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

Context

Despite extensive use of science-based advice, there is a clear lack of formalized, practice-oriented guidelines for SPI and SPSI. This limits transparency, consistency and scientific integrity—especially in trans-European collaborations such as FutureFoodS.

This final webinar focuses on consolidation and co-creation.

Objectives

• Agree on a shared typology of SPI/SPSI relevant to FutureFoodS

• Develop practice-oriented guidelines for research-based advice to policy

• Identify core principles ensuring integrity, transparency and effectiveness

• Define training needs for future SPI/SPSI capacity building

What to expect

• Recap of key outputs from Webinars 1 and 2

• Presentation of a draft conceptual framework for SPI/SPSI

• Intensive breakout work to refine guidelines and typologies

• Plenary consolidation of agreed principles and next steps

Outcome

• A jointly developed SPI/SPSI typology

• Draft guidelines forming the basis for FutureFoodS training materials

• Clear direction for a future web-based SPI/SPSI training course

Position in the series

This webinar delivers the joint outcome of the full series. Participation in the earlier webinars is strongly recommended.

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.