On June 12, 2025, reframe.food’s Partner Stavros Tsitouras was the keynote speaker at the AgriVentures online workshop “Funding for Agrifood Innovators: From EU Grants to Startup Growth”, sharing strategic insights on EU funding pathways and showcasing practical success stories.The event, attended by entrepreneurs, farmers, and researchers across Europe, aimed to demystify the funding process for agrifood innovation, offering participants the tools to move from concept to impact.

From Policy to Practice:
A Strategic View on EU Funding

In his keynote talk titled “Navigating the Agrifood Funding Landscape”, Stavros Tsitouras provided a comprehensive and practical guide to understanding and leveraging European public funding mechanisms. Drawing from reframe.food’s extensive experience in EU-funded innovation, he unpacked:

  • The strategic role of agrifood in Horizon Europe, the EU Green Deal, and the Farm to Fork Strategy.
  • Key funding programmes, including Horizon Europe (Cluster 6), EIT Food, LIFE, INTERREG, and cascade funding schemes that enable smaller actors like start-ups and rural communities to access support.
  • The structure and expectations of Horizon Europe consortia, including the importance of clearly defined roles, measurable impact contributions, and alignment with EU priorities.

“Food will always remain a top-tier policy and economic priority,” he emphasized. “But turning vision into action requires innovators to understand how EU funding frameworks operate, what they reward, how proposals are evaluated, and what is expected from applicants and consortia.”

Practical Tools for Applicants and Partners

The presentation moved beyond theory to address practical questions:

  • How to position one’s project within Horizon Europe calls
  • What distinguishes a strong partner profile
  • How cascade funding can serve as an entry point for SMEs and early-stage innovators
  • How reframe.food’s own platform, opencalls.fund, supports applicants with transparent and user-friendly processes

Stavros also walked participants through real case studies from the reframe.food portfolio.

These examples illustrate how tailored positioning, data-driven approaches, and clear alignment with EU priorities can strengthen both partners and proposals in highly competitive evaluations.

Q&A: Real Issues, Actionable Advice

During the open Q&A, Stavros addressed real-world questions from participants. The session highlighted that although the funding landscape is complex, staying informed, proactive, and focused on impact can help agrifood innovators turn it into a powerful growth driver

At reframe.food, we are committed to empowering changemakers in the agrifood sector throughout the innovation lifecycle—from strategic proposal design to real-world deployment.

We thank AgriVentures for the invitation and all participants for their engagement and curiosity.

Stay tuned for more events, and visit opencalls.fund to explore live opportunities.