On 14 October, INNOAQUA took part in the Horizon4Proteins (H4P) Workshop held in Brussels, organised by the LIKE-A-PRO project together with Foodvalley NL. The event gathered all eight Horizon4Proteins projects to jointly explore three key areas for Europe’s protein transition: policy, consumer insights, and sustainability assessments.
INNOAQUA was represented by Sustainn, NORCE, and PERSEUS, who played an active role throughout the day and co-led the Assessments Deep Dive, a technical session focused on aligning methodologies and strengthening cooperation across projects
A workshop to exchange insights and align strategies
Cluster members —LIKE-A-PRO, GIANT LEAPS, VALPRO PATH, FEASTS, EPIC-SHIFT, VALERECO and INNOAQUA— shared progress, challenges and strategic considerations for Europe’s transition to sustainable protein sources. Key reflections included:
- The importance of bridging research, industry, consumers and policymakers.
- The need for consistent, comparable methodologies to support future EU policies and industry decisions.
- The value of clearer, more relatable narratives for consumers.
- Opportunities to build synergies and shape a common Horizon4Proteins strategy for the coming years.
INNOAQUA’s contribution: leading the Assessments Deep Dive
During the technical session dedicated to sustainability, circularity and socio-economic assessments, Sustainn and NORCE facilitated the session’s structure and discussions. Building on a consolidated overview of 49 assessment-related deliverables within Horizon4Proteins projects, the session explored how projects could better coordinate efforts and share knowledge.
Discussions covered a wide set of technical and strategic topics, including:
- Standardising methods for sustainability and circularity assessments.
- Aligning impact categories and identifying common KPIs.
- Creating a shared state-of-the-art on assessment practices.
- Clarifying requirements for assessment activities in EU innovation projects.
- Improving data availability and addressing data uncertainty.
- Developing approaches for harmonised data sharing, including confidentiality management.
- Expanding knowledge and methods to other Horizon Europe initiatives
The session highlighted several priorities for future collaboration:
- Harmonisation of assessment scopes
Ensuring comparable system boundaries and consistent objectives across projects.
- Alignment of methodological approaches
Reducing fragmentation across LCA, TEA, S-LCA and circularity assessments to strengthen comparability and relevance.
- Strengthening data collaboration
Projects agreed on the importance of improving data access (conversion factors, reference values and cost information), addressing uncertainties, and developing robust mechanisms for data-sharing.
- Building cross-project synergies
The group identified the opportunity to develop a joint “state-of-the-art” overview to support not only current H4P activities but also future Horizon Europe initiatives.
Next steps
The Horizon4Proteins cluster will continue working together on the three deep dive topics —policy, consumer insights and assessments— in the coming weeks. In particular, INNOAQUA will lead a series of periodical meetings dedicated to strengthening exchange, alignment and harmonisation across Horizon4Proteins projects on topics related to sustainability and circularity assessments.
Strengthening collaboration for a sustainable European food system
INNOAQUA’s involvement in this workshop reaffirms our commitment to supporting Europe’s shift toward a more sustainable, resilient and competitive food system.
We look forward to continuing our collaboration within the Horizon4Proteins cluster and to contributing to shared methodologies, stronger data foundations and impactful policy insights that will help accelerate the protein transition.
