI currently used in food policy

• Identify core principles and practices applied in real-world SPI

• Create a shared understanding of variation in SPI approaches

• Collect initial building blocks for a common SPI typology

What to expect

• Key insights from a FutureFoodS survey among civil servants and researchers

• Reflections on governance models, advisory roles and integrity challenges

• Interactive breakout sessions using concrete SPI case examples

• Structured discussions leading to a first draft typology and principle set

Who should attend

• Policymakers and civil servants involved in food policy

• Researchers providing science-based advice to policy

• SPI managers, coordinators and experts

Position in the series

This webinar establishes the baseline. Its outputs directly feed into Webinar 2 (19 March) and form essential input for the joint guidelines developed in Webinar 3 (22 April).

Why are we doing this?

Scientific advice plays a crucial role in food policy, yet clear procedures, shared principles and training for Science–Policy and Science–Policy–Society Interfaces (SPI/SPSI) remain limited across Europe. Practices often rely on informal arrangements, creating risks for transparency, consistency and scientific integrity.

FutureFoodS aims to address this gap by developing shared, practice-oriented guidelines and a typology for SPI/SPSI, forming the basis for a future web-based training programme. Through these webinars, policymakers and researchers exchange experiences to identify good practices and agree on principles that support high-quality, transparent and consistent research-based advice in a European context.