COMFOCUS is organizing an online Q&A session for those who would like to know more about the Open Call 2! Join discussions and ask your questions!

The online Q&A session will be held on 8th of August, 2023, 10-30 – 11-30 CET.

We will discuss the objectives, scope and expected outcomes of the Open Call 2 and will guide you through our research facilities where you, as an early career researcher, will be able to conduct research using innovative technologies, such as eye-tracking, skin conductance, and make use of state-of-the-art virtual reality equipment.

Know more about the Open Call 2 

To register for the session please click here

ONLINE COMFOCUS WORKSHOP: SUPPORT OF OPEN CALL # 2

JUNE 28, 2023 | 10.00 – 12.00 CET

ONLINE VISIT OF THE EUROPEAN RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE

We invite you to the workshop where we will discuss the objectives and expected outcomes of the Open Call 2 and will virtually gui​de potential applicants and interested scientists through our research facilities for conducting consumer research experiments.


Please be informed that by participating in the workshop you are giving your permission to use all materials, taken during the workshop, for the COMFOCUS purposes.

ONLINE VISIT OF THE EUROPEAN RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE

JUNE 13, 2023

COMFOCUS WORKSHOP: SUPPORT OF OPEN CALL # 2: ONLINE VISIT OF THE EUROPEAN RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE

COMFOCUS is organizing the workshop where we will discuss the objectives and expected outcomes of the Open Call 2 and will virtually guide potential applicants and interested scientists through our research facilities for conducting consumer research experiments.

Please be informed that participating in the workshop, you are giving your permission to use all photo/video materials, taken during the event, for the COMFOCUS purposes.

Krakow University of Economics, 9:00 am – 2:00 pm CET

Sharing best practices among food consumer science experts

COMFOCUS is organising a second Spanish round table discussion with food consumer science experts on how we can get more out of our food consumer data and respond to the demands of open science in the field.  The roundtable is part of COMFOCUS project activities and many of you attended the first workshop in March last year. The workshop is taking place on June, 19, 2023.

In this workshop we will discuss the challenges in harmonising approaches to research and sharing data once it has served its primary purpose. In COMFOCUS project we wish to try out, as a proof-of-concept, how data science approach can help us to compare and combine data from different studies. At the round table, we wish to get feedback on our approach and discuss the possibilities and challenges it presents to the future of food consumer science.

COMFOCUS online workshop “Measuring food consumer science”

Join our online workshop/discussion on June, 8, 2023 14:00 – 15:30 CET. The workshop is of interest for companies using or making commercial tools for Food and Consumer Scientists.

We will demonstrate free novel tooling that allows your scientists to relate their study results to similar studies that have already been done, allowing your user’s experiments to gain in international importance.

The EU funded COMFOCUS project https://comfocus.eu/  is creating tools that allow you to re-use the data from previous FCS studies with minimal extra work.

This workshop is the follow up of last year’s workshop which aimed to bring together commercial stakeholders and inform on the harmonization efforts in the context of Food & Consumer Science.

This introduction was well attended and we are now organising the follow up. This time we will demonstrate our tooling and invite you to give us feedback. The tooling will at project end be made available publicly.

Please register using the following the link https://forms.gle/RV3FEL5jdAg8TUrk7

A link to the meeting will be sent to your email address after registration.  

Please be informed that by participating in the workshop, you are giving your permission to use all materials taken/discussed during the workshop for the COMFOCUS purposes.

We are looking forward to see you soon!

Workshop International Food Marketing Research Symposium (IFMRS) Prague, Tuesday afternoon June 13, 2023

Enabling future-proof food consumer science: the role of BIG(ger)data from interlinking our efforts

Workshop International Food Marketing Research Symposium (IFMRS) Prague, Tuesday June 13, 2023: 14.30-16.30 hours at Hotel International Prague (suggested conference hotel at Koulova 15, 160 00 Prague).

Simply register by sending e-mail to Ellen.vanKleef@wur.nl or filling out this registration form https://forms.gle/ugiaBmgoPi14YVa46 before June 9.

Join us at our upcoming workshop to explore the latest developments in the field of food consumer science. Lots of efforts within these fields focus on understanding how individuals’ perceptions, beliefs and attitudes affect food choice decisions and purchase behaviours. These efforts are usually shared at the level of social infrastructures (conferences and meetings, student, and staff exchanges). However, at the level of institutes and data there is opportunity to enhance the current state of measures and validation methods, as well as to increase collaboration and accessibility within research infrastructures. With a focus on the importance of making data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR), as well as the essential role of marketing, sensory and consumer science in health and sustainability transitions, we will delve into key opportunities and challenges in this area.

The aim of the workshop is to present and discuss state of the art in approaches to enhance data sharing in food consumer science. In addition, the aim is also to identify and discuss potential ways forward in further added value of joint efforts in this field on the basis of FAIR data and facilities.

After a brief introduction to the theme by Dr Ellen van Kleef, the workshop will continue with a series of short presentations on key topics. We will use interactive tools, such as Mentimeter, to engage the audience. These presentations will include:

  • harmonisation of measures by Prof. Dr Liisa Lähteenmäki; why to harmonise and does harmonising improve quality of research or kill creativity in food consumer science?
  • translations and scaling by Prof. Dr Hans van Trijp, with requirements for ensuring cross-culture comparability and inter-linkability of data as well as the extent of variance in constructs and measures.
  • cultural and other biases by Dr Lisa Mohebati, in relation to the use of harmonized protocols and measures that comply with principles for FAIR and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) practices.

To ensure that the workshop is informed by current perspectives of scientists in the marketing and food consumer science, a short pre-workshop survey will be conducted among colleagues in Spring 2023. The results of this survey will deliver input for the short presentations and provide a basis for possible solutions to be discussed during the workshop. Participants will be encouraged to actively engage in discussion and provide feedback on the topics presented.

By the end of the workshop, the attendees will have a deeper understanding of the state of the art in harmonization of measures and data sharing as well as strategies to address them. In addition, the workshop will provide the COMFOCUS project with the opportunity to learn from critical input and insights from experts and attendees in the field.

This workshop is initiated by COMFOCUS project members. Based on open science principles, the EU-funded COMFOCUS project (www.comfocus.eu) has been working on this topic of advancing the food consumer science discipline from data interlinking. One of the key objectives of the COMFOCUS project is to harmonize and advance the European food consumer science community by promoting a harmonized, data-rich approach to research. See also Science talk Hans van Trijp at https://www.sciencetalks-journal.com/article/S2772-5693(23)00031-2/fulltext

COMFOCUS Workshop “Sharing best practices among food consumer science experts” takes place in April 25th, 2023

Towards harmonised approaches and shared use of data in food consumer science.

Join the 2nd Nordic roundtable organised by COMFOCUS project to discuss how we can get more out of our food consumer data and overcome challenges in harmonising approaches to research and sharing data, once it has served its primary purpose.  In COMFOCUS project we wish to demonstrate, as a proof-of-concept, how data science approach can help us to compare and combine data from different studies. At the round table, we wish to get feedback on our approach and discuss the possibilities and challenges it presents to food consumer science.  

The event is free, but registration is required prior to the event by 17th of April, so that we can anticipate the number of attendees. Use the link here to register. For more information, please contact Liisa Lähteenmäki at liisal@mgmt.au.dk.

Location: Danish Technological Institute, Gregersensvej 1, 2630 Taastrup, Denmark.

I hope you will be able to join our workshop and look forward to hearing from you.

COMFOCUS Workshop “Sharing best practices among food consumer science experts” takes place in April 19th, 2023

EU-funded COMFOCUS project aims to advance food consumer science by taking a critical view to the concepts and methods we use, and produce harmonised measures and protocols. Having these harmonised approaches will enable us to compare findings from different studies and make it possible to integrate data from several studies. The final goal is to create the COMFOCUS starting community for food consumer science.   

We would like to hear your opinion about our approach and get your input to whether our approach makes sense or whether we should do something differently. We would also like to learn whether you think these harmonised protocols and measures will be helpful to you in your own research. 

To open the discussion, we invite you to a round table discussion available offline and online:

  • An offline meeting will be held at the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Faculty of Economics and Management, Tr. A. Hlinku 2, 949 76 Nitra, Slovak Republic.
  • To join the meeting online please use this link https://uniag.link/W4Uk3 or QR-code:

On the meeting, we will shortly introduce our approach, what we have done followed by discussions in smaller groups. There is no need to prepare, but you are welcome to find more information about the project on our webpage.

We are keen to learn your feedback and hope that you will join the colleagues working in consumer food science in your country for a constructive discussion on what COMFOCUS community is and what it could be. Please feel free to share this invitation with others who work on food consumer science your country.

At the end of the event, we will also officially launch the 2nd Open Call of the project. The aim of Open Call 2 is to provide an opportunity for early career researchers to gain access to European consumer science institutes specializing in psychophysiological measurements, virtual and augmented reality research, and conduct collaborative research on important food consumer science questions. We are offering 67 positions to conduct research in one of the participating institutions. These positions are designed to accommodate research projects that align with the expertise and research priorities of the various institutes.

Please use the link here to register. For more information, please contact Liisa Lähteenmäki at liisal@mgmt.au.dk.

We hope you will be able to join our workshop and look forward to hearing from you.

COMFOCUS will be present in the “Farm to Fork: sustainable production & consumption in public canteens” Summer School!

We’re excited to announce the agenda of #COMFOCUS WORKSHOP “New approaches to work with data” on 12th of September!!

The session will take place online in English.

Participation is free.

  • Don’t miss this opportunity!

🥕🥬🍴The programme will provide an insight into the issues of sustainable production and consumption in the context of the Farm to Fork strategy in order to promote healthier and more sustainable diet solutions in the contexts of RIS countries in Europe. In particular, several teams will work to co-develop an innovative proposal for sustainable public canteens. Each team will work according to its preferences on one of the following key topics:

  • Zero food waste 
  • Alternative proteins
  • Organic & local production

The “Farm to Fork: sustainable production & consumption in public canteens” Summer School programme is structured with a student-centred vision and a project-based approach, which encourages young innovators to use the tools provided by highly qualified experts to co-develop their own innovative and business-driven idea of sustainable food canteen.

The learning content will be supported by university professors from the University of Bologna, the University of Turin, the University of Aarhus and by highly qualified professionals in entrepreneurship in the food system. In addition, experts in public canteens and the areas related to sustainable production and consumption will be invited to discuss and give important input to the students.

At the end of the programme, the student will gain knowledge on the challenges related to the sustainability of public food service, becoming aware of the local dimension and the Farm-to-Fork dynamics, and being ready to develop concrete strategies with an entrepreneurial mindset. This will be an innovative and practical learning-by-doing opportunity focused on addressing global and local food challenges for sustainability.

This programme will provide you with an insight into sustainable production and consumption towards healthier diets. The programme will focus on Southern and Eastern European countries to address sustainable production and consumption and major nutritional challenges within the framework of the European Farm-to-Fork strategy. The courses will take place online in English for a duration of 3 weeks: from the 5th to the 23rd of September 2022.

🔹 The school’s programme includes a total of 60 hours of study (online, offline and teamwork) and participation will be certified, which will allow the university course coordinators to apply for the recognition of corresponding CFU/ECTS

🔹  Participation is free.

🔸The agenda with the detailed programme will be published soon on the website.

COMFOCUS workshop sharing best practices among food consumer science experts

EU-funded COMFOCUS project aims to advance food consumer science by taking a critical view to the concepts and methods we use, and provide harmonised protocols. Having these harmonised measures would enable us to compare findings from different studies and make it possible to integrate data from several studies. The final goal is to create the COMFOCUS starting community for food consumer science.

We would like to hear your opinion about our approach and get your input to whether our approach makes sense or whether we should do something differently. We would also like to learn whether you would be willing to use the protocols and measures harmonised by COMFOCUS, and join the COMFOCUS community with data from your own studies. By joining, you will also gain a possibility to co-operate with others and combine your datasets to new shared study approaches.